Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award Recognizes Empirix' Leadership in VoIP Test Equipment Markets for Fourth Consecutive Year.PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif. -- Based on its recent analysis, World VoIP Test Equipment Markets, Frost & Sullivan has selected Empirix Inc. as the recipient of its 2005 Market Leadership Award, for maintaining its leadership across the Voice over Internet Protocol See Internet and TCP/IP. (networking) Internet Protocol - (IP) The network layer for the TCP/IP protocol suite widely used on Ethernet networks, defined in STD 5, RFC 791. IP is a connectionless, best-effort packet switching protocol. (VoIP) testing markets through innovation and the expansion of its product line. Empirix has been the recipient of this award for the past four consecutive years. The company ranked first in global VoIP test equipment market share during the 2004 analysis period, based on significant growth across the equipment manufacturer, service provider and enterprise segments. Each year, this award recognizes the company that has achieved leading market share within its industry segment. Empirix, with its well-known Hammer(TM) portfolio of products and services, has demonstrated strategic excellence in product innovation, marketing, and sales strategies, resulting in the largest gain in market share in this segment over the past two years. "Despite the entrance of many companies into the VoIP test equipment space, Empirix' revenues enjoyed a healthy growth of 67.6 percent from 2003 to 2004, clearly outperforming the average market growth of 32 percent," say Frost & Sullivan Research Analysts Olga Yashkova and Sankara Jambulingam. Empirix' product portfolio covers the full range of test elements for the entire product lifecycle Product lifecycle or product life cycle is the course of a product's sales and profits over time. The five stages of each product lifecycle are product development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. . Key Empirix products include the Hammer Call Analyzer for troubleshooting of enhanced IP services, the Hammer FX for desktop through installation functional and feature testing, the Hammer NXT NXT Next for ultra-high density load testing Load testing is the process of creating demand on a system or device and measuring its response. In mechanical systems it refers to the testing of a system to certify it under the appropriate regulations (LOLER in the UK - Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment , and the Hammer XMS (1) See cross memory services. (2) (eXtended Memory Specification) A programming interface that allowed DOS programs to use memory above 1MB in 286s and up. for carrier-scale network and service monitoring. Empirix' strength has historically been in the lab environment, serving the needs of network equipment manufacturers, such as Cisco Systems “Cisco” redirects here. For other uses, see Cisco (disambiguation). Cisco System,Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO, HKSE: 4333 ) is an American multinational corporation with 54,000 employees and annual revenue of US $28.48 billion as of 2006. , Nortel Networks (Nortel Networks Limited, Brampton, Ontario, www.nortelnetworks.com) A world leader in telecommunications products, which includes switching, wireless and broadband systems for service providers and carriers, telephones and systems for residential and business users, computer telephony , Fujitsu, Avaya, Alcatel, Lucent Technologies, and Siemens, as well as addressing the demand from service provider and carrier labs. As the market has grown and matured, Empirix has expanded its market focus to include installation and maintenance (I&M), lab-based and onsite test services, and service monitoring. The company introduced the Hammer XMS in December 2004 in anticipation of the migration of VoIP from out-of-service lab assessment to deployed services. "The Hammer XMS is an integrated analysis system designed to ensure the reliability and quality of VoIP network services as well as speed up troubleshooting," says Yashkova. "The Hammer XMS 1.2 introduced in May 2005 offers additional historical trend analysis of network metrics and statistical distribution analysis to discover and diagnose intermittent or persistent performance problems, at line rate, across signaling and media, and with an architecture that meets the needs of the largest cable MSO (1) (Multiple System Operator) Typically refers to a cable TV organization that owns more than one cable system, but it may refer to an operator of only one system. and service provider deployments." In addition, Empirix continues to expand the Hammer portfolio beyond VoIP, to enhanced IP services and the IMS (1) See IP Multimedia Subsystem. (2) (Information Management System) An early IBM hierarchical DBMS for IBM mainframes. IMS was widely implemented throughout the 1970s under MVS and continues to be used under z/OS. (IP Multimedia Subsystem An integrated network for telecommunications carriers that uses the IP protocol as its foundation for packetized voice, video and data. Supporting voice over IP (VoIP) in all its flavors (SIP, H.323, MGCP, etc. ) requirements of fax, voice, video and other session-based, media-rich applications and services. Empirix now offers Hammer-based VoIP testing products and services for the enterprise market. Besides infrastructure and application level testing and troubleshooting in pre- and post-deployment environments, Empirix seeks to expand its partnership with installed and prospective customers. Empirix actively initiates free educational seminars and conferences for existing and potential customers. Empirix has sponsored webinars, such as Lightreading's "VoIP Testers," conferences with Telephony magazine, and is active in industry conferences, including Pulver.com/VON and key interoperability forums and organizations. The reduction of capital and operational expenditures in the communications and related test and measurement industry after the downturn in 2001 has drastically affected the availability of trained staff. Empirix identified this need and responded by acquiring CT Labs at the beginning of 2005. This was a natural extension of the close professional and working relationship that existed between the two companies since the establishment of the latter. CT Labs offers Empirix new resources to expand the expertise and infrastructure available to the industry for world-class, state-of-the-art VoIP testing. The company is a recognized pioneer in the development and execution of VoIP and TDM-related tests to validate and assess network elements and networks, and has been selected to conduct numerous private and public tests spanning PBXs, gateways, softswitches, border controllers, phones, firewalls, media servers, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) An automated telephone information system that speaks to the caller with a combination of fixed voice menus and data extracted from databases in real time. and voice portals. "CT Labs will also provide expertise to Empirix to assist in the development of advanced solutions for VoIP testing and monitoring, particularly in the areas of test automation and test suite creation for its portfolio of Hammer test platforms," notes Jambulingam. Overall, Empirix has made significant strides in the VoIP test equipment market in 2004-2005 that have enabled it to maintain its market leadership for four years in a row. As a result, Empirix is the worthy recipient of the 2005 Frost & Sullivan Award A Sullivan Award may refer to:
About Empirix, Inc. Empirix delivers a comprehensive range of testing and monitoring solutions that assure the performance of next-generation networks, contact centers and Web-based applications. Spanning TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) A technology that transmits multiple signals simultaneously over a single transmission path. Each lower-speed signal is time sliced into one high-speed transmission. , IP and IMS network architectures, Empirix provides products, services and support to thousands of customers worldwide, including Global 2000 enterprises, network equipment manufacturers and service providers. Headquartered in Bedford, Mass., Empirix is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. , with offices throughout the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.empirix.com or call 1-866-EMPIRIX. About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company Noun 1. consulting company - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee consulting firm business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a , has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics econometrics, technique of economic analysis that expresses economic theory in terms of mathematical relationships and then tests it empirically through statistical research. , and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.frost.com. The Hammer Call Analyzer VoIP Troubleshooting and Enhanced IP Services Analysis The Hammer Call Analyzer (HCA HCA, n.pr See acid, hydroxycitric. ) enables users to visualize signaling and voice quality problems in VoIP networks. The unique multi-stage call flow display walks users through a particular call. The comprehensive media analysis tools enable users to quickly visualize and diagnose media problems. The Hammer Call Analyzer goes beyond simply protocol analyzing by not only finding a problem, but also decoding the packet and analyzing the identified problem further, to make it easier for an application engineer to fix it. Spanning voice signaling, media, fax, and a wide array of patent-pending visualization and troubleshooting methods, the HCA is regarded as one of the most easy-to-use and useful tools for any engineer who gets "hands on" with VoIP. Recent extensions include T.38 Fax T.38 Fax Relay The T.38 fax relay standard was devised in 1998 as a way to permit faxes to be transported across IP networks between existing Group 3 (G3) fax terminals. In 1980, when the T. over IP, Cisco's Skinny/SCCP signaling, multi-leg call association and visualization, expanded voice quality and echo measurements. The Hammer FX Developer's Desktop and System Test Rackmount NGN/IMS Application and Feature Test Platform The Hammer FX is a TDM/IP feature test platform, which is tuned to focus on functional simulations and diagnostics of the latest demands from the industry. Based upon an Empirix implemented state-machine architecture that lends itself to flexibility and malleability malleability, property of a metal describing the ease with which it can be hammered, forged, pressed, or rolled into thin sheets. Metals vary in this respect; pure gold is the most malleable. Silver, copper, aluminum, lead, tin, zinc, and iron are also very malleable. to vendor requirements, call flows, media extensions and vendor interpretations of specifications, the Hammer FX is a functional test platform. NEMs and service providers need the assurance that the quality and reliability of the applications are maintained so the end-users will justify their investment in next-generation applications. Empirix' Hammer FX addresses the above challenge and provides a complete feature testing system for VoIP applications, IMS core and edge element diagnostics, and CLASS feature testing at the service and applications layer. Recent extensions to the Hammer FX include a CLASS VoIP automation test environment known as the Hammer Suite Studio. Active product extensions to the Hammer FX have seen the product used in a multitude of environments from VoIP-only, PacketCable, VoWiFi, Fax, TDM/IP interworking (standard) interworking - Systems or components, possibly from different origins, working together to perform some task. Interworking depends crucially on standards to define the interfaces between the components. , CLASS-5 application and feature testing, through mobile video trials. The Hammer NXT Ultra-High Density Load, Stress and QA/Regression Bulk Call Generation The Hammer NXT is an ultra-high density test platform for stressing, benchmarking and QA testing of today's carrier-class converged communications infrastructure. As a result of the highest densities across TDM and IP, signaling and media, with scenarios scaling over 100,000 endpoints, it is capable of hundreds of calls/sec to fully characterize such elements as softswitches, gateways, session border controllers A Session Border Controller is a device used in some VoIP networks to exert control over the signaling and usually also the media streams involved in setting up, conducting, and tearing down calls. , and media servers to name just a few applications. To address the high demands of density, performance and test coverage of TDM and IP, Empirix offers a load testing platform known as the Hammer NXT. Empirix' NXT addresses this particular challenge and provides an integrated and scalable test platform. This product provides high-density path confirmation and voice quality testing of IP telephony The two-way transmission of voice over a packet-switched IP network, which is part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. The terms "IP telephony" and "voice over IP" (VoIP) are synonymous. applications including TDM-TDM, IP-TDM, and TDM-IP. The Hammer NXT provides the ability to test media gateways in end-to-end or isolated test scenarios, verify maximum call rates, verify media path confirmation, and measure voice quality under load or with real world network impairments. The Hammer XMS Network and Service Monitoring: Service Diagnostics and Network Performance Management The Hammer XMS (XoIP Monitoring System) is an integrated analysis system designed to ensure the reliability and quality of next generation services, speed troubleshooting, and help VoIP service providers care for their valuable customers. In essence, the system monitors live carrier class VoIP networks and provides signaling and media quality data on every call, all the time. Service providers can keep an eye on high-level network metrics via integration with their existing Network Management Systems or can drill into the details of any call down to individual protocol message through a simple web-based query interface. Launched publicly at Fall VON 2004, recent announcements include several Cable MSO and Carrier deployments, a partnership with Micromuse on fault management, and product enhancements in release 1.2 to the Hammer XMS which provides new applications for network analysis and system administration, added flexibility in network data aggregation, new H.323 and improved ISUP (ISDN User Part) See SS7. support and a variety of other customer-inspired improvements. The Hammer VQTS The Industry-Standardized Voice Quality Test Suite from Hammer It is a software-based solution that provides wide scalability for voice quality testing of next-generation networks and components. The Hammer NetEm is used in conjunction with the VQTS to simulate negative network fault conditions, deterministic network scenarios, and boundary conditions. Both of these applications are used to link network conditions and voice quality at the service and application level, essentially to characterize the quality of customer experience. The Hammer NetEm IP and VoIP Network Simulator A network simulator is a piece of software that predicts the behavior of a network, without an actual network being present. Uses of network simulators Network simulators serve a variety of needs. and Impairment Generator The Hammer PacketSphere is used for enterprise and carrier-class applications in IP and VoIP environments. The Network Emulator Application, or the "NetEm," is a test system that can emulate all the key impairments in the next generation networks, latency, jitter A flicker or fluctuation in a transmission signal or display image. The term is used in several ways, but it always refers to some offset of time and space from the norm. For example, in a network transmission, jitter would be a bit arriving either ahead or behind a standard clock cycle , lost packets, re-ordered packets, re-routed packets, duplicate packets and bandwidth restrictions. This product is used by end-users such as service providers and carriers (SP&C) and network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) to simulate their networks to test their components and devices accordingly. Out-of-service simulation of disaster recovery scenarios for Storage, VoIP and IP-centric communications and in-service impairments of sessions/flows are the primary applications for the Hammer NetEm. Recent extensions include a higher density, lower cost per port platform, known as the NetEm XG. CT Labs Testing Services A Focused Testing Services Organization on IP Telephony, NGN (Next Generation Networks) An umbrella term for mixed voice and data networks running over the IP protocol. See IP Multimedia Subsystem. and Converged Networks CT Labs is a unique full-service testing lab with a focus on converged communications products in the enterprise and carrier deployments of Voice over IP over Anything. CT Labs can handle all aspects of product testing, from the creation of custom test scripts, to running the tests, interpreting the test results, and issuing product recommendations where improvements are desired. Testing solutions include functional testing (testing) functional testing - (Or "black-box testing", "closed-box testing") The application of test data derived from the specified functional requirements without regard to the final program structure. , regression test offload, performance testing Performance Testing covers a broad range of engineering or functional evaluations where a material, product, or system is not specified by detailed material or component specifications: Rather, emphasis is on the final measurable performance characteristics. , competitive assessment and interoperability, standards-compliance and load/stress benchmarking. |
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