Xelor Software to Address Quality of Service Challenges of Real-time IP Communications.

SALEM, N.H. -- Xelor Software(TM) today announced technology for the industry's first software-only solution for overcoming the Quality of Service (QoS) problems of real-time IP communications. The most immediate application for this proactive service quality management technology will be to ensure the reliability, performance and quality of IP phone calls within enterprises.

Although IP telephony promises significant cost savings, corporate adoption has been slower than predicted because real-time IP communications currently suffer from QoS problems caused by packet delay, jitter and latency, insufficient network capacity, and competition for bandwidth between data and real-time applications.

While there are workarounds for these issues, existing QoS techniques remain difficult, complex, time-consuming and expensive. In addition, the constantly varying competition between data and real-time traffic creates a dynamic IP network environment that is almost impossible to optimize manually.

Xelor Software's new software will provide the first dynamic QoS solution that automatically handles the changing demands placed on the network infrastructure. The software's integration with IP telephony systems and adherence to industry standards deliver the simplified network configuration, dynamic bandwidth allocation and automated packet prioritization required to eliminate the issues that commonly make IP communications unreliable today.

The new solution has been in development for more than three years. The core research and development was begun at the Australian Telecommunications Cooperative Research Centre (ATcrc) in Perth, Western Australia. Leveraging years of experience focusing on QoS issues for data networks, the initial engineering team applied the maturing standards for Class of Service (CoS) for Layer 2 networks and Differentiated Services (Diffserv) for Layer 3 networks to the converged voice and data network.

In September 2002, the original Australian team founded Cortec Systems Pty Ltd in Perth and began developing a prototype product with the support of the Western Australian Telecommunication Research Institute (WATRI). Cortec Systems also attracted a team of Australian venture capitalists to fund further development of the solution.

By the fall of 2004, Cortec Systems was ready for the world's largest market - the United States. To enter the U.S. and other world markets, Cortec Systems recruited Rob Scott as its first president and chief executive officer. Scott, a well known industry executive with proven success in taking voice and data networking start-up companies from their infancy to commercial success, established operations in the U.S. and recruited an executive team to lead the company's go-to-market strategy. One of his team's first moves was to rename the company Xelor Software and create a product family under the umbrella XelorRate.

"XelorRate software will provide the missing element that enables enterprises to finally realize the inherent efficiencies of IP telephony, while also maintaining quality standards that match or surpass existing PSTN networks," said Rob Scott, president and CEO of Xelor. "With XelorRate software, an enterprise can achieve the required reliability, performance and quality for each VoIP call by unleashing its existing network investments, enforcing QoS policy end-to-end, and controlling network resources proactively."

XelorRate software unleashes an enterprise's network investments by automatically discovering network elements and topology and then configuring these elements for service quality according to the network equipment provider's reference manual for QoS and industry best practices. XelorRate software configures CoS for Layer 2 (802.1 p/q) and Diffserv for Layer 3 mappings and queues, establishes trust on trunk port interfaces, and defines service priority on egress port interfaces.

XelorRate software enforces policy end-to-end by capturing call set-up events in realtime from the IP telephony system and then using a Xelor Service Admission Control (SAC) algorithm to evaluate available bandwidth and delay bounds along the end-to-end path of the call.

XelorRate software controls resources proactively by assigning bandwidth on a call-by-call basis, isolating voice calls from non-realtime data traffic, and protecting existing calls when congestion occurs. Once XelorRate ensures there are sufficient resources, it assigns the appropriate bandwidth allocation and flow treatment with Access Control List (ACL) entries on the access ports closest to the source and destination of the call. The ACL entries mark the IP packets for CoS Type 5 and Expedited Forwarding (EF), the appropriate service classes for VoIP traffic.

As calls progress, XelorRate polices expected VoIP traffic by configuring the network devices to drop packets that exceed the specified codec bandwidth and prevent malicious or fake calls from encroaching on currently active sessions. The software also protects existing calls if a new SAC calculation produces 'fail' by not adding the mark-and-police function to this call's packets. Finally, XelorRate clears the ACL entry on call tear-down and produces reports that document the system grade of service, network topology and network enablements. These XelorRate reports also highlight congestion points and performance issues.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

XelorRate Service Quality Manager software runs on off-the-shelf Linux servers and leverages industry standards to support the two leading IP PBXs with XelorRate for Avaya Communication Manager and XelorRate for Cisco CallManager. Currently, Avaya and Cisco resellers are being recruited to sell XelorRate solutions through the channel.

XelorRate software and pricing details will be announced in the third quarter of 2005.

About Xelor Software

Xelor Software Inc. is the developer of the first software-only solutions that provide service quality management (SQM) for enterprises deploying IP telephony systems. The XelorRate family of products is the only SQM solution that unleashes the power of Cisco networking infrastructure, enforces service quality policy end-to-end, and controls network resources for realtime IP communications on a proactive basis. More information on Xelor is available at http://www.xelorsoftware.com.

Xelor Software, Xelor and XelorRate are trademarks of Xelor Software Inc. All other products or services referenced may be trademarks or service marks of their respective companies or organizations.