IP Telephony

Nortel has announced a new service assurance solution combining IBM (News - Alert) Tivoli Netcool Carrier VoIP Manager software with network consulting and integration services from Nortel (News - Alert).

 

This solution is for communication service providers seeking greater network capacity and performance with lower costs, according to Nortel.

 

Combining Combining IBM Tivoli Netcool Carrier VoIP Manager, Nortel’s Tivoli Netcool-based Common Management Platform and Nortel Global Services, this Service Assurance Solution provides “greater visibility and control across multi-technology, multi-vendor networks.”

 

Nortel’s officials explained that this enables service providers to quickly isolate and address performance issues, helping to lower support costs and improve service levels.

 

Along with providing network integration, this latest offering from Nortel also provides operational consulting, customization and performance monitoring from the Nortel Global Services portfolio. Officials pointed out that this saves service providers the time and cost of hiring, training and using in-house IT staff for service assurance.

 

IBM's Tivoli Netcool Carrier VoIP Manager is a key factor providing these services, which is an integrated service quality, fault and performance management offering from IBM for carrier VoIP networks.

 

The initial version of IBM Tivoli Netcool Carrier VoIP Manager supports Nortel's Communication Server 2000 IP Multimedia Softswitch, according to officials.

 

“IBM Tivoli Netcool Carrier VoIP Manager supports IBM's commitment to the communication service provider market in enabling best-in-class service assurance for existing and emerging next generation services,” said Kieran Moynihan, vice president and CTO of Telecoms for Tivoli Software at IBM.

 

Peter Mottishaw, an analyst with OSS Observer (News - Alert), believes that leveraging IBM's Tivoli Netcool technology in Nortel's Common Management Platform is an effective way to offer consistent, comprehensive network management.

 

He also noted that combining Nortel's network engineering and operations expertise with IBM Tivoli Netcool's service assurance product suite offers service providers the ability to implement a world-class Operations Support System (OSS) solution while minimizing the risks that often accompany such projects.

 

Dietmar Wendt, president of global services at Nortel, stated that as customers use more video and other bandwidth-intensive applications, they become less tolerant of service degradation.

 

“Yet managing service quality is more challenging than ever as converged networks and technologies grow more complex. IBM and Nortel understand these challenges, and we have combined our strengths in IT applications, network technologies and services to address them,” he added.

 

Nortel's Service Assurance Solution with IBM Tivoli Netcool Carrier VoIP Manager is expected to available in July 2008.