TollBridge's VoIP Task
By Evan Blackwell
from the May 21, 2001 issue of Broadband Week
How important to cable TV system operators is the traditional telephone infrastructure? Just ask those trying to establish their own Internet Protocol cable telephony businesses.
Aimed at those operators is a raft of gateway equipment intended to link cable's standardized DOCSIS networks with the current Class 5 telephone infrastructure to enable full-fledged cable VoIP deployments.
Earlier this month, TollBridge Technologies released the latest customization of its gateway products lineup with the TB300, a new PSTN gateway that sits in the middle of a cable network and enables carrier-class VoIP while leveraging current telephony equipment. The product is geared at operators planning how to offer VoIP while still leveraging their current circuit-switched telephony gear.
"People have been waiting for softswitches. They really want to deploy them, but some are concerned that they're not quite ready for primetime," says Kevin Woods, vice president of product management at TollBridge. "The dilemma is, at the same time, they want to be offering voice over broadband right now because the business angle is good."
With TollBridge's new product, providers that desire a softswitch environment can utilize the TB300 right now. The TB300 features an embedded softswitch in the gateway that allows customer equipment to connect just as if it were a standard phone attached to the circuit-switched network. The product also includes a patented voice module that supports more than 8,000 lines in a gateway and a Gigabit Ethernet interface that provides optical links to hybrid fiber-coax networks.
"Cable telephony is definitely out there already, but the networks being used to deploy it are softswitch incompatible," Woods says. "People don't like that, and now we can fix it."
While not a complete stranger to the cable space, TollBridge's new push into cable with the TB300 comes just as the CLEC market has imploded. Michael Harris, senior analyst with research firm Kinetic Strategies, calls the timing of TollBridge's new product strategic.
"The folks selling the next-generation equipment need to find customers with some money. That makes the cable guys very attractive," says Harris. "Clearly, TollBridge is stepping up to the plate and attacking the cable space."
But they're not alone. Many others have similar gateway products out on the market, designed to work with the Class 5 switches and start generating voice revenue immediately. General Bandwidth, Terayon and Com21 are other equipment vendors that have targeted gateways at cable providers looking to leverage current switches, with the future option of eliminating the Class 5 equipment if they choose.
Terayon's BandLeader AG-3000 gateway provides connection between IP networks, compliant with the DOCSIS and PacketCable standards, and Class 5 switches. General Bandwidth's G6 gateway was designed specifically to address the needs of larger service providers looking to migrate to a new architecture, which means its standards-based interfaces integrate with softswitches. Com21 offers its ComUNITY VoX solution, which combines a voice gateway from Tdsoft and Com21's cable telephony platform. The Com21 system is an integrated voice and data solution that allows a cable operator to offer voice over PSTN local exchanges to subscriber telephones located on networks served by the ComUNITY Access System.
Harris says products like the gateways that prevent service providers from having to junk their current infrastructure investment could have a sound place in the cable market.
"Someone like AT&T already has the Class 5 equipment, and they're most likely going to want to leverage that. Others like Comcast say they want a pure IP environment, so they might not turn to these products," Harris said. "It really depends on the cable strategy."
Mike Paxton, a cable analyst with Cahners In-Stat, says TollBridge and others are starting to throw several products on the market since the current climate of experimentation with cable VoIP means the service providers are watching for gear that could be key for the next-generation networks.
"We're still looking at a circuit-switched world right now for cable telephony. People are waiting for the final standards from CableLabs to see what the networks architecture is going to look like," said Paxton. "You won't see significant cable VoIP deployments until next spring."
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