Network Equipment Technologies has announced the introduction of its UX Series high performance mediation platform and the general availability of its UX2000, the first of a series of products based on the new platform.

NET has placed state-of-the-art network and signal processing technology at the heart of the UX platform. A 24Gbs, non-blocking, IP-core backplane is capable of routing more than 35 million packets per second. High performance digital signal processors (DSPs) operating on this backplane provide wire-speed performance during even the most demanding, high complexity transcoding and security encryption operations.

The UX2000 is a modular 1U system that has been purpose-built for unified communications, enterprise border controller and multi-service business gateway applications. The UX2000 comes equipped with up to six high performance DSPs and two telecom card slots with a choice of 2, 4, or 8 port DS1 cards, offering the industry's best mediation processing for IP-to-TDM, IP-to-IP, or TDM-to-TDM solutions. An optional, high-performance, server-class application solutions module (ASM) based on a 2.53Ghz Intel Core i7 processor can also be added for third-party application support.

In contrast to media gateways, which can have severely degraded call capacities during high complexity media processing operations, the UX2000 can support up to 600 simultaneous transcoded and encrypted calls.

In pursuit of its vision to enable the adoption of UC, enterprise SIP-Trunking and real-time communications, NET has raised the bar with the addition of the UX Series to the company's product portfolio. The UX2000 provides interoperability with NET's VX Series Voice Exchange and Tenor media gateway products while supporting the transparent "drop-in" installation methodology for the upstream deployment model that was pioneered by NET. NET platforms are specifically designed to support upstream deployments with advanced features that give customers the highest levels of flexibility, scalability, quality of experience (QoE) and investment protection.

The initial software release for the UX2000 offers powerful QoE features, industry leading voice quality, intelligent call routing, call forking, and comprehensive PBX interoperability. As with NET's VX Series, directory-based call routing is built directly into the UX platform. The UX also features a multi-mode user interface that provides configuration and real-time management of UX nodes. The web-based user interface is designed to simplify and accelerate installation using a "task" configuration mode.

"The UX platform has been designed from the ground up with an amazing set of technology placed into a 1U chassis. We have taken the mediation platform to a whole new level," said Talbot Harty, Chief Development Officer, NET. "The UX2000 is a true enterprise-class product designed for modularity, outstanding performance, and ease of use. We are now in position to build upon the capabilities of this platform to deliver a comprehensive set of UX Series products for our target markets."

The design of the UX platform will enable the company to add additional features in the future through the issuance of software releases. Additionally, new chassis models are planned to address the requirements of smaller branch offices as well as larger enterprises and service providers.