November 21, 2007 -- Edgewater Networks, Inc. has extended its EdgeMarc VoIP survivability feature set to include Wide Area Network (WAN) link redundancy. According to the company, WAN link redundancy allows enterprise and service provider customers to take advantage of diverse routing and dual access link connections to enterprise locations.
The company notes that high availability of VoIP services is a fundamental requirement for enterprises deploying their own IP telephony equipment or subscribing to hosted VoIP services. The company says its EdgeMarc VoIP survivability enhances the reliability of VoIP services to branch offices in a cost effective manner by providing local call switching in the event of complete WAN link failures or a loss of connectivity to network based call processing servers.
The list of EdgeMarc VoIP survivability features includes: application layer based monitoring of call processing servers to determine connectivity; automatic detection of loss of connectivity to call processing servers caused by WAN link failures, network congestion or call processing server software failure; automatic return of call control to network based call processing servers once connectivity has been restored; configurable timers to determine call processing server connectivity; call processing server connectivity status indicators; support for multiple call processing servers using DNS; reporting of the currently active call processing server in environments using multiple call processing servers; local call switching between VoIP endpoints, premises based PSTN gateways or integrated EdgeMarc FXO ports during WAN link failures or other failures that prevent connectivity to network based call processing servers; calling features such as transfer, hold and conference as provided by EdgeMarc Series routers; simplified setup that creates a local dial plan in the EdgeMarc appliance by monitoring traffic to network based call processing servers; and WAN link redundancy.
The WAN link redundancy feature allows customers to use dual access link connections to the wide area network for added reliability. Typical deployments use a primary T1 link terminated by the EdgeMarc router with a broadband DSL or cable modem Ethernet connected to the EdgeMarc as a backup link. Additionally, the EdgeMarc can use a single Ethernet uplink to a routed network and dual default gateways to deliver primary/backup path routing for VoIP. In the event of a primary link failure the EdgeMarc will route VoIP traffic using the secondary path and continue to provide bandwidth management such as traffic shaping and prioritization needed ensure high quality voice communications. Once the primary path has recovered the EdgeMarc will automatically return voice traffic to the preferred path.
"WAN link redundancy is a natural extension to our existing VoIP survivability features," comments Dave G. Norman, CEO of Edgewater Networks, Inc. "With this feature we add another level of resilience to enterprises using VoIP services and VoIP PBXs, ensuring this mission critical application is always available."
The EdgeMarc WAN link redundancy feature is currently available in beta form with a general availability scheduled for December 2007.