F5 Networks Delivers Industry's First Traffic Management Solution

📅 October 23, 2001 - F5 Networks, Inc. (f5.com -> hostinger.com), a leading provider of Internet Traffic and Content Management (iTCM) products announced that it is the first Internet traffic management vendor to support SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and is the load-balancing / high availability solution provider of choice for dynamicsoft's (dynamicsoft.com) carrier-grade Origination and Termination Solution (OATS).
SIP is the new protocol that enables real-time messaging, voice, data andvideo and is the next-generation of Voice-Over-IP (VOIP). Microsoft'sWindows XP operating system will use SIP-based instant messaging (IM) andAmerica Online, (AOL) Inc. has indicated that it will adopt SIP for its IMservices and for interoperability with other services. By intelligentlydistributing SIP traffic among multiple SIP proxy servers, BIG-IP(R)enhances the performance and availability of dynamicsoft's solution,providing carrier-class uptime (99.999%) and reliability.
F5 is uniquely positioned in this market to address and support thechallenges that carriers and enterprises face in building SIP-basednetworks, thanks to the intelligent, market-leading Layer 7 capabilitiesbuilt into its traffic management software. F5's BIG-IP(R) solution providescarrier-grade performance and effectively scales SIP traffic through itsunique ability to Intercept, Inspect, Transform and Direct traffic flowingthrough SIP proxy servers. As part of the dynamicsoft solution, BIG-IP willload-balance SIP traffic and provide application persistence based on theunique SIP caller ID to ensure application and transaction integrity.
"Our partnership with F5 Networks is strategic for dynamicsoft," said BrianAllain, vice president of marketing at dynamicsoft, Inc. "Followingextensive evaluation and testing, we have selected F5 to be our trafficmanagement and load-balancing solutions partner because of their market andtechnology leadership. As a critical component of our dynamicsoft-PoweredOrigination and Termination Solution, F5 enables carriers to scale easilyand cost-effectively, while delivering on the promise of 99.999 per centavailability that is absolutely vital to carrier-class SIP networks."
BIG-IP ensures application and call integrity by making sure that trafficpersists to the correct destination and by providing session state fail-overin the event of failure on back-end proxies. Additionally, to ensurereliability and availability of SIP services, BIG-IP load balancesdynamicsoft Route Engines and checks their health and availability beforerouting traffic.
The market anticipates heavy volumes of SIP voice traffic, generated by theWindows Messenger features incorporated in the Microsoft Windows XPoperating system (set to launch October 25, 2001). In recent reviews,Windows Messenger has been seen as a "killer app" because of itscomprehensive unified and real-time messaging functions in an easy to useinterface. As a result, adoption is expected to be rapid. SIP also providesa framework for developing an enriched mobile communications experience inthe all-IP third generation (3G) era. It is becoming pervasive as thestandard protocol in the 3G wireless world and with the advent of AOL's andYahoo's standardization on SIP for messaging. Today, service providers(carriers) are looking for ways to tap into the tremendous market potentialfor terminating PC-based SIP voice traffic to the public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN). Carriers offering wholesale termination/origination serviceshave the flexibility to support their customers with new business modelssuch as application hosting and new SIP-based services. As they buildSIP-capable networks, carriers will need to guarantee call quality and beable to scale this traffic. F5 Networks is the only IP traffic managementvendor to offer a complete solution today.
"The fact that F5 is the only ITM company that can direct and manageSIP-based traffic is yet another proof point of our market leadinginnovation and technology leadership," said Jeff Pancottine, seniorvice-president of marketing and business development at F5 Networks. "We'revery enthusiastic about the joint OATS solution and excited about ourpartnership with dynamicsoft, which is clearly a leader in SIP-basedsolutions. By joining forces, F5 and dynamicsoft offer carriers an extremelycost-effective and reliable solution for managing SIP-based traffic;heightening their opportunities to offer services that can generate newrevenue streams."