Tatara Systems Expands Platform to Support Fixed Mobile Convergence Voice and Data Services

IMS, based on SIP and being standardized in 3GPP, has achieved broad and general endorsement as the next-generation IP multimedia services architecture across major communications service provider segments.  Tatara’s solution extends the reach of IMS to non-3G networks, including WLAN, DSL, cable, and WiMAX networks, while leveraging the core IMS infrastructure being deployed in communications service provider networks.

Tatara’s IMS solution consists of the Tatara Subscriber Gateway between the access network and the IMS core, and the Tatara Service Manager SDK which resides on today’s laptops and PDAs and emerging dual-mode handset and smartphone platforms (e.g. over Windows Mobile and Symbian).

The key capabilities of the Tatara IMS solution include:

• Packet Data Gateway (PDG) functionality for secure tunneling and termination of voice and data services (bearer and signaling),
• Authentication server enabling integrated billing and services,
• SIP Proxy allowing functions such as integrated CDR generation and QoS enforcement,
• Presence and location management in the HLR/HSS, and
• Cross-network mobility management for seamless handoff with WLAN networks.

The Tatara solution enables voice and data services that work securely and simply through NAT and firewalls as well as when the user is on a VPN.  This allows the service provider to address both the consumer and enterprise market over both public networks, owned and roamed, and private networks.  The Tatara solution has been validated by several large infrastructure vendors as complementing IMS core elements such as CSCFs, signaling gateways, media gateways, and media gateway controllers as part of an overall IMS solution architecture.

The Tatara solution also complements large infrastructure vendors providing pre-IMS fixed mobile convergence services over today’s networks. This includes solving many of the specific service delivery and service consistency challenges associated with launching fixed mobile convergence services within an enterprise and consumer setting.

One of the first fixed mobile convergence solutions being offered by Tatara is SMS over IP, which allows communications service providers to seamlessly handoff SMS traffic from their legacy circuit network to an IP network (e.g., over WLAN). This enables “one number” access to all SMS based services such as message indication, business services, as well as entertainment applications when the user is on the IP network. This same solution is capable of supporting the roll-out of other voice and data services, including one number voice, MMS, WAP, and Location Based Services.

“There's a great deal of discussion about seamless mobility of services and applications between circuit and packet networks such as WLAN,” said Mark Lowenstein, managing director of Mobile Ecosystem and a leading expert on the wireless and mobile communications industry. “And users with dual-mode devices will want access to the same feature set whether they are on a circuit or IP network.”

Tatara’s customer base, which includes many world-class service providers such as Vodafone, TELUS, and VeriSign, can leverage their existing Tatara Mobile Services Convergence Platform, providing converged connectivity services across WAN/3G and WLAN today, to offer advanced IMS-compliant services well into the future.  These customers now have the option to deploy new fixed mobile convergence services in a pre-IMS environment, and since the product is IMS-compliant, they have the comfort of knowing they can upgrade the solution to an IMS environment when they are ready. 

Tatara Systems’ CEO Steve Nicolle said: “Our solution fully supports voice but true convergence goes beyond that.  Our customers are telling us that they want converged voice and data services with the same quality and features available today over both 3G and non-3G networks.  Our solution fills a key critical piece of the IMS solution and complements core IMS solutions provided by large infrastructure vendors.”

Tatara will be at CTIA Wireless 2005 in New Orleans, LA. March 14 – March 16.  Contact us to set up a meeting: sales@tatarasystems.com or marketing@tatarasystems.com .

About Tatara Systems
Tatara invents, develops, and deploys solutions for communication service providers allowing them to offer converged mobile services to their subscribers.  Tatara's Mobile Services Convergence Platform gives service providers the ability to offer a rich and consistent set of converged mobile broadband services over multiple network technologies, including WLAN, WAN/3G, Wireless Broadband, and Wired, and with the same high level of real-time control on roamed networks as they have on networks they own.  Based in Acton, Mass., Tatara Systems is a privately held company backed by the leading communications investment firms Highland Capital Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners. For more information, visit www.tatarasystems.com .