NEW ORLEANS, June 3, 1997 — Microsoft Corp. and DGM & S Telecom, a leading international supplier of telecommunications software used in network applications and systems for the evolving distributed intelligent network, have teamed up to bring to market signaling system 7 (SS7) products for the Microsoft® Windows NT® Server network operating system. DGM & S Telecom is porting its OMNI Soft Platform
™
to Windows NT Server, allowing Windows NT Server to deliver services requiring SS7 communications. Microsoft is providing technical support for DGM & S to develop the OMNI Soft Platform and Windows NT Server-based product for the public network.
The SS7 network is one of the most critical components of today’s telecommunications infrastructure. In addition to providing for basic call control, SS7 has allowed carriers to provide a large and growing number of new services. Microsoft and DGM & S are working on signaling network elements based on Windows NT Server for hosting telephony services within the public network. The result of this collaborative effort will be increased service revenues and lowered costs for service providers, and greater flexibility and control for enterprises over their network service and management platforms via the easy-to-use yet powerful Windows NT Server environment.
“Microsoft is excited about the opportunities that Windows NT Server and the OMNI Soft Platform will offer for telecom equipment suppliers and adjunct processor manufacturers, and for service providers to develop new SS7-based network services,”
said Bill Anderson, director of telecom industry marketing at Microsoft.
“Windows NT Server will thereby drive faster development, further innovation in service functionality and lower costs in the public network.”
Microsoft’s collaboration with DGM & S Telecom is a key component of its strategy to bring to market platforms and products based on Microsoft Windows NT Server and independent software vendor applications for delivering and managing telecommunications services.
Major hardware vendors, including Data General Corp. and Tandem Computers Inc., endorsed the OMNI Soft Platform and Windows NT Server solution.
“With its high degree of availability and reliability, Data General’s AViiON server family is well-suited for the OMNI Soft Platform,”
said David Ellenberger, vice president, corporate marketing for Data General.
“As part of the strategic relationship we have established with DGM & S, we will support the OMNI Soft Platform on our Windows NT-compatible line of AViiON servers as an ideal solution for telecommunications companies and other large enterprises.”
“Tandem remains the benchmark for performance and reliability in computing solutions for the communications marketplace,”
said Eric L. Doggett, senior vice president, general manager, communications products group, Tandem Computers.
“With Microsoft, Tandem continues to extend these fundamentals from our NonStop Kernel and UNIX system product families to our ServerNet technology-enabled Windows NT Servers. We are pleased that our key middleware partners such as DGM & S are embracing this strategy, laying the foundation for application developers to leverage the price/performance and reliability that Tandem and Microsoft bring to communications and the Windows NT operating system.”
The OMNI Soft Platform from DGM & S Telecom is a family of software products that provide the SS7 components needed to build robust, high-performance network services and applications for use in wireline and wireless telecom signaling networks. OMNI Soft Platform offers a multiprotocol environment enabling true international operations with the coexistence of global SS7 variants. OMNI Soft Platform accelerates deployment of telecommunications applications so that service providers can respond to the ever-accelerating demands of the deregulated telecommunications industry.
Programmable Network
DGM & S Telecom foresees expanding market opportunity with the emergence of the
“programmable network,”
the convergence of network-based telephony and enterprise computing on the Internet.
In the programmable network, gateways (offering signaling, provisioning and billing) will allow customers to interact more closely with, and benefit more from, the power of global signaling networks. These gateways will provide the channel to services deployed in customer premises equipment, including enterprise servers, PBXs, workstations, PCs, PDAs and smart phones.
“The programmable network will be the end of one-size-fits-all service and will spawn a new industry dedicated to bringing the power of the general commercial computing industry to integrated telephony services,”
said Seamus Gilchrist, DGM & S director of strategic initiatives.
“Microsoft Windows NT Server is the key to future mass customization of network services via the DGM & S Telecom OMNI Soft Platform.”
Wide Range of Service on OMNI
A wide ranges of services can be provided on the OMNI Soft Platform, including wireless services, 800-number service, long-distance caller ID, credit card and transactional services, local number portability, computer telephony and mediated access. OMNI Soft Platform application programming interfaces (APIs) are found on the higher layers of the SS7 protocol stack. They include ISDN User Part (ISUP), Global System for Mobile Communications Mobile Application Part (GSM MAP), EIA/TIA Interim Standard 41 (IS-41 MAP), Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) and Intelligent Network Application Part (INAP).
The OMNI product family is
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Global. OMNI provides standards-conformant SS7 protocol stacks. OMNI complies with ANSI, ITU-T, Japanese and Chinese standards in addition to the many other national variants needed to enter the global market.
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Portable. Service applications are portable across the platforms supported by OMNI. A wide range of computing platforms running the Windows NT and UNIX operating systems is supported.
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Robust. OMNI SignalWare APIs support the development of wireless, wireline, intelligent network, call processing and transaction-oriented network applications.
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Flexible. OMNI supports the rapid creation of distributed services that operate on simplex or duplex hardware. It supports a loosely coupled, multiple computer environment. OMNI-Remote allows front-end systems that lack signaling capability to deploy services using the client/server model.
DGM & S Telecom is the leading international supplier of SignalWare
™
, the telecommunications software used in network applications and systems for the evolving intelligent and programmable network. DGM & S Telecom is recognized for its technical innovations in high-performance, fault-resilient SS7 protocol platforms that enable high-availability, open applications and services for single- and multivendor environments. Founded in 1974, DGM & S Telecom offers leading-edge products and solutions that are deployed
throughout North America, Europe and the Far East. DGM & S is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Comverse-Technology Inc. (NASDAQ
“CMVT”
).
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
OMNI Soft Platform and SignalWare are trademarks of DGM & S Telecom.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors : If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. To view additional information on DGM & S, please visit the DGM & S Web page at (http://dgms.com/)
