A Hard Softswitch

Lara Unveils Programmable VoIP Hardware

Posted: 12/1999

A Hard Softswitch
Lara Unveils Programmable VoIP Hardware
By Peter Lambert

Given powerful hardware, VoIP technology can do all that the 100-year-mature circuit-switched telephony network does, and it can do it with the same level of quality and functionality, including enhanced custom calling services.

That's the claim of San Jose, Calif.-based startup manufacturer Lara Technology Inc., which earlier this fall unveiled a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) switch based on a patent-pending MediaExpress microprocessor that can search IP data packet header information at 83 million lookups per second.

"We can maintain all of the benefits of the intelligent network, gather all the call records, provide all the billing and customer care interfaces for both legacy and next-generation carriers," says Lara President and CEO Ajit Medhekar. "The service has to be completely transparent to end customers, while our customers--the CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers) and ISPs (Internet service providers)--benefit from a lower cost structure."

Lower, indeed. Lara claims that its system of Unified Services Gateway media gateway, Unified Call Exchange gateway controller and signaling protocol exchange systems will cost carriers $45 per port, minus the application servers in its scheme, which can be added in modular fashion as developers create new services for the switch.

Like the softswitch makers, Lara touts the openness of its system to third-party service developers. "Our focus is on delivering services and call processing on a carrier-class, all-IP switch," Medhekar says. "IP brings in customers, and then we carry them upward to enhanced services."

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