Six companies have joined an initiative designed to provide interoperability among IP telephony platforms, according to a statement issued jointly by VocalTec Communications Ltd., Lucent and ITXC.
Ascend, Cisco, Clarent, Dialogic, Natural MicroSystems and Siemens AG will support the upcoming interoperability Now (iNow) agreement that will be published in January, according to the release. The purpose of iNow is to make gateways and gatekeepers used for IP telephony interoperable with each other.
Gateways are boxes that transfer the IP call from the public switched telephone network to the IP network and vice versa. The gatekeeper sits on the network and provides the intelligence needed to manage it.
Ascend, Cisco, Clarent, Dialogic, Natural MicroSystems and Siemens also announced that they will be supporting iNow interoperability in their future products.
VocalTec, Lucent and ITXC developed the iNow-interoperability agreement based on the International Telecommunications Union H.323 standard and the upcoming H.225.0 Annex G standard, the statement said.
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