Subject: Bakeoff Press Release

From: Ulf Andersson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 15:52:50 +0100

Hi!

Attached is a copy of the 3rd SIP Bakeoff press release that went out earlier this week.
Please refer all questions regarding the press release to Barbara Boyle at 972-583-5481.
Thank you!

Regards,
Ulf

-- Attached Press Release --

ERICSSON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LEADING EQUIPMENT VENDORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS AND RESEARCH
ORGANIZATIONS UNITE TO ADVANCE INTERNET TELEPHONY STANDARD

Third SIP Bake-Off brings 26 organizations together to test for interoperability using
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

Richardson, Texas — December 14, 1999 — Engineering groups representing leading vendors,
service providers and research organizations met last week to test the interoperability of
their
Internet telephony products.

The technology "bake-off" was the industry’s third event organized to test the
interoperability of
software and hardware devices using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which is used
to initiate,
manage and terminate interactive sessions, including voice, across a wide area network.
SIP became
an official standard of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in March 1999 and has
gained
significant support among telco equipment vendors, carriers, CLECs, cable operators and
web
based voice chat providers.

The Third SIP Bake-Off, sponsored by Ericsson, was the largest event to date to test for
industry
interoperability using SIP, with 31 teams from 26 companies and research organizations
taking part.
Participants tested interoperability of basic call setup and of more advanced features,
including
security, location and mobility features, call routing services and call center
applications. Participants
paired up in rounds, and in each round attempted to execute a suite of tests to determine
the level of
interoperability.

The highlight of the event was a complex call scenario, involving four clients and three
servers, each
from a different vendor. In this scenario, a caller initiating a call was immediately
challenged to
authenticate himself to a server. After successfully authenticating, the call was routed
through three
servers, causing three separate phones to ring at once. After one of the ringing phones
was picked up,
the proxies exchanged messages causing the other phones to stop ringing. At that point,
the two
parties were connected and were able to talk to each other and then disconnect.

Any problems that arose during the tests were discussed among the teams to determine
whether they
were caused by troubles with implementation or by an ambiguity in the specification. All
ambiguities
were recorded so they could be clarified in the next version of the SIP specification.

These kinds of interoperability tests are a key component of the IETF standards process.
Requests for
Comments (RFCs), or official standards from the IETF, progress through three phases of
maturity as
the protocols are rolled out and deployed. SIP is currently at the first phase, proposed
standard RFC,
and interoperability of every feature must be demonstrated in order to advance to the next
stage, draft
standard RFC.

Ericsson is the first vendor to sponsor a SIP Bake-Off. Previous SIP Bake-Off events have
been
sponsored by Pulver.com in August and Columbia University in April 1999.

Organizations participating in the Third SIP Bake-Off included: 3Com Corporation
(NASD:COMS),
8x8 (NASD:EGHT), Agilent, BroadSoft, Catapult Communications, Cisco Systems (NASD:CSCO),
Columbia University, Delta, dynamicsoft, E*Club (Carnegie Mellon University),
Ericsson Inc. (NASD:ERICY), Helsinki University of Technology, Hewlett-Packard Labs,
Indigo,
IPCell Technologies, MCI WorldCom (NASD:WCOM), Mediatrix, Mitel Corp (NYSE:MLT).,
Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT), Nuera Communications, OZ.COM, Pingtel Corp.,
Radcom Equipment, Inc., RaveTel, Telogy Networks, and Vovida Networks, Inc.

"When 26 vendors, service providers and research organizations come together to test their
equipment
for interoperability, it really attests to the industry's commitment to meeting the needs
of customers,"
said Mats Nilsson, corporate director of technical standards strategy at Ericsson.
"Ericsson is proud to
be the first vendor sponsor of an event that provides a truly open, unbiased network to
test for
interoperability and that furthers the development of SIP as one of the key components in
the
new telecoms world."

"This third round of SIP testing gives all leading IP telephony vendors a great
opportunity to test more
advanced features. We welcome participating in the SIP Bake-Offs in order to ensure
product
interoperability -- from intelligent phones to media gateways and back-end servers -- and
to be a part
of introducing SIP as an effective protocol for implementing voice over IP," said Andrew
Bezaitis,
director, business development and marketing, Internet Communications Group, 3Com
Corporation.
"As the IP Telephony market continues its rapid maturation, SIP-based solutions stand to
provide
significant value in enabling enhanced services.”

"Participation in industry interoperability events such as the SIP bakeoff allows us to
validate the
operation of tools such as call trace and protocol analysis for the carrier networks of
the future.
Agilent network monitoring solutions help operators reduce costs, increase quality of
service and
deliver industry leading services over any network." said Tom White, senior vice president
and
general manger for Agilent Technologies' Communications Solutions Group.

"Having been designed with interoperability in mind, SIP is key to ensuring that enhanced
services run
smoothly across packet networks," said Scott Hoffpauir, vice president of engineering at
BroadSoft.
"BroadSoft is dedicated to providing service delivery and creation platforms that create a
basis for
new value propositions.  The SIP Bakeoff is an ideal forum for ensuring interoperability
among
vendors who are forming the basis of the next generation network."

"The camaraderie between participants was outstanding at the Third SIP Bake-Off. This
interoperability event enabled us to learn the testing needs of our customers first-hand
and put our
multiple testing capabilities to the test by interacting with numerous vendors
simultaneously," said
Richard Mott, Catapult Communications regional manager.

"Interoperability events have proven to be effective, and the SIP Bake-Off was no
exception," said
Neil Urban, development manager at Delta Information Systems.  "This latest SIP Bakeoff
provided
an excellent opportunity to interact with a wide array of multi-vendor products, ensuring
the reliability
and robustness of our protocol analysis equipment."

"This bakeoff demonstrated that multi-vendor interoperability for real-world call
scenarios is now a
reality," said Jonathan Rosenberg, chief scientist at dynamicsoft and co-author of the SIP
specification.
"This further validates that SIP is ready for deployment."

"It was a great experience to test our implementation with others from different companies
and see
that, after all....it works!!" said Inmaculada Espigares from Helsinki University of
Technology. "We
had never seen so many people so happy after hearing a telephone RING!"

“We see SIP as the key for opening the long-awaited Internet telephony era. Its natural
integration
with web and email services makes it the ideal lever to make good on the promises of
Internet
telephony. Adopting this technology will enable ISPs and operators to offer resolute new
services
to their customers,” said Emmanuel Bertrand, CEO of Indigo Software.

"Mitel is fully supportive of all activities directed towards standardization in the IP
telephony market.
Interoperability is of course key to this, and the SIP bakeoffs are proving to be
excellent testing
ground for the technology as the market develops," said Trefor Davis, IP telephony product
line
manager at Mitel.

"This event went a long way to resolving outstanding issues in implementing the IETF RFC
2543
and in establishing interoperability among multiple vendors' SIP implementations. It
hastened the
day when SIP will be a pervasive protocol in voice over IP network deployments," said
Neville O'Reilly, vice president, Business Development, NetSpeak.

"SIP is a great standard to interoperate between existing telephony service and new IP
based
services" says Kjartan Pierre Emilsson, CTO of OZ.COM.  "By using SIP in the iPulseTM
product that we co-develop with Ericsson, we effectively provide a true convergence
platform,
on which third parties can easily add new communication services."

"The tremendous momentum behind SIP is clearly evident from both the attendance and
enthusiasm at this bake-off, " said Jay Batson, CEO of Pingtel. "SIP's inherent
functionality,
scalability and opportunities for endless innovation using an intelligent endpoint are
making SIP
the preferred protocol for both enterprise and service provider VoIP networks."

“RADCOM is committed to providing innovative, effective solutions to interoperability and
other convergence problems," said Anthony S. Wiley, president of RADCOM Equipment Inc.
"We are therefore pleased to have had the opportunity to prove our decodes and provide
performance analyses on the SIP-based, Internet telephony devices represented at this
exciting
event."

"Standards-based IP communication is the future of converged networks," said Ben Jenkins,
CEO
of RaveTel.  "By participating in this kind of forum, we are ensuring that our products
will work
seamlessly with those of other vendors."

"Telogy Networks welcomes participation in interoperability events such as this Third SIP
Bake-off,
which we view as a tool for accelerating the rapid deployment of new standards," said Ed
Morgan,
executive director, Research and Development for Telogy Networks, A Texas Instruments
Company.
"Telogy plans to offer SIP as a protocol option for VoIP applications such as gateways, IP
phones,
cable modems, and other new products."

"We gladly participate in industry interoperability testing such as this so companies
using our stacks
don't have to replicate the test effort," said Luan Dang, senior vice president, CTO and
co-founder
of Vovida Networks.  "Vovida continues its support of the SIP, MGCP and H.323 protocols in
our
products and is committed to supporting events such as these that further interoperability
and open
source adoption of VoIP standards."

More information about the Third SIP Bake-Off can be found at http://www.sipbakeoff.org.
More information about SIP can be found at http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/sip.

For additional information, contact the press relations department of any of the
participating
organizations:

Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecoms world, with communications solutions
that combine
telecom and datacom technologies with freedom of mobility for the user. With more than
100,000
employees in140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers -network
operators,
service providers, enterprises and consumers – the world over.

With over 300 million customer connections worldwide, 3Com Corporation connects more
people
and organizations to information and each other in more innovative, simple and reliable
ways than any
other networking company. 3Com delivers e-Networking solutions through information access
products and network systems to enterprises, small businesses, consumers, carriers and
network
service providers. For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at
www.3com.com
or the press site at www.3com.com/pressbox.

Agilent Technologies, Inc. is a diversified technology company, resulting from
Hewlett-Packard
Company's plan to strategically re-align itself into two fully independent companies. With
42,000
employees serving customers in more than 120 countries, Agilent Technologies, as a
subsidiary of
HP, is a global leader in designing and manufacturing test, measurement and monitoring
instruments,
systems and solutions, and semiconductor and optical components. The company serves
markets
that include communications,  electronics, life sciences and healthcare. The businesses
comprising
Agilent had net revenues of more than $8.3 billion in fiscal year 1999. Information about
Agilent
Technologies can be found on the Web at http://www.agilent.com.

BroadSoft is the leading provider of service delivery systems and service creation tools
for
next-generation communications networks.  The company's flagship product, BroadWorks,
allows
service providers to offer innovative new communications services such as IP Centrex and
other
enhanced services, on an open, hardware-independent platform.  Founded in 1998, BroadSoft
is
located outside of Washington, DC and is a privately held, venture backed company.
(www.broadsoft.com)

Catapult Communications delivers comprehensive telecom test systems that enable testing of
both
established networks and emerging technologies such as Voice over IP and 3rd Generation
Cellular.
Offering multi-protocol, multi-user capabilities in a single solution, Catapult helps
manufacturers of
Gateways, Gatekeepers, MCUs and SIP terminal equipment ensure interoperability in today's
converging markets.

Delta's Network Systems group, specializing in the development of conferencing and VoIP
multi-protocol  test equipment, has provided audio, video and data protocol analyzers
since 1992.
Delta is committed to providing cost effective protocol analyzers for new standards as
they develop.
We also recognize that no standard product can meet the needs of all users, so we work
with our
customers to provide customized solutions. Delta also manufactures application specific
audio and
video compression products and systems. Visit us at www.delta-info.com/products/vt320.

dynamicsoft Inc. delivers connection management and end-to-end server solutions to service

providers and communications equipment manufacturers, enabling the scalable, interoperable
and
immediate deployment of applications and services for converged voice/data networks. Visit

dynamicsoft at  www.dynamicsoft.com.  dynamicsoft is funded byComVentures (www.comven.com)

and VantagePoint Venture Partners (www.vpvp.com), two world class venture capital firms
investing
in technologies.

Telecommunications Technology Department at Helsinki University is interested in the
technology,
engineering, information and enterprise aspects of the functional areas of communications
services and
switching such as signaling in telecommunications networks, routing in circuit and packet
switched
networks including Internet routing protocols, interworking of networks and services, and
telecommunications product development. Recent research has been concentrated on IP
switching
and Voice over IP. For further information http://keskus.hut.fi/engl.shtml or contact with
Jose
Costa Requena at http://keskus.hut.fi/tutkimus/ipana/pers/jose.shtml.

Indigo Software, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, is leading the way in
Internet-speaking
telephony solutions. Designing and providing cutting-edge solutions for ISPs and operators
worldwide,
Indigo Software is the European innovator in Java-based software for the worldwide
Internet telephony
market. Supported by major industry players, Indigo software is a young, forward-looking,
venture-backed company.

Mitel (NYSE: MLT; TSE: MLT) is a growing global provider of converging voice and data
systems
and applications, and specialty semiconductors for the communications industry.  The
company has
revenues of more than CDN $1.3 billion and employs approximately 6,000 people worldwide.

A pioneer in Voice over IP (VoIP) communications, NetSpeak Corporation (NASDAQ: NSPK)
is a leading developer and marketer of advanced telephony solutions for IP networks.
NetSpeak
solutions are powered by products that have been strategically designed to meet the
rapidly evolving
business needs of its customers.  Through a protocol-independent software architecture,
NetSpeak
products deliver efficient management of network resources and enable cost-effective
introduction
of new VoIP applications.

OZ.COMTM is a pioneer in the advancement and development of scalable, interactive
real-time
communications products and solutions. The company’s mission is to bring
"people above networksTM" and develop technology that integrates the Internet, traditional
wireline
and wireless communications services. With corporate headquarters in Boston and European
offices
in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Stockholm, Sweden, OZ.COM has over 80 employees and can be
found on the World Wide Web at http://www.oz.com/.

Pingtel is fostering a voice services and applications renaissance with the world's first
intelligent
voice-over-IP telephone for service providers and enterprises. As the delivery platform
for
next-generation IP PBX systems and virtual IP PBX services, it not only makes today's
voice
features much easier to use, but enables a whole new collection of valuable, personalized
voice
services and applications. A venture-backed start-up, Pingtel is located near Boston, in
Woburn,
MA, and can also be found at www.pingtel.com.

RADCOM specializes in innovative, packet telephony solutions for providers of integrated
voice,
data & Internet products and services.   Its line of integrated WAN/FastLAN analyzers,
which
supports over 350 voice, data and cellular protocols, provide an ideal solution for
testing VoATM,
VoFR as well as VoIP. RADCOM's test solution suites are used in the development and
manufacturing of network equipment; the installation of networks; and the ongoing
maintenance of
operational networks to facilitate real-time identification, diagnosis, isolation and
resolution of
network problems. RADCOM's sales network includes over 50 distributors in 35 countries
worldwide
and over 14 manufacturer's representatives across North America. (www.radcom-inc.com)

RaveTel is one of the first providers of presence-aware communications applications for
converged
networks.  The company is a newly-formed spin-off from the E*Club project at
Carnegie-Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, PA. For more information, visit RaveTel at
http://sip.ini.cmu.edu.

Telogy Networks, a Texas Instruments Company, is the leading provider of embedded
communications
software to global equipment manufacturers. Telogy's Golden GatewayR software enables its
customers
to develop connected products that send real-time voice, fax and data over packet networks
(such as
Internet/Intranet, Frame Relay, and ATM). As one of the few embedded software companies
with both
microprocessor and DSP expertise, Telogy Networks offers its customers truly comprehensive
product
solutions. Telogy's products are in use by virtually every communications equipment
manufacturer,
including Cisco Systems, 3COM, Nortel Networks, Motorola and many others throughout the
world.
Company news and product information are available at http://www.telogy.com.

Vovida Networks, a founding member of the International Softswitch Consortium, is a
Linux-based
communications infrastructure company and the global pioneer of open source telephony.
Vovida is a
global provider of communications software products that scale from silicon to systems and
enable
advanced telephony features, applications and services on packet-switched networks.  In
addition,
Linux-based, open source implementations of MGCP, RTP, H.323 Annex F and SIP are freely
available on our web site: www.vovida.com.

     ###

For more information, please contact:
Barbara Boyle
Marketing Communications Manager
972-583-5481