Newport Networks Sets Telecom Industry Benchmark
for VoIP Network Call Handling

Caldicot, UK / Stockholm 15th May 2006. Newport Networks, a leading developer of carrier-class Session Border Controllers (SBC), today announced at the VON Europe conference in Stockholm that its 1460 SBC has achieved the industry’s highest recorded performance figures during recent, independent testing of VoIP call handling capabilities. The tests were conducted using the Navtel Communications Interwatch R14 Performance and Verification System and were Certified by F1 Interop Solutions.

As the primary gateway for most next–generation networks, SBCs manage interconnect points – or "borders" – between networks and, as such, must offer elevated resilience and scalability in order to ensure the levels of security and quality of service (QoS) users have come to expect from traditional networks.

"As carriers move to IMS and session-based communications environments, where a real-time exchange between two end users could contain dozens of session initiation requests, carriers will require SBCs with the horsepower to handle unprecedented demands," says Joe McGarvey, Principal Analyst at Current Analysis. "The ability to set up SIP sessions and handle simultaneous calls, while providing QoS assurance and security, are increasingly important attributes of SBCs."

Alan Nunn, Chief Technical Officer at Newport Networks explains:

"As increasing numbers of users and network operators move towards IP telephony, moving VoIP into the mainstream, the scalability of any call handling service offered will be fundamental to its success.  Further, in the event of a peak demand event such as interactive television voting, occasions such as New Year’s Eve or, this summer, those all-important football World Cup scores, networks can be placed under immense pressure due to the number of calls being processed, potentially suffering service failures."

Navtel InterWatch created a signalling load of 880 sessions per second and over 195,000 simultaneous calls on the Newport 1460 SignallingProxy - the equivalent to a very large VoIP interconnect point for a tier-1 incumbent carrier. Peak loads of over 1000 calls per second processed by the 1460 were recorded while in longer term "soak tests" the system handled over 42 million calls in a period of 13 hours. The results represent greater performance than any other session border controller vendor currently available.

Art Beall, Chief Technical Officer at F1 Interop Labs explains:

"The Newport Network 1460 SBC showed an impressive ability to sustain high call volume, spikes in traffic, along with extended heavy call generation. Independent testing of vendor’s product provides potential customers a greater level of confidence concerning product offerings. It’s a win-win situation for the vendor and the potential customer to know a product has been independently tested and meets the stated performance identified by the manufacturer".

"These are fantastic figures which highlight the performance superiority of the 1460 in high capacity session border controller applications like VoIP peering and interconnect," commented Nunn. "Having this level of capacity enables service providers to be safe in the knowledge that their session border controller can handle very high peak traffic loading without compromising media quality."

The testing was conducted at Navtel’s testing facility in Toronto under the supervision of F1 Interop Solutions who verified the results. Newport Networks will be demonstrating a range of the performance capabilities of the 1460 at the VON Europe conference and exhibition, stand 108 in Stockholm International Fairs center, from the 16th to 18th of May 2006.

About Newport Networks

Newport Networks Group PLC, listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, has designed and developed the award winning 1460 session border controller. The 1460 session border controller addresses the key service delivery issues of quality and security, enabling service providers to create new revenue streams from VoIP and MoIP while controlling the cost of delivery. Newport Networks' product innovations and leadership have been recognised through Frost & Sullivan's 2006 IP Communications Next-Generation Carrier Infrastructure Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award and Internet Telephony magazine's Product of the Year 2005 award. Newport Networks' commitment to deliver the highest quality products and services is demonstrated by the company becoming the first independent session border controller vendor to achieve ISO 9001:2000 certification. Based in the UK, France, North America and China, Newport Networks is led by an experienced team with a proven track record of identifying new service provider network technologies, developing products and managing the growth of international businesses. Further information at www.newport-networks.com

About Navtel Communications Inc.

Navtel Communications provides the industry's highest scalability and performance test solutions  for testing NGN and IMS converged networks. Navtel's products are used by network equipment manufacturers and operators around the globe to measure the performance and scalability of converged networks and network elements. www.navtelcom.com

About F1 Interop Solutions

F1 Interop Solutions is an independent test and interop facility offering a complete suite of testing services for IP (VoIP) / Packet Cable and other next-generation advanced services. www.f1interop.com

For more information on the performance testing of the 1460 please refer to the 1460 Performance Test data sheet.