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Edgewater Networks (News - Alert) announced the launch of EdgeProtect Series Enterprise Session Border Controllers (SBCs) that connect remote employees to headquarters-based enterprise unified communications (UC) systems.

Some of the challenges associated with extending UC systems to remote offices include navigating firewalls, ensuring security for UC traffic and implementing tools for real-time diagnosis of network issues.

Edgewater Networks’ solution addresses the challenges associated with connecting remote employees and locations to centrally based UC systems and IP PBXs by offering a simple, straightforward solution that allows enterprises to gain full potential of their UC investment, according to company officials.

“Unified Communications (News - Alert) holds the promise of increased productivity and reduced costs but only if implemented easily and reliably,” said David G. Norman, Chief Executive Office of Edgewater Networks, in a statement. “The EdgeProtect solution enables enterprise organizations to save money and create a competitive advantage by providing simplified, secure access to their UC systems.”

As firewalls and NAT servers often prevent reliable IP-based voice and video communications, securing this real-time traffic in transit between locations can be difficult to implement and troubleshooting network impairments that negatively affect call quality is challenging.

By employing a Transport Layer Security (TLS), EdgeProtect simplifies connectivity and provides confidentiality, authentication and encryption for all IP-based voice, video and data connections. It also integrates passive call quality monitoring to isolate network impairments to local or wide area network segments, company officials said.

The EdgeProtect solution can be deployed at headquarters locations in a secure configuration that requires no modification to existing firewall policies. This simplifies installation and eliminates inadvertent, potential exposure caused by modified firewall policies.

When deployed at the headquarters, the EdgeProtect system terminates multiple TLS connections from remote locations using Edgewater Networks EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controllers. The system ensures secure connectivity between branch offices and headquarters locations that is fully interoperable with existing network infrastructure including firewalls, routers and switches.

The EdgeProtect product family includes EdgeProtect 5300LF2, EdgeProtect 4550 and EdgeProtect 4552. The software for all models include TLS encryption, support for PKI or self-signed certificates, UDP (News - Alert) based transport, passive call quality monitoring, QoS support for traffic prioritization and packet inspection and filtering for tunnel based traffic.

The EdgeProtect solution meets the demands of today’s IP-based UC systems. Priority voice and video traffic will be forwarded in the secure TLS tunnels before lower priority data. The EdgeProtect solution performs passive VoIP call quality monitoring to provide IT network operators with visibility into call quality performance.

The EdgeProtect solution is fully interoperable with any IP-based UC system including solutions from Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, IBM, Interactive Intelligence, Microsoft, Mitel, NEC, ShoreTel (News - Alert), HP Networking, Siemens, Digium and Aastra, company officials said.

Back in May Edgewater Networks announced the addition of the EdgeMarc 250 Series Enterprise Session Border Controller (SBC) to its family of EdgeMarc products.

The 250 Series is expected to simplify management, improve performance and reduce the costs of converged voice, video and data networks by integrating enterprise level session border controller features and flexible network connections into a single, easy-to-use device, company officials said.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.