TMCnet News

Reef Point Systems to Launch 'First Massively Scalable' UMA Security Gateway
[June 24, 2005]

Reef Point Systems to Launch 'First Massively Scalable' UMA Security Gateway


Reef Point Systems’ iQ8000 is the industry’s only purpose-built carrier class, massively scalable MSSG.

By TED GLANZER
TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist

Reef Point Systems will announce on Monday that it is launching a massively scalable, multi-service UMA Security Gateway for UMA Wireless LAN or 802.xx networks.

The gateway, according a statement from the Burlington, Mass.-based company, “solves the problem of the VOIP handset-to-network security challenge in the converged services infrastructure.”

In a briefing last Friday, Reef Point Systems CEO Stephen Diamond highlighted several features that separate the UMA Security Gateway from other solutions.

For example, Diamond said that other solutions, such as session border controllers, can’t support the Reef Point solution’s scalability, which can secure a half a million simultaneous connections.

Such scalability enables secure WiFi roaming and provides subscribers with confidentiality by encapsulating the call and signaling data in secure IPsec tunnels.

All of this significantly reduces capital and operating costs, Diamond said.

“UMA is a pre-cursor to IMS networks and enables operators to easily expand their coverage and introduce new mobile data services,” said Diamond said. “These new services will not be widely adopted if there is a threat to the availability or integrity of the service. Reef Point offers a complete security solution and understands that these new services are critical to operators’ profitability.”



Diamond quoted AT&T CTO Hossein Eslambolchi, who said, “It’s almost impossible to scale by putting all the security at the end of the network . . . We need to go somewhere in between . . . an intelligent network with smart devices.”

According to the Reef Point, by deploying UMA technology, mobile operators can enable subscribers to roam and handover between cellular networks and public and private licensed wireless networks using dual-mode mobile handsets – providing subscribers a consistent and transparent user experience as they transition between networks.


WiFi and cellular convergence serves as a cost-effective method to improve residential coverage and keep churn down for operators, Diamond said.

While users are on local wireless LANs, UMA enables “free” VoIP when in office or home. The user, equipped with a dual-mode handset, can make called across any generic wireless LAN and IP network, with the call and signaling data encapsulated in secure IP tunnels. These tunnels terminate on an access gateway, which processes and passes call data to the circuit-switched or packet-switched mobile core network.

Additionally, the UMA Security Gateway offers the following:

• Comprehensive Multiservice Security –Threat defense, including firewalls with Denial of Service attack prevention,
intrusion detection services, custom firewall filtering, dynamic virtual routing with Network Address Translation, and session limiting to protect against external threats.

• Purpose-built, Carrier-class Design – Performance and reliability through Reef Point’s patented Flow Application Streaming Technology™ and optimum mix of custom ASICs/FPGAs and network processors.

• Wireless Standards Support – Reef Point solutions support Internet Key
Exchange v2 and Extensible Authentication Protocol Method for GSM Subscriber Identity Modules (EAP-SIM) to provide scalable mutual authentication, encryption and data integrity safeguards for signaling, voice and data.

For more information, log on to www.reefpoint.com.

-----

Ted Glanzer is assistant editor for TMCnet. For more articles by Ted Glanzer, please visit:

http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100033&nm=Ted%20Gl
anzer

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]