Nortel Announces Unified Communications Products

Nortel on Wednesday introduced new Ethernet routing switches for enterprises migrating to VoIP and advanced unified communications.

In addition to other product and service improvements, the company announced its new Ethernet Routing Switch (ERS) 2500 and ERS 4500 at the VoiceCon trade show in Orlando this week. The network devices allow enterprise local area networks to prioritize real-time video and multimedia services.

The 2500 series offers Power over Ethernet (PoE) options, improved resilience, security and Quality of Service, as well as line-rate switching to allow enterprise LAN to be optimized for unified communications, said Aziz Khadbai, Nortel's Converged Data Networks general manager. Nortel reports that it has sold more than 3 million PoEs to date.

Nortel is targeting enterprise branches and small remote offices needing feature-rich Fast Ethernet solutions with the ERS 2500 Series, which also offers Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). The ERS 4500 Series offers support for both Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet switches. Both series come with auto-discovery capabilities for devices like VoIP handsets.

The release of both stackable switch families enhances Nortel's portfolio with convergence-focused Ethernet Switching products for enterprises of all sizes, said Evelien Wiggers, an enterprise networks research manager for IDC. ERC prices begin at $695 for 24 port non-PoE 10/100, while ERS 4500 begins at $2295 for 48 port 10/100.The announcements come as Nortel launches its North American Optimized Networking campaign, building on IPT 1-2-3 campaigns from last year. The new campaign promotes bundled solutions to deploy a LAN network to support VoIP and unified communications. It includes incentives through Nortel channel partners.

Nortel President and CEO Mike Zafirovski said the company is taking an offensive position in unified communications -- linking voice, e-mail, instant messaging and mobility. The company said it is releasing its main IP Telephony solution, the Communication Server 1000, with enhanced network and voice call security and new E911 capabilities in the second quarter of 2007. The new CS 1000 architecture extends support for open standards computing with hardware that aims to increase flexibility and improve network management.

Nortel's Multimedia Communication Server 5100 is now available with integration for IBM's Lotus Notes. Enhancements include capabilities for voice, video, conferencing, e-mail, instant messaging and presence with a mouse click. The MCS 5100 supports SIP-based IP phones.

Finally, Nortel introduced its Unified Messaging (UM) 2000, a carrier-grade standards-based hardware and software program that supports 1 million users and combines voice-mail, fax and e-mail access through e-mail applications. Nortel is targeting global enterprises and carriers offering customers unified messaging solutions that can work on multi-vendor voice networks.

Prices vary depending on features and number of users.0