Taqua Patents 'Switch-on-a-Card'

RICHARDSON, Texas -- Taqua, Inc., a leading provider of next-generation Class 5 switching, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company a patent for its groundbreaking Class 5 "switch-on-a-card" architecture. Taqua's OCX next-generation Class 5 switch is the first and only product available to telecommunications service providers that provides a "switch-on-a-card" design, through which each interface card (or "circuit pack") in the OCX performs all of the functions required of a Class 5 switch, with dedicated resources for call processing, service logic, switch fabric, media processing, and signaling present on every card, without sacrificing reliability or compromising any true Class 5 functionality. By eliminating common equipment and providing all the functions of a Class 5 switch on each card, the OCX greatly improves service margins and gives carriers pinpoint control over network costs. A fully functional system can be deployed with a single card, with additional expansions added as markets develop. The OCX is also extremely scalable, accommodating from 40 to more than 40,000 subscribers per shelf. U.S. patent #6,381,239 has been granted to Taqua, and recognizes the unique contribution Taqua's engineering organization has made to the telecommunications industry and the next-generation Class 5 switching landscape. In fact, Taqua's OCX "switch-on-a-card" architecture is so monumental that it has been compared to having a comparable impact on the telecommunications industry as the mainframe-to- client/server revolution had on the computer industry. "At Taqua, we quickly realized that we had developed a technology that was truly unique and that would have a significant effect on next-generation switching architectures," said Thomas Hartnett, co-founder and chief technology officer, Taqua, Inc.. "Receiving a United States patent for our switch on a card architecture is a major achievement for Taqua's engineering and product development teams, and also represents a landmark event that will alter the next-generation switching landscape for telecommunications carriers worldwide. Already, carriers throughout North America have embraced the OCX and its switch-on-a-card architecture." Taqua Systems Inc.