Mariana Haven
Hammer Technologies
888-888-0001
mhaven@ham.com

London, England - Atlanta, GA. - October 7, 1997 - Hammer Technologies today announced a comprehensive IP Telephony Test Suite to simplify testing IP Telephony systems and networks. Hammer Technologies provides the Hammer IT, the Standard for Computer Telephony testing.

The Hammer IP Telephony Test Suite adds a set of pre-created collection of tests and capabilities to the Hammer IT. The IP Telephony Test Suite helps automate all critical areas of IP Telephony testing including load testing, feature testing, telephony and data traffic emulation, quality of service assessment, signal analysis and testing, and audio quality testing. For IP Telephony network operators, multiple Hammer systems can be distributed throughout the network to help assure the highest level of network quality and debug intermittent problems.

"This is an extremely important direction for us", said Hammer General Manager, Steve Gladstone. "We have been involved with testing multi-media telephony platforms since the beginning of the industry and have never experienced the excitement around a market that we are seeing in IP Telephony. And, these products are being installed in environments that require absolute quality and performance. Uptime and high quality transmission is critical for market acceptance", Gladstone added.

"The IP Telephony Test Suite is the first product specifically designed to test IP Telephony" added Hammer Vice President of Research and Development, Dave Hartig. "Using the Hammer, a tester can duplicate the complete environment under which systems must operate - even mix multiple interfaces, such as T1, Analog, ISDN and LAN connections in a single system. To automate voice quality and transmission handling abilities, we are including a special set of pre-recorded test speech samples (developed according to the ITU P.800 specification). This allows for the creation of repeatable and quantifiable Mean Opinion Score (MoS) testing processes.

To comprehensively test IP Telephony data transmission, Hammer is integrating a proprietary TCP/IP protocol test stack. The test stack allows the Hammer to inject and assess many protocol-level events, simultaneously emulate the actions of events from multiple IP addresses, and perform traffic analysis to assess IP Telephony and problems at the data protocol level. H.323 protocol level functions will be added at a later date.

According to Hammer's Director of Marketing, Art Michaud, "We have had Hammer systems installed for years with several of the leading-edge developers of IP Telephony systems. This product suite is an outgrowth of our growing understanding of their needs, the unique problems of this market, and in the increasing maturity of IP Telephony standards efforts. We are thrilled to be at the forefront of helping this industry deploy the highest quality products and services possible."

About Hammer Technologies Based in Wilmington, Mass., Hammer Technologies, a Teradyne Company, was founded in 1991. Hammer Technologies provides the Hammer family of products - the Standard for Computer Telephony Testing. 

Hammers are in use today by developers of computer telephony, advanced switching, and enhanced services systems, most of the regional Bell Operating companies and long-distance carriers, and at call centers of numerous Fortune 100 companies. Hammer is the only system that provides a complete solution for load, feature, regression, and in -service testing of integrated telecommunications systems and services.

The Hammer's test capabilities include voice, data, T1, E1, ISDN, WWW, TCP/IP, SS7, LAN/WAN, Speech Recognition and other related technologies.

Hammer, the Hammer logo, Hammer IT, and HammerFAX are trademarks of Hammer Technologies. All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.