Avaya Government Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Avaya, announced that it has completed the first end-to-end, Voice over IP (VoIP) calls across the Global Information Grid (GIG) as a part of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s field evaluation of its Real Time Services Unified Communications (UC) program. The calls were completed using a new technology essential to meet the heightened requirements for assured service and security for the U.S. Department of Defense.

The demonstrated technology is a critical operational capability included in DISA’s Multi-Function SoftSwitch upgrade to the DoD’s Defense Switch Network. As one of several vendors participating in the MFSS Spiral 1 rollout, Avaya Government Solutions teamed with Acme Packet to supply the secure VoIP communications infrastructure and General Dynamics Information Technology served as the system integrator.

While VoIP is currently employed in many parts of the DoD to save money and streamline operations by using a single network for voice and data traffic, this was the first operational demonstration of a critical new communications protocol and a different communications path than typically used for VoIP communications. The new communications protocol, Assured Services – Session Initiation Protocol (AS-SIP), is DoD’s unique extension of SIP that incorporates additional provisions for security and service performance to ensure that demanding military command and control requirements can be satisfied. The VoIP calls were completed between Scott Air Force Base in Illinois and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas utilizing end-to-end AS-SIP across the DoD’s Internet Protocol (IP) backbone network.

“Avaya Government Solutions is driving key innovation to help make critical government communications more reliable and secure, as well as more cost effective,” said Steve Derr, vice president, Sales and Engineering, Avaya Government Solutions. “We are very proud to have achieved this milestone and look forward to continuing our support of the DoD and their migration to Real Time Services Unified Communications.”

Customers across the Defense community will now be able to utilize the IP backbone of the GIG to carry voice and other unified communications services, rather than continuing to operate and maintain separate connections at additional expense just to handle voice traffic.

The same technical solution and core software behind this operational demonstration is the basis of Avaya Government Solutions’ platform for unified communications in the Federal market space. A flexible software platform offering a wide range of UC features, the Avaya Aura AS5300 solution provides core capabilities for IP-based voice and video. The AS5300 was specifically designed to satisfy DoD requirements for security, IPv6, and support IP migration to an open AS-SIP environment as defined in DoD’s Unified Capabilities Requirements (UCR) 2008.

Avaya Government Solutions is a network-centric integrator, providing the services expertise, mission-critical systems, and secure communications that empower government to ensure the security, livelihood, and well being of its citizens.