Pulsar Communications is a systems designer and integrator of a family of open architecture products and services that seamlessly combine voice and data into a wide range of applications. Through its Pulsar Systems Division, the company designs, develops and integrates telecom and data solutions that support and improve communications for T1 carriers and smaller emerging carriers.

Pulsar's applications are integrated into a common-call control layer of a software platform, called WavPort. WavPort is the first and only voice-activated and Web-provisioned carrier-grade user interface that provides intuitive access to local and long distance telephone services. Pulsar's WavTalk voice-enabled application services provide integrated, network-based, voice-activated dialing capabilities for carriers.

 

A vision: hands-free communication

Responding to the opportunity for hands-free operations of telecom services, particularly in the wireless market, has been the hallmark of Pulsar. The founders had a vision: they believed they could offer an easier and more consistent method of performing total communication. They believed they could eliminate touchtones and provide users with access to an array of voice-activated and web-enabled services. The WavPort product is the result of that initiative.

Robert Beaudrie is the executive vice president of sales and marketing for Pulsar, and is responsible for establishing the sales and marketing strategy for WavPort and bringing the product to market. He works closely with Chris Kingsley, vice president of product development for WavPort, and its chief architect. To develop the WavPort suite of products, the Pulsar team looked for a real-time, standards-based operating system that was carrier-grade, scalable and reliable. The real-time aspect of the operating system was particularly important; there is no tolerance for delays in a telecom environment.

Everything having to do with call functionality is performed in real time. Pulsar's management aimed to differentiate their product in the call center environment by doing a better job managing calls and data going through wireless devices—and providing additional applications for the carriers.

Choosing the operating system

Over a period of three months, Kingsley evaluated competitive operating systems on the basis of scalability, reliability, POSIX® compliance, response time and ease of integration. "We selected LynxOS® because we required real-time performance for our applications and LynxOS met our needs for deterministic response time and overall performance," stated Kingsley.

LynxOS, a core product from LynuxWorks™, is unique in the real-time embedded software marketplace. It is a true RTOS that combines performance, reliability, adherence to open standards and scalability together with patented technology for real-time event handling with development tools available on Sun Solaris®, PC Linux®, Windows® 95, 98, NT and 2000. LynxOS was also designed to be UNIX® compatible and meet the stringent POSIX-compliance tests. With an open API, LynxOS embedded application developers can leverage open source or commercially available software to achieve faster time-to-market. Its high-availability configurations, including board-level failover support and hot-swappable PCI support hosts, make it a reliable choice for mission-critical business systems.

A voice-activated, web-enabled product

"We are also very aware of LynuxWorks' vision and can anticipate how new enhancements and capabilities can be incorporated into our products."

Kingsley and his team went to work building their product suite. They quickly discovered that LynxOS was robust enough that they rarely needed support. As they began talking to the carriers, they also discovered that by integrating applications, Pulsar could provide additional revenue-generating opportunities for the carriers—and that the carriers were generally not able to handle that integration themselves. "Many of the carriers we talk to need to provide advanced features that their subscribers are willing to pay for. We identified that a voice-activated and web-enabled interface is very attractive to subscribers—and that if we could provide the seamless integration into their technology, they were happy to have us proceed," Beaudrie commented.

Within one year of starting the project, Kingsley's team rolled out a tandem switching platform. "We were ahead of schedule because of the ease of development on the LynxOS platform—and because it conformed to industry standards," Kingsley recalled. Pulsar sold three of its feature servers in the first six months of availability to both international long distance providers and local US-based service providers. They also experienced a high demand for voice-activated dialing within the wireless environment.

LynxOS is providing the foundation for Pulsar's carrier-grade offering. The first product in the suite is entering market trials this summer and will be generally available later this year. Voice-activated dialing and advanced, voice-activated calling features-as well as web-based, end-user provisioning—are the major features in this new release. LynxOS also makes it possible for Pulsar Communications to offer integrated services—from one number follow me to web-based voice browsing, all using voice as the navigational tool.

Ease of integration

Both Beaudrie and Kingsley's teams have found working with LynuxWorks to be rewarding. Kinglsey appreciates the latest technology in LynxOS, its ability to seamlessly support PCI devices, the ability to re-use code, the product's scalability and memory protection—and the company's vision. The infrequent issues that have occurred have been handled quickly and responsively by LynuxWorks.

"Having a well designed system from day one allows us to add advanced capabilities into our advanced model," said Kingsley. "As we add more usable features to WavPort, we need to scale the system to handle additional subscribers and those using additional services. LynxOS enables us to do that."

"We are also very aware of LynuxWorks' vision and can anticipate how new enhancements and capabilities can be incorporated into our products. With an aggressive launch strategy for WavPort, we need a partner that will help us achieve our time-to-market goals—and support the carriers in achieving theirs," Beaudrie concluded.