Commetrex Announces T.38 Interoperability Lab
Company Offers Developers No-Charge Testing Service

For Immediate Release

Roswell, GA, January 21, 2002 – Commetrex Corporation, a leading developer and licensor of fax-related technologies, announced today the opening of a Commetrex-sponsored ITU T.38-fax relay interoperability testing lab. “We are offering testing to any and all equipment developers interested in achieving industry-wide interoperability of T.38, and we’re doing it absolutely free of charge,” said Mike Coffee, Commetrex’ CEO. "This will speed adoption of IP-based real-time fax, helping carriers and all equipment vendors, including, of course, Commetrex, which licenses T.38 and Terminating T.38 technologies. If you want to guarantee interoperability of your T.38-based product, thisis the announcement you’ve been waiting for,” he continued.

T.38 specifies a protocol for the transport of fax in real-time over IP networks. With T.38, end users can send a fax from a PSTN-connected fax terminal. The connection traverses the PSTN to a gateway that supports T.38. From there, the fax travels over an IP network to a compatible terminal also supporting T.38. Then, the fax can be terminated in an IP-media server or relayed to a corresponding PSTN receiving fax terminal.

Commetrex is offering to work with any developer to achieve interoperability between Commetrex’ TerminatingT38TM product and any other T.38-based system. Commetrex has recently completed interoperability testing with several companies' T.38 products. Cliff Schornak, Commetrex' CTO, observes: “We are finding interop problems that, quite simply, are caused by different interpretations of the T.38 recommendation. For example, do sequence numbers continue to increase from negotiation through image transfer, or do they reset to zero with the image? How are the most significant bits and bytes ordered? These are simple problems, but they are enough to hinder interoperability. Although they are easy to change, they are tough to find. Our centralized testing facility, combined with our experience in interop testing, will accelerate interoperability since we can communicate our findings with all participants, without, of course, compromising any confidences."

Mike Wells, Commetrex' development engineer responsible for Commetrex' T.38 Lab explained why Commetrex is undertaking this task: "Our TerminatingT38 product allows us to terminate hundreds of T.38 sessions into one medium-speed PC. And it's heavily instrumented, so we can tell exactly what's going on during a session. But even though you might be interoperable with TerminatingT38, that doesn't mean you can interoperate with other equipment. We can analyze your trace and advise you as to what equipment you may have a problem with."

Commetrex says all a developer need do to begin testing is identify contacts, trade IP addresses, and agree on a process. Success has been achieved within two to 10 days, without the cooperation of the equipment developer. "With the active participation of the interop partner we should be able to nail interoperability within a matter of a few days," says Wells.

Commetrex Corporation
Commetrex Corporation develops and markets enabling technologies designed to shorten the development cost and time-to-market for developers of integrated-media telecommunications equipment. Long known for its market-leading fax and other licensable technologies, Commetrex is now completing a multi-year development effort to offer the equipment developer middleware software products and media-stream framework plus a comprehensive line of PCI and CompactPCI DSP-resource boards.

For more information, contact T38Lab@commetrex.com.