Brix Networks (www.brixnet.com), the trusted authority for measuring the quality and performance of Internet-based services, announced today that iBasis, Inc., IBAS, the leader in advanced, Internet-based voice communications, has implemented the Brix System service assurance solution to help verify the quality of its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

VoIP is a technology that allows ordinary phone calls to be transformed into packets of data and efficiently transmitted over the Internet at high quality and reduced cost compared with the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

iBasis, a global leader in Internet telephony, delivers toll-quality international voice services to the world's largest telecommunications carriers. The iBasis Network (TM) is the world's largest international Cisco Powered Network for Internet telephony with 589 Points of Presence (POPs) in more than 80 countries. Large carriers outsource large volumes of international voice traffic to iBasis to help reduce the costs of transport and international service support.

iBasis has installed Brix 1000 (TM) Verifiers in its Internet Central Offices around the world, and manages this distributed system from its Network Operations Centers via the BrixWorx (TM) central site software system. The Brix solution provides end-to-end monitoring and measurement of call quality between POPs along multiple paths, aggregating a variety of fundamental performance metrics, including packet loss, delay, and delay variation, or jitter. The resulting data is utilized by iBasis' proprietary Assured Quality Routing (R) system to ensure that the company is taking advantage of the highest quality routes for its voice traffic.

The Brix System also measures availability and performance of H.323 and other call set-up services, which often involve multiple cooperating servers and applications. In addition to providing per-path, call-quality measurements, the Brix System provides proactive warnings of call setup outages, enabling providers like iBasis to take action before service is impacted.

"Having accurate, real-time measurements of Internet call quality is very important," said Paul Skelly, manager of network performance at iBasis. "The Brix verification solution is truly carrier-class: it's robust, easy to manage, and very scalable. As a global provider to the world's largest carriers, network components like the Brix solution help us maintain the Tier 1 quality our customers have come to expect. Successfully integrating leading-edge technology, like the Brix System, is essential for maintaining a superior service support infrastructure. This helps us enhance the performance of our network, which contributes not only to quality, but to the bottom line, as well."

The award-winning Brix System is a seamlessly integrated hardware and software product that is the industry's first complete solution built specially to address the IP performance management needs of carriers, service providers, and large enterprises. It consists of a family of hardware platforms, including the Brix 100 (TM) Verifier and the Brix 1000 Verifier, plus the scalable BrixWorx software system.

"Being able to measure and verify the quality and performance of various offered IP services is vital, particularly in today's business climate," noted Tom Pincince, president and CEO of Brix Networks. "Providers like iBasis use our solutions because they know it helps them leverage their existing infrastructures by being able to clearly demonstrate the value of their networks and services."