Bridgewater Systems, the intelligent broadband controls company, has joined the MultiService Forum (News - Alert) (MSF).

The company will be a Silver level sponsor in the first-ever MSF/GSMA Voice over LTE (VoLTE) Interoperability Event in September 2011. The event reflects Bridgewater Systems’ commitment to LTE interoperability. Participation in this 2011 event follows Bridgewater's participation at the 2010 Global MSF LTE Interoperability event.

“The MSF VoLTE Interoperability event reflects the MSF's commitment to carrier-driven interoperability events that validate key emerging standards and technologies, including key network interfaces that ensure multi-vendor deployment strategies for LTE/EPC/IMS technology. We are delighted that Bridgewater is participating at the 2011 event,” said Kyu-Ouk Lee, president of MSF, in a statement.

As part of its VoLTE initiative, the GSMA (News - Alert) is supporting the event. The conference will be hosted by MSF and mobile operators Vodafone and China Mobile in the Vodafone (News - Alert) Test and Innovation Centre in Germany, and the China Mobile Research Institute Laboratory in China.

“As a member of MSF, Bridgewater's participation in this prestigious 2011 event reflects our commitment to LTE interoperability,” said David Sharpley (News - Alert), senior vice president, Bridgewater Systems.

“We already offer the broadest set of LTE control plane interoperability with major equipment vendors, which ensure our customers can leverage a multi-vendor LTE deployment strategy. Our participation in this global event will ensure Bridgewater remains at the forefront of LTE interoperability as new services such as VoLTE are developed, piloted and launched,” Sharpley added.

The testing is aimed at validating the GSMA's technical recommendations for IMS-based VoLTE. Test scenarios include VoLTE basic interoperability, roaming and interconnection, non-LTE Access to EPC, handover/relocation and Self Organizing Networks.

In a related announcement, Bridgewater Systems (News - Alert) said that a leading mobile operator serving 35 states in the U.S. has selected the Bridgewater Home Subscriber Server (HSS) for its LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC) deployment.

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