Avaya completes Navy networking deal

Avaya Inc. has finished installing a new digital communications network linking 12 Navy bases in the greater San Diego area, the company announced April 4.

Avaya of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, received $10 million for the one-year contract signed April 27, 2001. The asynchronous transfer mode-based communications network is part of an ongoing Navy effort to consolidate and simplify the communications architecture for its facilities in the region.

Avaya Definity Enterprise Communications Servers provide the backbone for the new network, which is designed to support 60,000 Navy users. Nine Avaya Definity servers replaced 17 switches, reducing the number and complexity of the Navy's existing facilities while improving redundancy and survivability.

With the new distributed communications network, should a portion of it be destroyed or compromised, the Navy would continue to have access to critical communications services, Avaya said.

The Avaya Definity Enterprise Communications Server has been certified by the Department of Defense's Joint Interoperability Test Center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The server has a feature that allows key personnel to override other system traffic in times of emergency known as multilevel precedence and preemption.

The network also supports new and emerging communications features, such as Internet-protocol telephony that will be used by the Navy's San Diego Medical Center.

By using Avaya's IP-enabled communications server, the medical center will be able to merge its voice and data networks and route calls over the Internet, thus simplifying network administration and reducing costs, according to Avaya.

Avaya has more than 23,000 employees and annual revenue of $6.7 billion.