Acme Packet (News - Alert), a pioneer in session border control solutions, recently received its seventh US patent for its Net-Net session border controller (SBC) product family. The Net-Net family is used by over 360 service providers in 75 countries to meet critical security, service assurance, and regulatory requirements in wireline, cable, and wireless networks.

The US Patent Number 7,151,781, titled “System and Method for Providing Session Admission Control,” was issued on December 16, 2006. With this, the company has increased its patent list to 22, out of which seven are American patents, while the remaining accounts for additional foreign patents. This rare achievement represents a wide variety of intellectual property that Acme has developed over a period of seven years.

Acme has once again proven its undying commitment to technical innovation - which is required to enable and secure high-quality interactive IP communications across access and interconnect network borders. This patent includes Acme Packet’s flexible call admission control algorithms, the main elements in rendering security and quality of service at network operator borders.

Brian Partridge, senior analyst for Yankee Group (News - Alert), said in a statement, “Service providers face numerous challenges associated with delivering high-quality, secure VoIP and other forms of interactive IP communications. Session border controllers deliver the features and functions necessary for end-to-end delivery of these high-growth services.”

“Acme Packet demonstrated strong customer acquisition and revenue growth in 2006, achieving market leadership status that stems from its strong product offering,” he further added.

In addition to the 22 existing patents, the US Patent Office still has to clear additional 15 applications and 21 foreign counterparts. The family of patents embraces many key features and techniques used by session border controllers.

Talking about this latest achievement, Patrick MeLampy, co-founder and CTO of Acme Packet, said, “Acme Packet focuses on the pragmatic needs of today’s service providers in order to develop technology that solves problems encountered at IP network borders.”

“Our 58 issued and pending patents are another true measure of our leadership in this market, and are testament to Acme Packet’s continued commitment to delivering innovative, effective session border control solutions,” he continued.

The full list of issued patents is available on the Acme Packet Web site (www.acmepacket.com) under Products or Intellectual Property Notices. The full text and claims of the Acme Packet patents can be found by conducting a patent number search at the US Patent Office’s website at http://www.uspto.gov/patft/.

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Rahul Prabhakar is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.