Acme Packet has entered in to a partnership with ip.access, a provider of picocell and femtocell infrastructure solutions. The companies will collaborate on small cell solutions and ip.access will integrate and support the Net-Net® Security Gateway to secure the ip.access nano3G small cell system.

This new partnership integrates the Net-Net® Security Gateway as part of the ip.access nano3G femtocell and picocell solution. The Net-Net Security Gateway fulfills the security gateway functional requirements defined in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), providing authentication and IPsec tunnel management between the ip.access nano3G Access Points and the Access Controller. IPsec tunnels protect all subscriber voice and data traffic and the management packets from tampering, eavesdropping or interception. The two companies have worked together to enhance reliability, security and manageability of small cells. The turnkey solution has been tested and is deployed in live customer networks.

The Acme Packet Net-Net Security Gateway features several significant technical advantages that maximize capacity, minimize costs and assure service availability. It provides up to 200,000 IPsec tunnels with high-performance IPsec processing architecture in a single rack unit system, providing cost effective scalability as services expand. It features integrated hardware- and software-based DoS/DDoS attack protection and carrier-class high availability to protect the network and service up-time.

ip.access has more than 60 customers for its 3G and 2G small cell solutions, and its femtocell technology is deployed in more than 500,000 small cell access points in homes, offices and mobile network hotspots worldwide. Infonetics Research recently reported that ip.access has the leading market share of femtocell units deployed and ABI Research ranks the company as the leading picocell supplier in the world.

“Service providers demand a comprehensive security solution in order to successfully deploy small cells. We have partnered with Acme Packet as they provide a leading solution – the secure, scalable and robust Net-Net Security Gateway – and relevant experience fulfilling stringent IP service delivery requirements,” said Dr. Andy Tiller, senior vice president of product strategy and marketing at ip.access.

The nano3G femtocell and picocell solution is optimized for residential, enterprise and public hotspot deployments, supporting open access, bi-directional handover with the macro network and active alarms. The Access Controller scales from a few hundred access points to mass market residential volumes. Plug-and-play customer installation and IP backhaul make nano3G a highly cost-effective solution for coverage and capacity challenges, while full 3GPP standards compliance provides flexibility and interoperability with third party components.