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Vendors are prone to discussing wireless/wireline convergence in sweeping terms. The nit-picky details of how those two disparate networks will merge are often absent from the sales pitch, though.

That's likely to change this year at Supercomm. This will be the year that IMS comes to the forefront, and every vendor will feel the pressure of presenting a portfolio of specific products to show just how they can pull off that convergence magic trick. The problem is that a lot of those products don't quite exist yet. We've seen a lot of SIP application servers and gateways, a lot of home subscriber servers and call session control functions, but relatively little of the key products that will essentially function as the universal adapter between networks.

Vendors are likely to fill that dearth in two weeks, and one small vendor plans to make its mark at the show with just such a product. Bay Packets told Telephony it plans to unveil at Supercomm a new gateway that bridges wireline and wireless networks, and any other network for that matter. Bay Packets is positioning the new gateway, based on Parlay Working Group standards, as a universal translator, taking in any networking protocol--whether SIP, ISC, AIN or CAMEL--and pumping out whatever protocol is required by the network at the other end.

The benefits are not in the link established between two previously self-contained networks, but in the ability to distribute applications between the two networks, said Sanjeev Chawla, Bay Packets' chief technology officer. The Parlay standard was established to allow carriers to host third-party applications on their networks, and the Parlay gateway, by basically treating everything as a third party, is extending the functionality of one network to the next.

Chawla said the gateway is the result of several years of developing and testing the core technology with its vendor partners and several carriers, including a single-number wireless/wireline trial it conducted with Verizon Avenue. While most of Bay Packets' work has been with wireline carriers, and not with the wireless operators that are purportedly the biggest market for IMS, that experience is pointing in the vendor's favor, Chawla said.

"Vendors have placed a lot of attention on the wireless side of the house, but they haven't put much effort into the integration side," Chawla said. "We've been putting in the effort."

In any case, it's definitely a good start. Bay Packets won't, by any means, be the only vendor pushing convergence with a big "C" at Supercomm, but it may be the only vendor producing that magic convergence box.

Contact me at kfitchard@primediabusiness.com.