computer science

Ribbon Communications

Ribbon Communications is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ribbon Communications rather than just read about it. In short: Ribbon Communications Inc. is a public company that makes software, IP and optical networking solutions for service providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure sectors. The company was formed in 2017, following the merger of Genband and Sonus Networks and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

Key takeaways

Ribbon Communications belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ribbon Communications to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ribbon Communications from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ribbon Communications Inc. is a public company that makes software, IP and optical networking solutions for service providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure sectors. The company was formed in 2017, following the merger of Genband and Sonus Networks and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

History Ribbon Communications was the combination of two companies, each of which had acquired other businesses over their history.

Ribbon Communications Ribbon Communications was founded in October 2017, following the merger of Genband and Sonus Networks in May. Ray Dolan initially headed the combined company, while Walsh led the Kandy business unit. By December, Dolan, who had led Sonus since 2010, resigned. Franklin (Fritz) W. Hobbs was appointed as president and CEO of the combined organization and served in that role until November 2019. In January 2018, the company announced that its session border controllers would be used in the virtual network services of Verizon. In 2018 Ribbon also acquired Edgewater Networks. In November 2019, Ribbon announced it would acquire ECI Telecom from Shaul Shani for $486 million in cash and stock. The company completed the merger in March 2020. In February 2020, Bruce McClelland was named president, CEO and director. A year later, Ribbon moved its headquarters to Plano, Texas. In August 2020, AVCTechnologies announced an agreement to buy Kandy Communications Business.

Genband General Bandwidth was founded in 1999 by Paul Carew, Brendon Mills, Ron Lutz and Steve Raich in Austin, Texas, and received initial venture capital funding of $12 million. The company raised over $200 million in four rounds of venture funding and grew to over 200 people by 2003. In 2004, Mills resigned and was replaced as CEO by Charles Vogt. In March 2006, General Bandwidth changed its name to Genband, Inc. and moved its headquarters to Plano, Texas. Genband started as a media gateway vendor selling the G6 media gateway, but eventually branched out to IP switching, IP applications, IP Multimedia Subsystem and session border controllers. In August 2006, Genband acquired Syndeo and Baypackets (headquartered in Fremont, California, with employees mostly in India). In October 2006, it acquired the digital central office products known as Siemens DCO. In 2007, Genband acquired Tekelec's switching group, which expanded product offerings in application software and SIP trunking gateways. In 2008, the company acquired Nokia Siemens Networks’ Surpass HiG media gateway product portfolio, including fixed-line trunking media gateways. The company concluded 2008 with the acquisition of NextPoint Networks, which included session border controller (SBCs) and security gateway offerings. In May 2010, Genband purchased Nortel Networks' carrier VoIP and application business for an estimated net $182 million after Nortel became bankrupt. Existing shareholder One Equity Partners assisted in financing. In June 2010, Genband was re-incorporated as Genband, Inc, and disclosed an equity investment from executives and board members of about $4 million. In December 2010, it moved its headquarters to Frisco, Texas, keeping its Plano campus as a design center. Both are near Dallas, Texas. In January 2011, Genband acquired Cedar Point Communications in Derry, New Hampshire. In 2012, Genband acquired Aztek Networks, a switch maker specializing in hardware that allows for a smoother transition from legacy to IP networks. Genband was named the top-ventured capital backed company by the Wall Street Journal out of nearly 6,000 companies that were considered. On February 12, 2013, Genband announced the launch of the NUViA Cloud offering which was their entry into the SaaS market. The NUViA Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) offering included HD voice, video, multimedia messaging, mobility, conferencing, Web collaboration, desktop clients, and fixed and mobile convergence hosted from datacenters run by the company around the globe. Also in 2013, Genband acquired Fringland Ltd., provider of the Fring! app, an over-the-top (OTT) mobile IP communications service provider. Two years later, it announced the Fring Alliance, a community promoting communications service providers to provide instant messaging, voice and video services to their subscribers. Charles Vogt left Genband in 2013 and David Walsh added the CEO position to his other already held title of chairman. In 2014, Genband acquired uReach Technologies, a provider of unified communications and messaging, and introduced unified communications products and services for business customers. In September 2014, Genband announced Kandy.io, cloud-based, real-time software support communications marketed as platform as a service (PaaS). In May 2015, Genband was named in CNBC's "disruptor" list. In 2016, it was involved in a patent dispute with Metaswitch. In September 2016, pre-packaged software using the Kandy technology were announced, called "Kandy wrappers".

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ribbon Communications

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ribbon Communications claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ribbon Communications before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ribbon Communications ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ribbon Communications

In research: Ribbon Communications appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ribbon Communications in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ribbon Communications is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies based in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Computer companies of the United States, Computer hardware companies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ribbon Communications outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Ribbon Communications in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ribbon Communications means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ribbon Communications out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ribbon Communications in simple terms?

Why does Ribbon Communications matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ribbon Communications?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ribbon Communications.