Unisphere Networks
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Networking hardware |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Defunct | 2002 |
| Fate | Acquired by Juniper Networks |
| Headquarters | Westford, Massachusetts , United States |
Area served | North America |
Key people | James Dolce (CEO from January 2000), Martin C. Clague (former CEO) |
| Products | Edge-routing/BRAS (ERX-series routers), voice mediation, core routing solutions |
| Owner | Siemens AG (parent until acquisition) |
| Parent | Siemens AG |
Unisphere Networks—initially known as Unisphere Solutions—was a manufacturer of networking hardware headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, operating as a subsidiary of the German conglomerate Siemens AG. Founded in 1998 with an investment near US$1 billion, the company was acquired by Juniper Networks in May 2002 for a sum ranging between $585 million and $740 million, which included $375 million in cash along with 36.5 million shares of Juniper stock.
Siemens leveraged Unisphere's proficiency in circuit-switched public-switched telephone networks (PSTNs) to gain entry into the North American packet-switched market. The firm was rebranded as Unisphere Networks toward the end of 2000 and concentrated on three principal sectors driving Internet expansion: edge-networking/Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS), voice mediation, and core routing.
Following the acquisition of Redstone Communications, its founder and CEO, James Dolce, joined Unisphere’s leadership team and subsequently succeeded Martin C. Clague as president and CEO in January 2000.
Acquisitions
Unisphere’s core divisions were created through the following acquisitions:
- Redstone Communications — This entity specialized in edge-routing and BRAS technologies. Its ERX-series routers (which later became Juniper’s E-series before reaching end-of-life) directly competed with Cisco’s 10000 and 7500 series as well as Redback Networks’ SMS platform. The ERX product line significantly motivated Juniper’s decision to acquire Unisphere.
- Argon Networks — Focused on developing core-routing solutions aimed at competing with Cisco’s GSR and Juniper’s M and T-series routers. This initiative was discontinued following Juniper’s takeover.
- Castle Networks — Concentrated on voice mediation technologies, particularly its trunking gateway widely adopted for internet offload and intelligent gateway functions. Castle was integrated into Siemens in May 2002.
Internal Siemens divisions
Two units within Siemens Information Communication Networks were merged into Unisphere Networks:
- The Internet Solutions Business Unit based in Boca Raton, Florida, engineered a softswitch utilizing Siemens' Reliable Telco Platform (RTP). This software operated on clustered Sun Solaris servers to provide carrier-grade "five-9s" uptime reliability. Despite deployment by multiple US carriers, voice mediation did not align with Juniper’s strategic priorities, leading to the technology being sold back to Siemens in June 2002.
- The Siemens Telecom Innovation Centre located in Ottawa, Ontario developed the SDX-3000 service and policy management systems, which were subsequently rebranded as the SRC product line under Juniper.
IPO
Although Unisphere had intended to pursue an initial public offering around 2002 despite the aftermath of the 2001 technology market downturn, these plans were halted due to Juniper's acquisition.
Legacy
As of November 2021, the only remaining products from this lineage still in production are Juniper's SRC series (formerly SDX-3000), Nokia's softswitch servers hiQ8000 and hiQ4200, and Unify's OpenScape portfolio (previously SRX-3000 and HiPath 8000). Support for Juniper’s ERX routers continued for approximately twelve years after acquisition, with end-of-life declared in 2014 and support concluding around 2019.