Calix Adds Lawful Intercept to AXOS

Calix on Thursday added lawful intercept capability to its AXOS Subscriber Management module, its software-defined access system, in a step designed to improve operators' efficiency and costs.

Lawful intercept allows service providers to replicate data on their network to meet law enforcement warrant requests for access to information. These requests increased 11% over the past year and 72% over the last decade, according to a report by the US Courts, cited by Calix.

Since all service providers must abide by legal search warrants and give law enforcement access to specific network traffic data without making it obvious to the affected parties, it's critical for telcos to adhere to CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) without disrupting service. Non-compliance is expensive: Fines run up to $10,000 per day, Calix said.

Operators must mirror traffic into pre-established mediation frameworks using messaging sets ATIS defined to achieve CALEA compliance. This also must be verified, be transparent and not disrupt traffic.

To create CALEA compliance, Calix embedded this capability into the AXOS system's Subscriber Management module. This module also replaces the broadband network gateways and routing.

By moving this capability into the access network versus leaving data all across the network, providers can consolidate data -- including subscriber management, aggregation, optical line terminal (OLT) and lawful intercept functions -- into one network location, according to Calix. As a result, telcos can cut capital and operational costs required to be in compliance since they no longer have to scan the network to locate what law enforcement seeks or worry about outages.

"Armed with this feature, service provider compliance with lawful intercept becomes less burdensome not only to the service provider but also to subscribers who may have historically had service interrupted when implementing these orders," said Shane Eleniak, vice president, in a statement.

Lawful intercept is mandated for most service providers worldwide. With AXOS, Calix' E9-2 Intelligent Edge Systems is an enabled Intercept Access Point that interoperates with ATIS mediation devices that meet CALEA standards.

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— Alison Diana, Editor, UBB2020. Follow us on Twitter @UBB2020 or @alisoncdiana.