Hoping to cash in on the rush to triple play, and specifically IPTV services, ECI Telecom today launched a new version of its ShadeTree Management Suite that lets carriers deploy residential and business broadband with minimal operational overhead.

In version 3.2 of the platform, ShadeTree MS is being transformed to handle the management of dynamic residential services such as video. Within that environment, policy management server must be able to support subscriber self-management.

“The old static provisioned stuff like frame is starting to slow down and we’re starting to see a much greater focus on the residential market,” said Scott Jeschonek, senior product manager of ECI’s data networking division.

At the same time, the new policy management servers must be able to support Layer 2 and 3 VPNs for the business environment. For residential users, however, policy management typically has been handled deeper in the network.

“We think the time has finally arrived where there’s a practical reason to do some policy management at the subscriber edge,” Jeschonek said.

In the new ShadeTree, service are consolidated across the broadband platform and the Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) system. Among the modules that come with the new platform are ShadeTree MS Server, VPN Provisioner, Service Creator, and Subscriber Manager.

One of the goals of the new platform also is to make service provisioning much easier, Jeschonek said.

“A service to the operators is more than likely going to be a set of attributes in the AAA server,” he said. “The one thing we get a feeling about is operators want to experiment with services. They can go through our user interface and they can actually post the service. It could almost be a [graphical user interface] exercise for them to come up with a new service and deploy it.”