Starent Networks has landed a major contract with Verizon Wireless for its Packet Data Serving Node and home agent gear in Verizon's new 3G network as well as much of its current 1X footprint.

The deal represents a major win for Starent, which has been making inroads in the U.S. with deals with U.S. Cellular and Virgin Mobile. The Verizon win, however, represents its biggest domestic win to date, valued in the tens-of-millions dollar range, Starent officials said.

"It's a huge win for us," said Gennady Sirota, vice president of product management for Starent. "It shows the increasing interest in our next-generation technology--the need for a solution that doesn't just push packets."

Starent provided its ST16 Intelligent Mobile Gateway, which Verizon will use both as a PDSN and a home agent sitting behind PDSN in the network. The technology essentially digs into each packet in the network, adding service management, enhanced billing and prioritizing individual data sessions--allowing a normally indifferent packet network to advance a mere router. The PDSN element could, for instance, prioritize VoIP or live video traffic over other data, route enterprise traffic through an IP VPN, firewall traffic or initiate different billing rules for different types of traffic. Meanwhile, the home agent enables that same intelligence over roaming networks, providing Mobile IP. While other vendors have PDSN gear in the market, most of them are based off equipment from the wireline Internet, basically IP routers with some additional software, Sirota said.

Verizon will deploy multiple gateways across its EV-DO footprint as well as through most of its 1X data network. Verizon has committed to a $1 billion rollout of EV-DO, hitting the major markets first, adding smaller metro regions gradually. Verizon expects to have two-thirds of its customers covered with EV-DO by the end of the year.