Managing director Ric Clark described the event as "a milestone in our research and development activity in Australia." Previously, Ericsson's R&D had been scattered around the suburbs, but the company's 500 engineers and scientists now occupy five floors of the Melbourne Central Tower.
AsiaPacificLab works on software and hardware projects.
Policy Deployment Manager (PDM) is a program that configures network hardware to provide virtual private networks and quality of service features. It is scalable to large networks, has a Web interface for ease of use, interfaces to customer care and billing systems (to easily accommodate customers who order additional bandwidth to support a videoconference, for example), and is aimed at the global market. Development of PDM is shared between the Melbourne team and another of similar size in Stockholm.
The crossbar telephone exchange adopted by the Post Master General (Telstra's forerunner) in 1959 was developed locally by Ericsson, and today AsiaPacificLabs is creating a new generation AXE digital exchange that has a higher capacity and a smaller footprint than its predecessor.
Automatic call distribution is another Ericsson Melbourne innovation, and the technology behind the 911 (emergency call) centre in Manhattan was developed here. Although the system was designed to handle 250 calls per second, it coped with over 400 calls per second on September 11, 2001.
Ericsson's X-Labs team is also part of the new centre. It is a focus for the company's efforts in ATM and IP protocol development and standardisation for 3G networks. It represents Ericsson on various bodies including the International Telecommunications Union, European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and Internet Engineering Task Force. Products developed in Australia will be part of all narrowband ATM and IP networks that use Ericsson equipment.
AsiaPacificLabs staff have been responsible for 37 of Ericsson's patents during the last five years.
The creation of AsiaPacificLab comes at a time when other Ericsson R&D centres in the US and Denmark are closing. A company official said the consolidation has resulted in a minor reduction in staff numbers in Melbourne, but that was mainly the result of cutting contractors and consultants.
Performing the official opening ceremony, John Brumby, Victorian Minister for State and Regional Development and newly appointed Minister for Innovation, described AsiaPacificLabs as " a much-valued and highly regarded member of Victoria's world-class ICT community" and "a reflection of this state's reputation."
-Ericsson's AsiaPacificLab is responsible for more than AU$90 million of ICT research and development, making it the number one centre in Australia," he explained.
