This last few months we've started to see growing opportunities with SIP Trunking partners, helping them with media gateways to connect their services with end-customers that want to retain their legacy TDM PBXs.  



There are a number of reasons for this interest:

Cost Reduction - SIP Trunking allows SMBs to reduce their local and long distance charges and eliminate the need for separate T1 telephone circuits.  With SIP Trunking, all their voice and data traffic share the same physical last mile connection.

Saving the PBX - The vast majority of today's installed base is still using TDM PBXs.  Many SMBs and enterprises upgraded their TDM PBXs back in 1999, preparing for Y2k.  Many of these are still working perfectly and have years of useful life remaining.  Why toss out a perfectly good business tool, especially with the current economic situation?

Simplying The Process - instead of trying to decide on a complete communications infrastructure upgrade and try decide on a new IP-PBX, just upgrade the part they need now (cost savings).  The typical IP-PBX decision process takes close to a year, issuing RFIs, evaluations, getting buy in from all the departments.   Start saving money now!

Security - until all the issues with SIP security are fully addressed, this architecture is the most secure means to keep hackers out of your network.

Right Place at the Right Time - To date, most of the noise at the industry trade shows has been about SIP Trunking with IP-PBX, which fills the rooms and creates buzz.  However, what about the millions of TDM PBXs out there?  It seems to me that this is the bigger market that can be addressed now.

Stay tuned as this discussion continues....

As part of our continuing series on applications based on SIP, I've pulled together Mike Wilkinson of Broadsoft and Scott Firth of IBM to discuss the challenges and solutions that small communications operators can leverage SIP and VoIP to expand their business.   The objective of the event is to educate the smaller and rural telecos, internet service providers, cable companies on the opportunities and solutions available to add voice to their existing IP networks.

The story behind the story starts on my front lawn with the owner of a local fixed wireless ISP we have here in western NY.  His network uses fixed wireless repeaters around northern Allegany County, NY to service hundreds of homes, farms and businesses with broadband that the local ILEC won't service with DSL or other wired broadband technologies.  He was describing his challenges with building out the network and desire to add services to increase revenue.   The rest of the story will be covered in today's event.

Small Operator - Are you being left behind?

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT

Small and mid-tier operators of cable systems, rural telcos, internet service providers, and regional wireless providers are constantly challenged with ways to improve customer retention and increase revenue.

VoIP and other bundled offerings are widely recognized as a means to achieve these goals. Market analyst AMI Partners Inc. agrees, noting in a forecast that SMB hosted VoIP spending will surpass $1.56 billion by 2010. However, the cost, technical complexity and financial risks involved with building a VoIP solution from scratch have been outside the means of many operators and as a result, kept them on the sidelines.

This situation has allowed the unbundled VoIP operators to draw away customers and revenue while draining resources from the operator's network.

The event will be available for on-demand view, just follow the same link to access.

This week here at AudioCodes has been very busy.  You may have seen the post on Monday, announcing our HD VoIP strategy  which will dramatically improve the clarity and quality of voice communications.

Yesterday, we announced our new line of IP Phones, all of which will support HD VoIP.  As far as I can tell, we will be the only manufacturer that will have a 100% HD VoIP capable phones (even the low-cost entry model).

The market analysts seem to agree:

The phones will include many important features for a range of applications, including: The products will be available for testing and evaluation beginning in February 2009.

To more information on the devices or HD VoIP, click here

Okay, it's the 21st century and there are many new innovations and technologies that make our lives a whole lot easier, efficient or entertaining.  Think back about life before cell phones.  Remember pagers and calling cards?  How about the changes in TV?  With super clear picture and surround sound, HD TV makes you feel like you are at the game.  Things sure have changed for the better over the last twenty years.

Well, with one big exception - the voice quality on your telephone.

You see, the current Public Switch Telephone Network is built on technology invented in the late 50's based on digital sampling of your voice using Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) sampling.  Back then, it was groundbreaking improvement in reliability and clarity.  But to use the infrastructure and cabling efficiently, they had to make some choices about how much of your voice to collect and transmit.  The choice was a cost/benefit decision that came up with a 3.4 kHz bandwidth that created a "sound barrier", limiting the fidelity of your voice ever since then.  

Why is this important?  The 3.4 kHz bandwidth limitation in the PSTN is universal, allowing carriers to interoperate and pass voice from one to another.  It's also the ultimate commodity  - "one size fits all" in communications.  No matter whether you use one of the Bell companies or a smaller competitive carrier, everything sounds the same.  The result?  Price wars and customer churn to chase the ever cheaper commodity service.

At least until now.

With VoIP and SIP working together, we finally have the tools at our disposal to dramatically improve the quality of voice communications and break through the "sound barrier" with VoIP that uses higher sampling rates and new voice coding algorithms.

We here at AudioCodes are quite pleased to announce our HD VoIP strategy that we feel will play a critical role in migrating both the wireline and wireless communications infrastructure away from the limitations of the PSTN and into the future of High Definition Voice over IP (HD VoIP).  HD VoIP will allow carriers to differentiate their services with much higher quality voice calls and create affinity amongth their customer base.  Enterprises will be able to improve efficiency and reinforce their branding with high-fidelity customer contact.

Want to learn more?  See our dedicated landing page at:  www.audiocodes.com/hdvoip

Or attend the live webinar that I am hosting on Tuesday, November 18th at 2:00 PM EST.  Click here to visit the Webinar Registration Page

Okay, it has been a few weeks since the last post on my FiOS installation and I promised you a review of the newly activated television capabilities.

Installation
FiOS TV is installed pretty much like any other cable TV with one big exception - Fiberoptics cable from the central office to the Optical Network Terminator (ONT) in my basement.  From there, it is standard RJ-6 cable-TV coax cable to each of the Motorola Set Top Boxes (STBs).  The data traffic from the STBs goes over the same coax, avoiding a separate Ethernet and/or phone line run to each box (which was required for DirecTV). The installer was able to re-use the existing wiring in my house, which dramatically simplified installation.   Score: A+

Channel Selection
The channel selection on FiOS TV is actually pretty good, with a wide array of the normal cable channels and all our local channels.  The SD and HD versions of the channels are both available, but at different channel numbers (add 500 for the HD version, which is a little annoying)  Score: A

Picture Quality
The picture so far has been good (HD channels are awesome), but not perfect - we occasionally get drop-outs and pixelization. It won't be affected by rain/snow, so that's better than the DirecTV, but the picture quality is about the same. It's way better than my neighbor's Time Warner cable.  Score: B+

Set Top Box (non-DVR)
I have two Standard Definition TVs in the house that have the basic non-DVR STB.  Seems to work as you would expect, and there are a few cool "widgets" like real-time weather and some games that can be played on the TV.  Score: A

Remote Control
First the good - it comes with a remote.  Otherwise, whoever designed this remote, must have never actually used it.  There are some real bone-head button positioning and/or missing buttons.  Example: want to go to a specific channel to a one-digit channel? You punch in the number, then look around for an enter or okay button - oh there it is, in the middle of the four way direction buttons.    Dumb.  Watching a movie and start fast forward past the commercials, then hit play, oops the DVR button is right next to Play and guess what happens?  It kicks you out of the movie and to the DVR menu!  It does have one power button that can control both the STB, receiver and TV, but it has only one button for both on and off.  If one of the devices missed the IR command, everything gets messed up and you have to either get out of your chair and push the power button on the device that missed the command or go through a series of selecting that device and hitting the power button again to get it back in sync.  Try explaining that to your wife!  It seems like the remote was designed for the SD STB without a DVR, then they added some buttons for the DVR, but didn't really think it through very well.  Someone at Motorola needs to toss this design in the trash and start over.  Score: F

Pay-per-View / On Demand View
We've watched a number of either PPV or OD programs and the selection is a nice addition to the stuff that we normally would record on the DVR.  The nicest part of the OD programming is when you want to go back to an old episode of a show or forget to record it.  Some of the PPV and OD is HD too, but only a small sub-set.  The menus to find programs and search is are pretty confusing - so much that my wife has not yet figured it out.  Score: B+


DVR
This is where the wheels come off Verizon FiOS TV.  (I had really high hopes too)  Let's just put it this way: it's a good thing the DVR service is free the first year, otherwise this would be back in a box back on the way to Verizon.  The Motorola HD DVR QIP 7216 is so full of bugs and other odd issues that is borders on fraud by asking someone to pay for this.  I noted in the last posting about how the optical audio output doesn't come on until you go to a menu to activate it (after every power-on), but the bugs continue and they are far worse.  It records programs that it can't playback.  It gets confused about the live TV feed and DVR playback.  It gets stuck and requires a power cycle to regain control.   It Crashes.  You name it and it does it (or doesn't do it).  It's not just me either - after talking to some neighbors, they are all suffering the same issues. Score: F-

Value
Ignoring the above just for a second - I can see how Verizon FiOS Triple Bundle could be a reasonable value.  Internet, phone and TV at one reasonable price.  But the DVR issues kill it.  Also - FiOS suffers from what I call "bundle shock" - when you combine all three things on one bill, the total cost really shocks you.  "I pay that much for communications?!?"  (By the way, It's still cheaper to use Vonage for your phone.)  Score: B

What's Next
I've heard that you can use an HD Tivo with FiOS and I'm researching what I need to order to give that a try.  Initial searching found that I can order CableCards from Verizon and plug them into the back of a HD TiVo.  I just need to figure out how to order both parts (and get permission from my wife to buy the Tivos.)

Final Thoughts on FiOS Triple Bundle
The Internet is awesome - really fast and a good value.  The phone service is still kind of pricey, but it sounds and works great - I just wish it had the on-line control that our Vonage service has (and comparable pricing).  The TV service is okay if you don't want a DVR - otherwise it's a let-down.  
Final Score: C

Once I get the TiVo installed and working, I'll post another report.  Until then, I have an adapation of a ZZTop "MTV" song stuck in my head:  "I want my, I want my DirecTV"

Okay, time to update you on how my migration over to Verizon Fios has gone so far.

Just a little background on the situation here: I work primarily from my home office in Orchard Park, NY in a neighborhood that was built in the mid-70's (pre cable and definitely pre- fiber-to-the-home aka FTTH).  When moving in seven years ago, I had then-Adelphia cable broadband, Verizon wireline phone and DirecTV for television.  A bit of a mish-mash of disconnected parts, but it worked (most of the time).  
So, when the Verizon trucks rolled through town this winter and installed the conduit and fiber infrastructure for Fios, I was literally first on the block to sign-up.

Installation started with broadband internet and two phone lines.  This went pretty smooth with mounting the Optical Network Termination (ONT) in the basement and a WiFi-enabled router.  Cut-over to the new 20Mbps broadband was literally as easy as moving an RJ-45 plug from one router to the other.  Frankly the hardest part was untangling all the old wires and moving them to the new router!  After a reboot of the computers in the house and the Vonage gateway, everything was back up and running.

Getting the phone lines configured correctly took a couple calls to Verizon.  I have my office line forward to my cell phone after three rings or if I'm on the phone and it took a couple support reps to understand how to configure the new switch correctly.  End result after one day - faster internet, no more noise on the phone lines and everything is working perfect. 

It took a couple calls to get the guys to come back and bury the fiber-optic cable that laid across my lawn.   Frankly, it was a race between my 13 year-old son that mows our lawn and the Verizon crew.  Was my son going to mow over the cable and cut it to shreds or was Verizon going to bury it first?  Fortunately, Verizon won.

Remember that I was on DirecTV?  I loved the service and the new HD DVR, but we were averaging $85/month and still suffering from weather-related outages.  So when I caught wind that the town of Orchard Park finally signed the franchise agreement with Verizon to allow them to offer FiosTV, guess who called Verizon the same day to order Fios TV service?  Me.

Installation day for the TV started with a really nice technician surveying the coax TV cabling that already ran through my house and making a few quick additions for Fios.  He was able to add a splitter next to the entry point where the four DirecTV cables came from the dish outside and headed out to the three different rooms where we had TVs.  All the old DirecTV set top boxes were pulled out and set aside with new Motorola devices going in their place.  Lots of cables for our HD TV and audio system in the family room - component video, optical audio (5.1) connects between the DVR and my audio receiver. One surprising connection was between the TV cable and a coax jack on the back of the router - I later found out that the STBs use this to access the program guide information and relay purchases back to Verizon.  End of this day - and the TVs all worked and I was ready to figure out the new Motorola set top boxes and DVR features.

Now things get interesting.....

Later that same evening, I turn on the TV, DVR and audio system to find a great picture, but no sound.  Okay, what changed?  Cables are all okay and my receiver is showing the optical input is active, but still no sound!?!  Go to the DVR and start digging through menus - settings - sound - all of a sudden the sound comes back.  But I didn't change anything!?!  Weird.  Next time the DVR gets turned on, same result.  Okay this is screwy.  After doing some trial and error, I find out that upon power-up, the DVR doesn't activate the optical output for sound, you need to go to the menu each time to activate it.  Bug!  Unplug the optical cable on the audio system and live with just stereo sound for now.

Next day - the STB in the basement shows all dashes on the screen and no picture.  Now what?  Unplug, reboot, call Verizon and they send out a technician.  Remember that splitter in the basement?  One of the ports died.  It took him most of an hour to find a .99 broken splitter.

So at this point, I've had three separate visits from Verizon techs and finally have almost everything working, but still learning the ins and outs of the new DVR and STBs.  More on this in the next posting.....

I'm here at Astricon in sunny Glendale, AZ with the diverse Asterisk community talking about using SIP to improve the reliability and scalability of Asterisk.  

We had a full room this morning during our session sponsored by both ScanSource and AudioCodes, discussing different architecture tricks to improve reliability of Asterisk solutions and spread out the risk with the goal of avoiding a "career affecting" event.

A quick summary of our recommendations: We had a number of interesting questions about how Asterisk handles routing the RTP streams around the application server, enabling mid-call fail-over in the case of an Asterisk crash.

For more details and/or a copy of the presentation, visit the AudioCodes micro-site on the ScanSource web site at: www.scansourcecommunications.com/audiocodes

An interesting article in today's USAToday about FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's efforts to expand access to the Internet to more Americans.  If you've been following along, you know that I've been writing and talking about the importance of Universal Broadband for the health and wealth of all Americans.

Many that live in urban and suburban America don't realize this, but once you leave most metro areas, broadband access to the Internet is very difficult to get and very expensive.  I know this first hand because I've been trying for years to get broadband access to a summer cottage that our extended family shares.  We can get phone service, but for broadband we have only one option - Satellite - and frankly, that's not a good option due to the 3 second latency.

When I spend time with other year-round residents in the neighborhood, I'm amazed at the difficulty they have in doing what we consider every-day activities.  This effects not just the entertainment part of the Internet, but real business too.  Weather forecasts for farmers, tax information and filing, educational materials are all very difficult (if not impossible) to accomplish with dial-up Internet access.

However, I do struggle with the "free wireless" idea that FCC Chairman Martin is pushing in his interview.  Nothing is ever free and the complexity of installation and operation of a wireless network needs to be professionally managed and supported (partially) by those using it.  

I'd rather see an approach that provides incentives for the existing wire line and wireless operators to expand their infrastructure and coverage to Universal Broadband.  

Universal Broadband is actually very good for our industry as it will speed up the transition of all telephony over to VoIP, increase demand for ATAs and core network media gateways, softswitches and other supporting systems.

Frankly, we just need the leadership - I hope that FCC Chairman Martin can find the common ground to get the operators to support the concept of Universal Broadband without starting a fight over "free wireless".

 

Thanks everyone that joined us during the webinars he hosted during this last two weeks. Your participation and questions made the sessions a learning experience all around.

If you missed one of the webinars, you can View a Recording.

Some of the Q/A from the sessions:

Q: What about CIC or Vonexus as 3rd party IP-PBX hosted application?
A: The Mediant 1000 is fully certified with Interactive Intelligence CIC and Vonexus.  We've also tested the Interactive Intelligence Proxy server on the OSN processor, but the full CIC or Vonexus application is too big for the OSN server.

Q: What type of management does this unit have?
A: The Mediant 1000 (like almost all AudioCodes products) is managed via a web user interface, SNMP, a CLI or our Element Management System.

 

Q: Can you tell me the max # IP to IP calls you can support at one time? Same question, this time with security? SRTP?
A: The current 5.4 version of firmware supports 60 simultanious IP to IP calls, with or without security and SRTP.

Q: I am hoping this is not premature, but I notice when referring to analog lines, we only discuss outgoing.  How configurable is this unit to recieve analog calls and have them routed through SIP?
A: Our gateways support pretty sophisticated inbound routing, using an embedded proxy that allows for a number of routing rules. 

Q: What and how many physical interfaces does the product offer
A: The Mediant 1000 supports T1/E1, BRI, FXO and FXS telephony interfaces.  On the WAN side, the product offers Gigabit Ethernet today and we have xDSL and POS on the roadmap.

Q: What are the capacities of this box as far as phone and or IP users? What types of IP phones will be supported?
A: We've been certified with a long list of different phones.  Cisco, Polycom, Snom, Grandstream...

Q: Will the MSBG be supporting PoE?
A: No - we looked at Power over Ethernet and decided that most applications would need an external switch with a large number of ports for IP-PBX applications and thus that switch would most likely provide the POE.

Q: do you plan to support H.323 to SIP interworking on the MSBG?
A: Yes, one of the IP-to-IP mediation modes allows H.323 to SIP conversion.

Q: Is Mediant gateway OCS compatible out of the box, or some special firmware is required?
A: Yes, the Mediant 1000 and 2000 are both OCS certified.

Q: any plans for a T1wan interface?
A: Yes, the timing is TBD.

Q: Is it going to have DHCP capabilities?
A: Yes, the Mediant supports DHCP client and the router feature will support DHCP server features.

Q: How many LAN ports will it be able to handle for LAN Users?
A: The base CPU module on the Mediant 1000 MSBG will support three LAN ports and an optional module will add four more ports.

Q: Will the unit support transcoding?
A: Yes, the current 5.4 software in the Mediant 1000 supports transcoding between a wide range of voice coders.

Q: Do you see this as a competing product with Cisco's Unified Communications Manager Express solution?
A: This is a platform that a customer/partner can use to build a direct competitor to CME, but by itself, it is not.

Q: Please explain specifically remote surviveablility
A: Remote survivability is accomplished using our SAS feature, which uses an internal proxy to capture the on-premise phone device registrations and forwards all call control messages when the WAN is up.  If the WAN fails, the proxy goes into "emergency mode" and takes over, allowing phone to phone and PSTN calling.

Q: How many SAS users will it be able to handle?
A: Up to 100 phones in the current release.

Q: Are there any plans from upgrading OSN to more powerfull machine?
A: Yes, we have a faster/more powerful CPU in the works, but it's too early to provide specifics.

Q: What is an internal storage capacity?
A: The OSN has up to 1 Gbyte of RAM and 80 Gbytes of HDD.

Q: Are there plans to bring out msbg versions of the mediant 600 or mediant 2000 platforms?
A: No, not at this time.

Q:  Any plan to have integrated Proxy/Registrar or it should be deployed on OSN (or externally of course)?
A: As noted, there is a embedded Proxy within the unit today, but there are customers that would prefer to use their own (Asterisk) and many use the OSN server to host their proxy. 

Q: can the OSN ordered with Windows or a flavor of Linux pre-installed?
A: Yes, it can be ordered with just the OS or a complete customer-supplied image pre-installed on the HDD.

Today the covers came off our new Multi-Service Business Gateway (MSBG) product and our roadmap to connecting SIP Service Providers and SIP Enterprises together.

What is an MSBG you ask?  A multi-service business gateway is the union of five distinct functions that to date required separate boxes.  Network Access, Routing, Session Border Controller, VoIP Gateway and Application Server all in one device.

Why one device?  Today service providers and large enterprises need these separate functions, but stacking a number of boxes from different vendors has some real problems.  The most significant problem is defining the point of demarcation - where does the service provider's responsibility end and the customer's responsibility begin?  Installation, wiring and management are a real headache too.  Each new wire is another place for a loose connection, accidental unplug or a broken cable. 

What are the applications?  Service providers and large distributed enterprises would benefit the most from this new product. 

How do I learn more?  We've put together a number of resources to help educate our readers about this new platform:

Web landing page:  www.audiocodes.com/MSBG 
Press Release can be found here.
We are also hosting a webinar June 4th that you can click here to register.
We're also going to have the product at the following trade shows this next month:

NXTCOMM, 16-19 June 2008 at the Walker and Associates Booth #SU10416 and the NEI Booth #SL3924
INFOCOMM, 18-20 June 2008 at the ScanSource Communications Booth #N5963
CommunicAsia, 17-20 June, 2008 Booth#4G4-07

I'd love to have you participate in either one of the webinars or events to learn more about this exciting new development.

What others are saying about the AudioCodes Mediant 1000 MSBG:

Thanks to all of you that participated in last week's webinar on SIP Survivability and Security, especially those that posed some great questions.

For those of you that missed the live event, you can find a link to the recording at:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/sip-invite/sip/sip-survivability-and-security-recording-is-now-available.asp

As promised, find below the Q & A that we were unable to address during the live event:

Thanks everyone that registered and attended Wednesday's webinar on SIP Survivability and Security.  We had a great turn out and appreciate your attendance.

My apologies again for the technical difficulties at the start - Stephanie (our host) was unable to connect to the VoIP conference and it knocked us out of sync.

Anyhow, for those that missed the live event, you can find the recording at:

https://audiocodes-training.webex.com/audiocodes-training/k2/e.php?AT=RINF&recordingID=5140602

Also, I'm still working with our Product Management team to research a few of the technical questions that were posed and should have answers by Monday.

 

I've been holding my tongue on this topic for since word first got out that PulverMedia had been shut down by it's investors.  I figured that like most rumors, they were only partially true.  In this case, it seems they were true.  The resumes are rolling into our marketing department - confirming what was reported.

Somehow the end of VON has hit me in a way I didn't expect.  Besides missing my annual treks to San Jose in the early Spring and Boston in the Fall, there is a community of people that I knew would always be there.  Knowing that we had a place where we could meet with our mid-tier customers was important.  It saved lots of travel to far flung locations and endless nights in another Marriott Courtyard.

This marks the end of one era and invariably the start of another.  Like after the end of  CTExpo in 2002, we'll surely all scatter our marketing budgets into new venues and locations, but invariably some people never resurface.  

Remember the special collection of Jeff's groupies with the Hawaiian Shirts and the industry captains dancing by themselves at the conference parties?  Sure, VoiceCon, Internet Telephony and other venues will fill the business void, but those truly unique "VONisms" will be the part that I'll miss the most.  

PS: I've got a closet full of VONware (shirts, bags, jackets, etc.) that just became collectors items.

 In all my travels and discussions with both Enterprise and Service Provider customers, one topic of discussion that gets far more attention than all the others is SIP Survivability and Security.  It seems that all the benefits of SIP have opened up many new applications and network configurations that solve service and scalability barriers.  However, now that SIP has entered the real world, there are some serious challenges that remain....

I'd like to invite you to a discussion on these challenges and share with you some interesting solutions.

Join me Wednesday, May 7th at 2 PM EDT for 

"SIP Survivability and Security"

Abstract:
With the increasing adoption of SIP in the enterprise and service providers, many network designers have been engineering solutions around SIP, leveraging the flexibility and modularity advantages. However, those same designers also have concerns about survivability and security. How do SIP solutions deal with equipment and network failures? Can SIP solutions be made as reliable at the traditional TDM equipment? What security and survivability issues exist and how will they be addressed? By participating in this session, you will learn how these and many other aspects of SIP are being addressed.

Click here to register: 
https://audiocodes-training.webex.com/audiocodes-training/k2/j.php?ED=97767197&UID=17729992&FM=1

    

I'm feeling guilty - it has been weeks since my last posting to the "The SIP Invite".  This spring has been a particularly busy time of the year for me and unfortunately, blogging took the hit when allocating time/resources.

With that, I'm making a promise to get regular weekly messages on this blog, keeping you informed of new developments in SIP and the market.

Staying in touch.....