Fax2Email: BladeWare, SOAP, SMTP, and SNMP
Source code for BladeWare Fax
Media Server is delivered in the BladeWare FMS SDK. BladeWare FMS is a "dumb"
media server since it is driven by the application logic of an application
server via MSCML or MOML. It can be used "out of the box", or modified to suit
the OEM's proprietary requirements. But not every enterprise or hosted-communications
service provider uses this decomposed service-network architecture; some are
looking for an integrated system. If so, they too can now have access to a
rather comprehensive application that can be put to work as it's delivered by
Commetrex.
We are now developing a second comprehensive sample
application. BladeWare Fax-to-Email Server is being readied for shipment in May.
It directly receives incoming SIP-based fax calls, extracts the called number,
and uses it to query a database (the current version uses SOAP, but this can be
easily changed) to retrieve fax and e-mail options. If the database lookup
succeeds, the fax operation is completed and the result e-mailed to the
specified e-mail address using a built-in SMTP server. Fax2Email also maintains
call detail, SNMP, and Web-based management interfaces.
If you're interested in learning more, click here.
or contact Mike Coffee at mcoffee@commetrex.com or 770.449.7775 x 310
Commetrex Names Dr. Jian Liu to Engineering Management
Team
Dr. Jian Liu, a telecom-industry
veteran, has been named Director, Signal Processing Technology, in Commetrex'
product development organization. Liu will direct all of the Company's signal
processing development, but initially his focus will be on managing the
technology aspects of Commetrex' recently announced partnership with Paradyne,
and delivering its first product, the V.34 fax modem.
According to Commetrex' CTO, Cliff Schornak, "Liu's
extensive background adds critical technologies, such as network design and
security, cable systems, and video, to Commetrex' corporate resume that we need
to maintain our leadership as a technology vendor to the telecom OEM." The V.34
fax modem is based on Paradyne's proven V.34 data-modem technology. It will
expand Commetrex' portfolio of licensed technologies; we will also add it to the
MSP-H8 and MSP-320 PCI boards, and, of course, to BladeWare.
Liu, who holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from
Georgia Tech, has held assignments at Ericsson, Zendex Corporation (Dublin, CA),
and Acorn Networks (Reston, VA). He has published numerous articles on subjects
such as self-similarity (a property of fractals) in network-traffic modeling,
the effects of KAZAA and game traffic in networks, and video-encoding
performance.
"I am joining Commetrex at a crucial time in the Company's
development and my career," Liu stated. "Having recently completed my studies,
I looked for an opportunity where my extensive industry experience and education
can make a major contribution to the growth of a very high-tech company like
Commetrex. Commetrex is exactly the kind of company I hoped I would be able to
join."
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There's Media Servers and Then There's Media Servers
In the late '90's companies such
as Cognitronics, Convendia, and IP Unity helped define a new service-network
element, the media server. Their servers use high-performance DSPs that support
voice-processing applications such as messaging, IVR, audio conferencing, and IP-PBX.
Today, those products are widely deployed in IP service networks. There are
also several of unified-messaging vendors that have developed host-based IP
media servers. But are they comparable to the DSP-based products? The original
media servers can process a call's media stream using those DSPs. Can these UM
systems do that?
Well...not really.
The media servers developed in house by UM vendors
generally do not perform signal processing. Yes, they can save an RTP stream to
disk, but for in-band signaling, they are limited to the functions made possible
by RFC 2833. RFC 2833 specifies RTP payloads for DTMF and general telephony
tones and signals, such as the FSK tones used by caller ID modems. So, if the
gateway with which the media server communicates implements RFC 2833, and if the
signals supported are all that is required by the application, then the non-signal-processing
media server can avoid the expense of signal-processing technologies and the
system-framework necessary to support them.
As long as all the system must do is answer calls and
record and play messages, this is fine. But the system will be unable to
transcode the call's media stream to, for example, change it from G.729a/b to G.711.
Nor will it be able to discriminate between a voice, fax, or data call, or
perform the much more demanding task of implementing G.711 pass-through or T.38
fax terminations.
Both are media servers. Only one actually does signal
processing. To learn about a media-server framework that supports signal
processing, click here.
Please contact Cliff Schornak at cschornak@commetrex.com
or 770-449-7775 X 330 if you'd like to learn more.
Very Disruptive Technology
There are companies that offer
geographically broad fax-broadcast services and some that offer UM services that
support fax, but what is the infrastructure that they have built up over the
years? Just what would it take to compete with these incumbents? What does it
take in terms of investment and infrastructure to deploy a geographically broad
voice or fax service?
The companies that offer nationwide (or Euro-wide) fax
broadcast services share a fundamentally common architecture. They use a store-and-forward
transport between their headquarters location and points-of-presence (POPs),
which are strategically located throughout the service area. The POPs are
usually servers comprised of, for example, multi-line fax boards, which
terminate (send-receive) the faxes. The fax-image file is then transported over
a private network or VPN to the central server, where it is either forwarded to
the destination fax terminal or the subscriber is notified of a received fax.
Terminal-to-terminal communications are non-real-time.
So what does this cost? That depends on the equipment
vendors selected, but $50-100,000 per POP is probably a reasonable budget.
There are 61 tier 1-2 metropolitan areas in North America, giving an overall
budget of $3-6-million for just the POPs.
But that infrastructure-heavy architecture evolved prior
to IP telephony and IP carriers that are dedicated to making it easier to deploy
value-adding services. It was also before Commetrex' BladeWare, which allows
real-time faxes to be transported from IP-PSTN gateways in those 61 MSAs to the
central server, and all without telephony-specific hardware.
This makes the $3-6M go away.
Interested?
Inquires please contact Mike Coffee at mcoffee@commetrex.com
or 770.449.7775 X 310.
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