"Happy Holidays", from Commetrex.
As we reach the end of another year, we pause to say "Thank You" for your friendship. The Commetrex Family wishes you health, happiness, good cheer, and business success during the coming year.
T.38 Gains Traction
Nearly every new IP endpoint and gateway being developed includes T.38. Why? Because T.38 delivers error-free faxes over the public Internet. Recently, we sent a 1000-page fax to Australia without a single error. You can't do that with a PSTN fax, so what gives?
T.38 limits the analog transmission to a local call when using PSTN-IP gateways. If an on-premises endpoint is one of the correspondent gateways, this can be a four-foot wire. If Commetrex' TerminatingT38™ is used, it's a zero-foot wire. So T.38 can give you an all-digital data-mode route, hence, no errors. But that's not all.
Even if a network never drops a packet and the jitter falls within the span of the jitter buffer, a G.711-pass-through fax will eventually fail if it is long enough. That's because the PCM clocks at each PSTN, or analog, connection are never equal. The faster one will eventually cause the slower end's jitter buffer to overrun; the slower will cause an underrun. To make matters worse, some gateways leave adaptive jitter-buffer management enabled, even during fax calls. This will usually cause the modem to retrain or drop the connection when the buffer shrinks or contracts since packets are either tossed or added. Not good.
Then there's bandwidth reduction. G.711 modem pass-through requires a 64-K channel in each direction to transport the voice-band data. But T.38 sends the demodulated data across the IP network (data-mode transport). That means only 15K half-duplex.a long way from 128K. Bandwidth friendly.
If you're interested in discussing this or any fax-relay related matter, get in touch with Mike Coffee at mcoffee@commetrex.com or 770-449-7775 X 310.
Commetrex Releases Fax Relay for Frame Relay
Commetrex' PowerRelay™ for T.38 (IP) and I.366.2 (ATM) have been shipping since 1999. TerminatingT38 has been shipping since 2001. Now, Commetrex is shipping fax relay for Frame Relay.
The PowerRelay protocol stack is comprised of two main elements: the relay engine and a protocol module that implements either T.38, I.366.2, or FRF.11.1. FRF.11.1, Voice Over Frame Relay, is an implementation agreement of the MPLS and Frame Relay Alliance. So, if your product needs to support multiple networks, you can license PowerRelay and any combination of the different protocol modules you may need: IP, ATM, or Frame Relay.
Frame Relay (see http://www.mplsforum.org/frame) is a widely deployed connection-oriented data service offered to businesses by all of the incumbent and many competitive carriers. The user-network interface is based on ISDN. The MPLS Forum, which combined with the Frame Relay Forum, has published "Voice over Frame Relay Implementation Agreement, FRF.11.", which defines the fax-relay protocol that PowerRelay for FRF.11.1 now supports. And if you've already licensed PowerRelay, adding FRF.11.1 is only $12,500 for paid-up source code.
If you have an FRF.11.1 product that supports fax relay, and you'd like to do some interop testing, please contact Cliff Schornak at cschornak@commetrex.com or 770-449-7775 X 330.
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Blade Servers and HMP Middleware: Disruptive Technology?
Consider this: There are several vendors of media servers that have invested well over $15-million to develop proprietary DSP-based products that deliver nominally 300 channels of announcement, IVR, and audio conferencing per blade. They made that investment knowing their product strategy would require a continuing investment to maintain a competitive advantage. But weak demand over the last few years has stifled generational advances in platform technology. Meanwhile, blade servers and host-media-processing telephony middleware have hit the market. It may be time to reconsider platform strategy.
Commetrex demonstrated BladeWare™, its IP media server software product on IBM's eServer BladeCenter-T blade server at the VON Fall 2004 show. Each blade supports over 400 ports of voice-fax support. So, an OEM can keep the $15,000,000 and proceed to immediately add differentiating value. Concerned about control of the underlying platform? Not only does BladeWare include multiple SDKs that allow the addition or modification of system resources, services, and management, but also source code is also available.
The path to telephony profits leads to services. Services are based on media servers. IP-based media servers are now a "simple matter of software." Disruptive technology? You decide.
Please refer all arguments and inquiries to Mike Coffee at mcoffee@commetrex.com or 770-449-7775 X310.
Open Telecommunications Framework.What's All the Fuss?
OTF is Commetrex' platform architecture. It includes the OTF Kernel client-server telephony middleware, a selection of call-control service managers, and media-specific resource controllers, such as terminating voice and fax. But every value-adding platform vendor has an architecture for its hardware and software. Right? In a word: yes. But these architectures vary in important ways since the architecture determines the platform's inherent features, and what enhancements can be readily made by the vendor and the OEM licensee.
For example, OTF Kernel's hierarchical connection management architecture has a major benefit. The system inherently supports multiple networks and network-interface resources. This means that the same system can support IP through multiple signaling protocols and the PSTN through Commetrex' MSP-H8 analog interface and the MSP-320 Quad E1/T1...all on the same system. This means OTF can support both terminating (media-server) and gateway applications completely transparent to the application, which is not possible on any other product.
Media resources are implemented in Commetrex' OpenMedia streams framework. So the OEM can add proprietary or third-party media technologies. One of our OEM customers recently added a proprietary modem for managing a pay-phone network, which is not possible on any other product.
And OTF Kernel is a client-server system, making scaling the system as easy as adding another server blade, which is not possible on any other product.
If you're interested in learning more about OTF, go to
http://www.commetrex.com/OTF_Portal.html
or, give Mohan Kinra a call at 408-406-2821 or mkinra@commetrex.com.
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