Open Telecommunications Framework (OTF) is a distributed, client-server CT middleware
product designed to give the system developer unprecedented strategic options, while
offering the highest development productivity. The OTF system kernel is ECTF S.100-conforming,
modular and hardware-independent with open-architecture options that support the addition
of proprietary extensions. The user can add any media-processing resource and related
client APIs, or network-interface resources with seamless integration into the system's
connection and call management facilities. The developer can even add system services,
creating proprietary extensions to OTF's open kernel. OTF includes the ECTF S.100 core system
services plus Commetrex' exclusive OTF Transport in the Windows NT environment.
OTF finally brings "programmable switching" to computer-telephony. It opens
high-end switching applications to the CT OEM with an open-architecture signaling protocol
addition to H.100 that allows the OEM to easily implement complex switching functionality,
even when system resources are furnished by different vendors. The OTF Transport and
Addressing Framework adds the signaling protocols and switch-fabric control necessary for
full inter-vendor inter-operability of system resources.
Industry-standard PCM highways, such as H.100, do not support anonymous inter-vendor
signaling because no standard has yet to specify the protocols needed to support
inter-vendor call setup. OTF removes that impediment by including a comprehensive
open-architecture signaling system which finally supports the economic development of
complex switching applications such as PBX, ACD, and enhanced-services platforms.
- ECTF S.100 kernel
- Group Manager
- Connection Manager
- Session/Event Manager
- Container Manager
- System Call Router
- OTF Addressing Framework
- Open "everywhere"
- Vendor independent
- Hardware independent
- Open-OTF Call Control interface
- Open-OTF Connection Management
- Windows NT based
- Avoid captive technologies
- Control of your product strategy
- Lower cost
- Resource-vendor independent
- Highest system quality and performance by choosing "best-of-breed" system
resources
- Low-cost development of complex switching systems
- Economically develop programmable-switch applications: PBX, ACD, enhanced services
platform
- Add application-specific system services
OTF is a CT middleware system that offers the system developer a framework for the
highest-function and complexity systems, yet can be cost-effectively scaled downward to
support single-processor systems. OTF offers unprecedented scalability and development
productivity:
- Comprehensive connection management
- Client-server architecture
- Resource-location independence
- Transparent processor expansion
- Modular
- User extensible
OTF's comprehensive support for switching applications finally brings the benefits of
programmable switching to computer-telephony system platforms without the expense and
system complexity of adjunct switching systems. Client-server architectures provide the
utmost in architectural flexibility and scalability, allowing the client application to
reside on several computers and to be located virtually anywhere. Scalability is also
supported by transparent processor expansion and resource-location independence. The OTF
system kernel tracks resource location and availability for clients, allowing services to
be provided in a location-independent manner. This means multiple servers can support
multiple applications in multiple locations, all transparent to the clients. Additionally,
the kernel itself is modular, requiring only needed elements to be configured. And OTF's
open design means additional, proprietary system elements can be easily developed by the
user.
OTF is the first product to support the economic development of truly vendor
independent standards-based open-telecommunications systems. Prior to OTF, all
computer-telephony software systems were bound to the vendor's hardware products, and they
were only "open" at the client-API level. Moreover, the vendor offered no way to
remove a bundled-in system-resource or hardware component and substitute another. With
OTF, any developer is free to add any system resource and any client-side resource API,
where the API can be either S.100-conforming or otherwise.
The key to this open modularity is the OTF Transport. It is the basis of OTF's modular
configurability and provides the communications pathway between all major system elements.
As a modular building block, OTF is truly independent because it does not include the
S.100 "resource APIs". Instead of requiring the resource vendor to interface
with an S.300 resource-specific SPI, as provided for in the S.100 recommendation (see
S.100 diagram), the OTF Transport defines an internal communications transport that allows
any developer to augment the system by adding both the client API and the system resource.
As long as the same vendor develops both, all that must be known to add a system resource
is the OTF transport and the S.100 kernel APIs.
Commetrex offers optional OTF system-resource products for call control, voice
play/record, signal generation/detection, and store-and-forward fax. Commetrex and its
partners are developing VoIP (IP Voice), FoIP (IP Fax), and speech recognition. And
Commetrex encourages and supports the efforts of other companies to contribute system
resource products as well.
S.100 is a strong foundation on which an effective client-server CT system can be built.
The major elements of S.100 are the kernel services and their client APIs, the client APIs
for "technology resources", and the service-provider entities. OTF includes the
S.100 kernel and its related client APIs plus the OTF Transport.
OTF includes the core system services defined in S.100. They include:
- Session/Event Manager
- Group Manager
- Connection Manager
- Container Manager
- System Call Router
The OTF Session Manger is used by all OTF-Addressable Entities (OAEs) to register with the
OTF Kernel for authentication and registration. Once registered, an OAE can communicate
with any other OAE, either explicitly by name or indirectly through group names or
implicitly by a resource request. Authentication also gives the registering entity
permission to use a specified set of system resources and services.
An S.100 "Group" is an object that presents a unified interface for allocation,
configuration, interconnection, and hand-off between applications of the resources needed
to perform computer-telephony functions. The resource that represents a media stream is
the "Call Channel Resource" (CCR). An example of a group for a play-message
function is a CCR, a "player", and a "Signal Detector" to detect touch
tones. Groups may be explicitly reserved by an application or they may be implicitly
reserved by invoking a higher-level function.
The system resource used to abstract a switch-fabric connection is the Switch Port
(SP). Each Group has an SP as a virtual resource. The Connection Manager allows an
application to make connections between SPs.
The Connection Manager and its API give the application an easy-to-use facility to
interconnect groups, to switch calls from one party to another, to monitor two other
parties, and to control a Conferencing Resource if one is available.
The OTF Kernel includes the Connection Manager and a documented protocol for its
interconnection and control of vendor-specific resource modules that include a PCM-highway
switch. This allows the application developer or the vendor of a resource module to
seamlessly add it to the OTF switch fabric. Commetrex uses this same facility to add
support for its supported resource modules.
"The S.100 Container Manger (and its API) provide an operating system-independent
mechanism for the storage and interchange of system data between system services,
resources, and the application." A "container" is an object made up of
data, usually media data, and a set of attributes. The S.100 Container Manager extends the
functionality usually found in file systems with features required by Resources to
manipulate media data in a convenient manner.
The System Call Router (SCR) shields the application from the details of the Connection
and Group Managers and the need to be aware of any vendor-specific call control. It
provides API functions such as answer, make, and disconnect call, greatly simplifying the
routine placement of outbound calls and accepting inbound calls in traditional CT
applications.
The OTF Kernel includes the SCR and a documented protocol for its interconnection and
control of the source and destination of OTF calls(vendor-specific network interface
resource modules. This allows the application developer or the vendor of a network
interface to add a resource to the SCR. Commetrex uses this same facility to add support
for its supported network interfaces.
The OTF Transport is the communications bus to which all OTF Addressable Entities (OAEs)
are connected. All processes within an OTF system are OAEs: client applications, kernel
entities, system-resource-provider entities, etc.
The OTF SDK includes the Sockets-based Transport API. Entities obtain address
information from the Kernel, which is reached via a well-known address.
Product Configuration
The OTF Kernel Developer's Kit (Product #20060) includes all the software components
needed to develop a comprehensive CT system. Runtime license fees (Product #40060) apply
to each production system deployed.
- PowerCALL SDK Product #20005
- PowerVOX SDK Product #20006
- PowerFAX SDK Product #20003
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