The Changing Role of DSPs in Media Gateway Design James Awad – Product Manager Octasic Inc.

What is a media gateway (MGW)? IP Network Mobile Platform IMS GW IP/DLC Most of you know this Simplified drawing MGW interconnects many different standards Transcode codecs, either audio or video Echo cancellation, tone detection, caller ID, etc Connect IP to TDM, IP to IP TDM Network DLC Access Platform IAD

What is a MGW DSP? Circa 1990 Today Memory I/F Memory I/F Ext I/F CPU Eth TDM CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU Building block of MGW Historical perspective MGW design in 1990 involved many of these DSPs, with glue logic, NP, FPGAs, etc Definition of DSP is changing Today you have MGW SoC. Today DSP multi-core (power reasons, but also software arch is better) CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU CPU

State of the MGW Market VoIP adoption The market for media gateways that support VoIP only has matured Little or growth or innovation remains Everyone in this room uses VoIP, and knows non-techies that do too VoIP adoption

State of the MGW Market No one likes a mature market! Little to no growth No innovation Very high cost pressure Who is providing growth and innovation? Session border controllers (packet to packet) Wideband codecs for IP and mobile communication Advanced services such as video What’s next?

Designer’s dilemma… “I need to design a cost-effective MGW today so that I can evolve quickly to support tomorrow’s features” What are my customers asking me for?

Ideal solution – Software licensing Use key files to enable features or capacity Similar to well-known FlexLM™ FPGA companies have started providing similar firmware locking capability Hardware and software vendor must be the same Hardware assisted key management

Sales process Fixed Solution Product 192 Channels Features a,b,c,d,e Product Requirements 100 Channels Features a,b,c Licensed Performance for Field Upgrades More channels More features Software Licensing 100 Channels Features a,b,c

One design – Many products Low channel capacity Product A Vocallo License A Single HW/SW Design Investment Larger feature set Product B Vocallo License B Vocallo PBX designer. 1 board, 32 to 256 channel design through software license No truck roll, capacity is a sw upgrade Other scenarios: add video later Product C Vocallo License C Higher channel capacity

Further cost savings Contract Manufacturer Product A Purchase Order SW Capacity: 100 Ch. Features: a,b,c Purchase Order SW License

Summary Market maturity has created immense price pressure Media gateway designers want: Cost effective solutions ASAP Differentiated solutions that can be activated on demand Software licensing offers the best of both worlds Low entry cost Feature & Capacity upgrades through software keys