Voice Communications: Moving from Appliance to Software Serge Forest – CEO Paraxip, a Sangoma Company

Agenda Changes in Voice Communication Systems Business Considerations Technical Implications Conclusion Q&A

A Bit of History - CPE Voice Systems ‘90 ‘95‘00‘05‘10 Tel Appliance Custom built hw Vertically Integrated Proprietary Few Large Vendors High costs CT Solution Off-the-shelf hw Vertically Integrated Proprietary APIs Many Vendors Lower costs Software Off-the-shelf hw Horizontal model Standard i/f Many Vendors Very low costs Software-Based Appliance

Software-Based Appliances Key Drivers for software model: – Maturity of standards: SIP, VoiceXML, etc. – Availability of Open Source – Host Processing Technology Why appliances? Have we gone full circle? – Support and deployment model – Interop complexity – Management

Agenda Changes in Voice Communication Systems Business Implications Technical Impacts Conclusion

Who owns the integration issues? Interop is all good, but who’s in charge? – Exponential complexity problem – Benefit from vendor availability, but limit problems by vendor selection – Is your channel prepared for plug and play? Keys to success: – Streamlined support – Integrated Management

Build vs Buy – Where is the Value? What components should your organization build? – Focus on your value: Services/Support? Hardware delivery? Application? Management? – Let standards-based components do the rest

Public Telephone Network Analog lines (FXO) Digital (T1/E1, ISDN) Ethernet Cables PSTN Port LAN Port Ethernet Port External VoIP Gateway LAN Router/Switch VoIP SIP Based Applications IVRs Conferencing IPBX Etc. App. Server External Gateways

PSTN Port SIP Based Applications IVRs Conferencing IPBX Etc. Analog lines (FXO) Digital (T1/E1, ISDN) Public Telephone Network Internal Gateways

CPE Gateway Selection Selection CriteriaExternalInternal Amount of Integration Work (low is good) Level of Integration with Application (high is good) Pricing/Cost of Goods (low is good) Ease of Field Replacement Level of Control (high is good) Level of Flexibility (high is good)

External vs Internal Gateway External Gateways are ideal for: – Product development/lab work – Large port counts (>500) at a single site – Horizontal model Internal Gateways are ideal for: – Low-COGS premise systems – Tight control on product, deployment, support – Scaling production – Software-based appliances

What about costs? Have you considered everything? Material License / royalties Production On-site - bringing in service Support and troubleshooting R&D (including interop testing, Maintenance)

Agenda Changes in Voice Communication Systems Business Implications Technical Impacts Conclusion

Host-Based Signal Processing Software approach leads to faster innovation cycle – Host processor power growing rapidly – Many vendors offering host processing libraries – New algorithms available in many categories CPA ASR TTS

Selecting Components Important considerations: – Modular building blocks – Multiple integration models – Standards-compliant – Ability to integrate management – Optimized for software – Vendor’s support through cycle Is it too late to change? – Beauty of standards is you can change with minimal disruption

Management Key is integration: – Unified reporting – Pre-configuration – Common User Interface Methods: – Web Server – Proactive notification on alarms – Programmable interface – Web Services

APIs and Protocols Telephony connectivity: SIP RFC 3261 IVR: VoiceXML, CCXML Speech: MRCP Management: Web Services

Conclusion Premise-based voice communications have moved to software solutions, packaged within an appliance Shift has both business and technical implications: – Focus on customer’s TCO – Integrated delivery, management and support is key – Select standards-based components to complement your core – Leverage innovations from software running on host

Questions? See us at booth #703