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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. 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