Wireline Communications Technology

Signal Processing  |  Telephony Processing  |  Protocol Processing

Internet telecom began as a revolution in technology. The concept of sending voice across a data network, in packet format, has been nurtured by a hope of eventually creating new markets, but for a long time that hope remained latent.

Today customers are demanding a different kind of communications infrastructure to line up more closely with the different kind of business environment (shaped by the Internet) in which they find themselves operating. Likewise, service providers are beginning to come forth with new ideas about how to deliver features and applications to their customers.

The local exchange carrier market has become ground-zero for much of the work being done in Internet telecom today. Particularly at the local level, competitive and incumbent carriers alike are realizing that just providing dial tone (for Internet or telephony) won't be enough to succeed long term. Carriers are starting to have to do the one thing they've always avoided: respond to the needs of individual business customers. As a result more intelligence will be pushed from the customer premises into the local loop and network edge.

The technology to make it all happen, of course, is being put in place today. Just look at the development of the gateways, softswitch, and the broadband voice-over-DSL.and DOCSIS cable deployments to see how the new generation of voice/data infrastructure is as much about facilitating service creation and delivery as it is about creating a more economical transport. Today, service providers are finding alternative and innovative methods for the delivery of voice services on top of DSL lines and coaxial cable lines.

At the same time as the carrier world is being shaken up by convergence, the enterprise communications market is undergoing changes of equal if not greater proportions. As e-business practices become a more integral aspect of enterprises across the board, reliance on communications will only increase. The latest trends in IP PBXs have already begun to reflect this concept. In general, hardware will be de-emphasized at the enterprise level, and displaced by distributed, network-based software platforms, managed remotely.

On the public network side, mobile wireless has become the most visible intersection of telephony and the Internet, a crossing that will be galvanized by third-generation technology. Within the enterprise, the convergence promise of "one-wire" infrastructure is quickly giving way to a "no-wire" model.

Nuntius technology enables the transmission of voice, fax and modem traffic over an IP or ATM backbone network. The software products accomplish this in three functional areas. These functions are designed to execute in a distributed fashion on programmable Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and RISC and CISC Microprocessors. The three functional modules are Signal Processing Software, Telephony Processing Software and Protocol Processing Software.
 

The Signal Processing software provides the interface between the analog world we live in and the digital binary world of embedded processors. This software prepares analog or PCM voice samples for transmission over the packet network. Its components perform tone detection and generation, echo cancellation, voice compression, voice activity detection, jitter removal, re-sampling and voice packetization. It also performs equalization, modulation and demodulation in support of fax relay applications.
 

The Telephony Processing software addresses the complexities of translating between traditional telephony signals and modern data networks. It interacts with telephony equipment, translating signaling into state changes used by the Protocol Processing software to set up connections.
 

The Protocol Processing software receives signaling information that has been interpreted by the Telephony Processing software and converts it from the telephony signaling protocols to the specific packet signaling protocol that is used to set up connections over the data network. It also adds appropriate protocol headers to both voice and signaling packets before transmission. Standard formats for IP, Frame Relay and ATM networks are common.

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