Networking
The OfficeServe IP Phone solution requires three basic hardware components:
- IP Phone
- MCP2 card
- MGI card
IP Phone
The IP Phone has two Ethernet LAN sockets. This enables the IP Phone to be put “in line” between the LAN switch and another Ethernet capable device, such as a PC or Laptop. The IP Phone can be configured to use static or DHCP allocated address.
MCP2
The MCP2 card is the main processor on the OfficeServe switch and has a single Ethernet LAN socket. This Ethernet connection is used to interface to the LAN and provides control-signaling information to the IP Phones, as well as other applications like PCMMC and Call Accounting.
MGI
The MGI card (either MGI2 or MGI3) provides voice packetizing and compression for TDM devices in the OfficeServe. The MGI card is required to allow the IP Phones to communicate with non-VoIP devices on the OfficeServe, such as ISDN interfaces or analog and digital Phones.
Ubigate
Intense competition in the Service Provider sector is placing increasing pressure on those serving small and mid-sized companies. Subscribers to professional and consumer services increasingly require multiple new networking products at competitive prices. And all these demands come at a time of burgeoning security threats.
Falling prices brought on by the commoditisation of network access mean that providers can no longer depend on simple network access to remain profitable. New forms of revenue must be developed that exploit more agile and flexible technologies.
Subscribers require multiple networking services that go far beyond data switching and routing. VoIP and IP call processing services are increasingly being implemented as substitutes for existing PBX systems. The dramatic savings of Toll Bypass via Internet is becoming more and more difficult for cost-conscious customers to ignore. Meanwhile, managing separate systems and devices that support these new services are adding a heightened level of
complexity and exposure to multiple points of failure.
Whatever cost-efficiency and productivity benefits that network connectivity can deliver is constantly being threatened with the rise of new worms, viruses, spam, spyware, and DoS attacks. In-house network engineers must constantly be alert to keep up an effective defensive shield from being penetrated.
Ubigate offers:
Higher Performance
~ Routing Performance: 43%-100% higher than competitive products
~ Firewall Performance: 54%-122% higher than competitive products
Competitive Price
~ Secure Converged Solution: Competitive products are 6-34% more expensive
~ Voice converged Solution: Competitive products are 21-37% more expensive
Robust Product
~ Power redundancy for iBG3026 and iBG2016
~ Network and Mini module Hot-swap for iBG3026 and iBG2016 (Release 2.0+)
Technical Support
~ Local technical support
~ Regular and Ad-hoc Training for Local Distributor and Reseller engineer
Ubigate Internet Protocol Telephony
Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT) is the transport of telephone calls over the internet, no matter whether traditional telephony devices, multimedia PCs or
dedicated terminals take part in the calls. IPT covers a range of technologies, including voice-over-IP (VoIP) and fax-over-IP services, which are carried over
both the Internet and private IP-based networks. Because information travels in discrete packets, it doesn't need to rely on a continuously available switched
circuit. Consequently, it's bandwidth and cost-efficient IPT technology will revolutionize the telecommunications industry and, if used properly, can create
many positives for enterprises as well as private individuals. Enterprise IP telephony becomes potent only when it is protected by the security functions,
which are provided along with the IPT system.
Advantages of IPT
The most significant benefit of IPT is easy implementation of innovative services and cost savings to corporations and consumers. IPT is poised to undergo huge growth, however, before that growth can occur, IPT has to vault hurdles concerning latency, quality, and security. Quality of service (QoS) is the primary problem impeding this growth and it must improve enough to enable Internet-based services to compete with traditional telephony providers.
IPT for the enterprise
Corporations can save telecommunication expense by running intra-company voice and fax in the spare bandwidth of leased lines or Virtual Private Network (VPN). Using IP telephony saves money not just because it is more efficient than PSTN but also because it avoids most of the tariffs and tolls, especially in the international telephone-service market. In addition, the adoption of IPT to field offices can integrate users into their corporate dialling plan, voicemail system, and other services for a reduced cost. Private Intranets and similar type of networks provide a more supportive infrastructure for IPT than the public Internet. Typically Intranets only communicate between two locations at a short distance, limiting the risk of delay and IP packet loss. Therefore Intranets generally have VoIP quality acceptable by most business standards. Intranets are also easier to configure to enable the data packets to be sent through a fewer router hops creating a clearer line than the public Internet. Due to these factors, quality similar to a PSTN can be supported over corporate Intranets or
enterprise networks.
IP PBX
IP PBX is being viewed as the future of enterprise telecommunications. The adoption of IP PBX is largely driven by its advantages such as cheaper inter-office and branch office connectivity and the resulting enhanced productivity. Between IP enabled PBX and IP PBX, the former is likely to evolve as a short-term solution and the latter as the ultimate solution. Some of the customers leading the way in adoption are finance, government, retail, contact centres and medical.
Call Manager
Call manager is a call processing component of enterprise IP telephony solution, which:
- Provides basic telephony and PABX functionality by controlling Voice gateway and IP phones using the SIP and H.323 protocols
- Provides variety of system services, subscriber services, and administrative features
- Supports interfaces with external media devices (e.g., conference server, VMS server, IVR server) and multimedia applications
- Supports interfaces with external servers (e.g., Billing server, Authentication server, CTI middleware, NMS)
- Provides High Availability, Voice Security and Quality of Service
- Provides Web-based management.
Voice gateway
Voice gateway acts as the interface between a traditional voice network and the IP network, which:
- Interfaces the traditional voice networks (PBX and PSTN) through T1/E1/ISDN interfaces and analog trunk interfaces such as DID, E&M and FXO
- Converts TDM to packets and vice versa, and communicates with Call Manager using standard protocol SIP
- Provides basic subscriber services without controls of Call Manager
- Provides Survivable Telephony Mode when WAN or Call Manager failed
- Provides Toll-by-pass services
- Provides Voice Security and Quality of Service
- Provides Web-based management
Security
Security is likely to emerge as a challenge since the transport of voice through IP will increase the vulnerability of voice services to spamming and other attacks. Security vulnerabilities are grouped into two classes: privacy issues and denial-of-service (DoS) issues.
IPT privacy concerns include eavesdropping, toll fraud, and IP PBX hijacked by third parties. Corporate IT departments need to be also
concerned about the possibility of internal security threat; a tech-savvy employee, consultant or other third party has ample access to the IP
infrastructure.
IPT DoS issues encompass IP telephony-specific concerns such as Spam over Internet Telephony as well as client/server slowdowns, freezes
caused by viruses or spyware, distributed DoS attacks and the like, which make the IPT system unavailable to users.
Rolling out IPT in the absence of proven data security architecture is a dangerous attempt, since your network will go down sooner or later and IPT will be taken down along with it. Enhancing basic infrastructure components such as anti-virus, firewalls, VPNs, and IDS/IPS should be among the
top-priority security initiatives for enterprise IPT investment.
Wireless Communications
As Wireless LAN (WLAN) becomes widely available, WiFi support along with the IP PBX can provide the convenience of mobility inside the office building. The concern about the QoS and security in the WLAN world becomes lessened with the completion of the standards such as IEEE 802.11e (QoS) and IEEE 802.11i (Security). The roaming issue with WLAN is being worked out inside IEEE 802.11r, but a proprietary solution is inevitable at least for a couple of years before it is finalized.
While most of WLAN infrastructure is currently being built around WLAN AP (Access Point), AP will, in the future, have fewer functions due to the control, management and cost issues and, instead, WLAN switch will take over the role. WLAN switch function will be integrated into the enterprise switch/router with IP PBX function, rather than existing as a standalone component.