As VoIP services continue to grow, so does the drive to interconnect services from different operators, this is happening at a number of levels, and a number of different ways depending on the country and operators involved. We have everything from regulated national interconnect to ad hoc peering arrangements. So how is all this going to interoperate?

It is perhaps unrealistic to expect the next generation of VoIP and multimedia services to interoperate seamlessly, however, it is possible to offer inter-network mediation. In other words fix incompatibilities at the borders of the networks.

Within one particular network the service will be based around a particular SIP 'flavor' or profile typically based on the host network's Softswitch. It is not uncommon for a call originated by one Softswitch in one network to be incompatible with a second Softswitch in another network. Without proactive intervention these calls would fail. Similar incompatibilities can occur between client devices but on an even larger scale, there are potentially hundreds of different SIP implementations on soft clients and hard devices in the market today. Inter network mediation provides normalization of the signaling so that calls will not break and service and revenue is assured.

Once the signaling operates across network borders we have to turn our attention to media incompatibilities. In particular as the number of IP based mobile devices increases these will often provide media in a form which is incompatible with fixed-line devices as well as Media Gateways that only supported a limited amount of Codecs. Networks must start preparing now to solve this issue at scale through a combination of codec negotiation and transcoding. But media mediation does not end with transcoding, there is an increasing demand for transrating, that is the ability to re-packetize media between networks. In a multi-tier network this raises some interesting questions about who provides what service and where.

Finally there are legacy interactions that each network may handle in a different way: Fax tones in-band or T.38, DTMF tones in-band or out of band.

Interconnect architectures are still fluid and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches will be key in both the technical and commercial success of these arrangements.

Inter-network borders are set to become one of the keys to the success of ubiquitous multimedia services. Have you considered all of the issues and all of the options? In this Webinar we will present a summary of what we are seeing out there and some of the technical, regulatory and commercial drivers that are shaping the next generation of IP Interconnects.

Presenters:

Dave Gladwin		Erik Linask
VP of Product Marketing, Newport Networks Dave is VP of product marketing at Newport Networks and part of the team that formed the company back in 2000. Dave is a 25 year veteran of the telecoms industry, the last ten being involved in VoIP. His career has spanned software design, application development, as well as sales support and marketing. Dave has previously worked at Nokia, Vienna Systems, Newbridge Networks and General Datacom.		Associate Editor, Technology Marketing Corporation In addition to his work with TMC’s IP Communications publications, Erik is a contributor to TMCnet. Prior to joining the TMC team, he was Managing Editor at Global Custodian, a global securities services publication, where he also managed the magazine’s survey research. Erik began his professional career at management consulting firm Leadership Research Institute.

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