Mediant™ 2000 product line sales are continuing to grow significantly. 2003 sales ramped up over four times the sales in 2002 while the last quarter sales have doubled the sales of the last quarter of 2003.

In each issue of this newsletter, I will be highlighting an important market segment or application using the Mediant 2000 as well as an important competitive feature of this product.

Market Segment: Partners for IPCentrex Applications
The Mediant 2000 is sold for various carrier and enterprise applications including the IPCentrex application which is the first in a series of features in this space.

The IPCentrex application sales have been rising significantly. The number of AudioCodes' partners for IPCentrex applications is increasing as well as the number of opportunities targeted by each partner because of the recent upturn of the VoIP market. These partners are typically System Integrators who develop their own softswitches and complement them with AudioCodes' digital and analog media gateways to comprise a full solution offering. Taking advantage of AudioCodes extensive interoperability investments, the softswitch partners build a complete VoIP solution in which the Mediant 2000 can be used in two places:

The first possibility uses the Mediant 2000 as an access media gateway where the CPE connects the PBX to the softswitch. The second option is where the Mediant acts as a trunking gateway for connecting the softswitch to the PSTN network.

The system architecture is illustrated in the diagram below:

The motivation in migrating to an IPCentrex application is to connect the customers' distributed remote sites over existing data networks while allowing the end users to combine two significant though seemingly contradictory advantages – the advantage of migrating to VoIP while maintaining existing legacy investment together with the advantage of laying the ground for newly enhanced converged services.

The recent market upturn in IPCentrex application installations is because end users wish to maintain their investment in legacy PBXs, fax machines, modems and phones, while also benefiting from the cost reductions and enhanced services of VoIP. Due to the high price of IP phones, vast numbers of customers continue to require VoIP gateways to interface with packet networks. AudioCodes digital and analog VoIP gateways offer superior product solutions.

AudioCodes' SoftSwitch partners can minimize their interoperability challenges and focus on customer satisfaction issues, Since AudioCodes' VoIP gateways support Class 5 features and have a long interoperability track record. AudioCodes' offering, comprised of the Mediant™ 2000 Digital Gateway and the MediaPack™ (MP) family of Analog Gateways, provides an extensive solution for connecting PBXs, key systems or phones to the IP network using digital T1/E1, FXO or FXS.

Competitive Feature: PSTN Fallback Functionality
Customers hesitate to migrate to VoIP because of the risks of the technology and the Quality of Service (QoS) in VoIP networks that is considered lower than in PSTN networks. With the PSTN Fallback feature the Mediant 2000 has minimal risk with paramount QoS that is no less than the PSTN.

The purpose of the PSTN Fallback feature is to enable the Gateway to redirect PSTN originated calls back to the legacy PSTN network if a destination IP route is found unsuitable for voice traffic at a specific time. When the Mediant 2000 senses any congestion, jitter, or packet loss that could potentially threaten call quality, it redirects voice traffic over the PSTN using the Alternative Routing mechanism.

Alternative Routing provides a solid, robust foundation for reliable routing of Tel to IP calls when a Gatekeeper isn't used. This feature enables the system to constantly check the availability of connectivity and suitable QoS before routing. If the expected quality can not be achieved, an alternative IP route for the prefix (phone number) is selected.

QoS – the QoS of an IP connection is determined according to RTCP statistics of previous calls. Network delay (in msec) and network packet loss (in percentage) are separately quantified and compared to a certain (configurable) threshold. If the calculated amounts (of delay or packet loss) exceed these thresholds the IP connection is disallowed.

The Alternative Routing Mechanism is implemented in a method that when a call is routed through the Gateway, the call's destination number is compared to the list of prefixes defined in the Tel to IP Routing table. The Tel to IP Routing table is scanned for the destination number's prefix starting at the top of the table. When an appropriate entry (destination number matches one of the prefixes) is found, the prefix's corresponding destination IP address is checked. If the destination IP address is disallowed, an alternative route is searched for in the following table entries.

Destination IP address is disallowed if no ping to the destination is available, or when an inappropriate level of QoS (delay or packet loss, calculated according to previous calls) is detected. Then PSTN fallback is achieved by the IP address of the Gateway itself as an alternative route to the desired prefixes.