Value-added voice applications, such as call centers, televoting, IVR and others produce phone calls with a short hold time. Hold time is the actual time spent occupying a telephone line. This article will highlight the advantage that AudioCodes products offer applications involved in short hold times.

The rule of thumb for calculating BHCA (Busy Hour Call Attempts) is the use of the figure 180 second AHT (Average Hold Time). This figure is widely recognized and accepted by PSTN veterans and is one of the inputs used in the design stage for planning the performance of communication equipment that supports such services (mainly Softswitches and gateways).

Advanced services (fax, voicemail) have a tendency to decrease the AHT, which in turn stretches the requirements from the Softswitch and Gateway, but is within operational range for most equipment vendors.

Difficulties arise in dedicated environments with specific applications, such as call centers, televoting, automated dialers and others where the majority of calls are short (the shortest being less than a rate of 30 seconds AHT!). Such a rate is out of the operational range of the equipment, resulting in a drop in performance. For example, a gateway’s performance can decrease by 90%, due to short call durations (A gateway with 16 E1s would only process 50 simultaneous calls).

In these difficult conditions and heavy loads, this is the exact spot where AudioCodes technology, strict design rules and worst case scenario planning comes to the assistance of AudioCodes’ solution partners and customers.

AudioCodes’ Gateways can withstand short call durations and simultaneously offer high performance values. Even though AudioCodes Gateways may operate at reduced capacity (25%-50% of rated capacity) under such scenarios, its performance is 2 to 5 times better than the industry standard.

The direct benefits to AudioCodes’ customers and partners include the following:

• A more cost effective solution which has a direct effect on the total cost of the project

• As the capacity fluctuations are within a lower range (480-240/120 channels for a 16 E1 gateway), in relation to the industry standard (480-50 channels for a 16 E1 gateway), it is easier for the project designer to design more effectively

• The number of gateways required for supporting a given amount of traffic, and the space utilized is much lower