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The Holy Grail of VoIP to Analog PSTN: Bridging the Gap.

July 22nd, 2009 by Chris Maxwell

Many people have excitedly installed Asterisk or an IP native switch only to find the “Big Problem”.. “How in the heck do I make a phone call out to the Real World”.

VoIP Users quickly find themselves alone on a communication island – unable to communicate with the “Mainland” of the PSTN Telecommunications network.

So – What do you do in this case? Build a raft? Nope. You find a device to convert the Analog signal to VoIP – so that you can actually make calls.

Voxeo Prophecy is a SIP based IVR, meaning it’s been built as a native VoIP device. It doesn’t have a particular PSTN interface – just as Asterisk and other IP Switch devices do not have direct interfaces to “the Old World”. This is both a blessing and a curse.

Voxeo Labs has been looking for a reliable alternative to the typical solution – PC Hardware boards and software – to manage this code/decode protocol conversion from Data to Analog. We knew that devices would soon arrive on these scene that would handle this PSTN to VoIP Conversion – and Voila! They’re here!

The devices I’m referring to are called Analog Telephony Adapters, (ATA’s), and you may notice in previous blogs that the Labs have been going through massive test of many devices to serve 4/8 port Analog to VoIP needs.

The overall “Holy Grail” concept is.. Wouldn’t it be cool – to take a simple approach to replacing your Analog IVR – by simply plugging in your existing Analog lines to a box – which would then communicate directly to your IVR via IP? This would be almost too easy!

At Voxeo Labs – we’ve finally isolated an ATA device that meets our standards for reliability, configurability, management, ease of use, and general – turn it on – and leave it alone – work day and night without issue-ness.

This device is the AudioCodes MP-114/8 VoIP Gateway. This Media Gateway shares the same software with all other devices in its family, from 4 port, 8 port – all the way up to DS3 level PSTN circuits. The device is simple to use, cost effective, readily available – and best of all – it actually Works!

After months of testing with a major North Eastern University during a very stringent test scenario – the AudioCodes device passed with Flying Colors.

The topology of how this devices connects is simple. The Telecom Network PSTN (Analog lines) Simply connect into the FXO ports (4 or 8) of the Media Gateway. The SIP Device (Prophecy or Asterisk) access the IP of the Media Gateway – and all calls are converted by the AudioCodes Media Gateway – in and out – and routed to the proper SIP or PSTN Destination.

The AudioCodes device does this easily and reliably – but moreover – the gateway includes a rich routing and switching infrastructure – should you need to build complex routing via IP or Telephone number – or based on any other conditions. This makes the Audio Codes device extremely flexible for many ATA protocol conversion situations from SIP to PSTN.

In the next few days, I’ll be posting a configuration document showing in easy steps – how to configure this device for general use. It’s my hope that this device will provide you with an easy to use way to convert VoIP to Analog – and this make VoIP Telephony much easier to play with and use in your own environment.

Best regards, Chris Maxwell Director, Voxeo Labs

Related posts:

  1. Bridging the Gap between VoIP and the PSTN using ATA’s
  2. Linksys 400 Lab Results
  3. Vanilla, Chocolate, or Strawberry VoIP?

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