Breaking the Sound Barrier

An Introduction to AudioCodes HD VoIP

Juan Pablo Romero Barenghi

Pre-Sales Engineering S.C. LATAM
[email protected]

© 2008 AudioCodes Ltd.

All rights reserved.
AudioCodes Confidential Proprietary
Agenda

 Observations

 Business Challenges

 Introduction to HD VoIP

 AudioCodes’ HD VoIP Strategy and Products

 Closing Thoughts and Q/A

The 21st Century
One Thing Remains the Same

Same voice
quality since
1950!
Agenda

 Observations

 Business Challenges

 Introduction to HD VoIP

 AudioCodes’ HD VoIP Strategy and Products

 Closing Thoughts and Q/A

Carriers / Service Providers

All carriers basically sound the same

Result: “Ultimate Commodity”
How can carriers differentiate themselves?
 Creating Affinity

Build a community
With something in
common together
Friends invite friends
Nobody wants to be
“on the outside”
 Reducing “Churn”

Without differentiation or affinity, customers will

always seek lowest price
Number portability enables “shopping”
Costs to close accounts
Costs to recruit and
open new accounts
Price wars
Result: Commodity Slide
 Increasing Usage

Quality  Longer calls

Longer calls  Bigger Plan.

Bigger Plan  more $

Enterprises: Accuracy

Okay - Fifty
Let’s get fifteen pallets are on
pallets on the their way
way to
California
tonight.
Efficiency and Avoiding Errors

Mistakes cost big money!

Quantities – “Fifty or Fifteen”
Misspelled Names
“Sorry, we don’t have a reservation for Thurman”
“It’s Furman! – F U R M A N”
Addresses
One misspelled street name can cost return shipping and
cause delays in delivery and payment
Confirmation Codes
“Delta Bravo Echo 543”
Early Indicators:
Wideband in Current networks

iSAC used by Skype (2003), SVOPC (2007) for VoIP

T-Mobile successful field test in Germany in 2006, announced plans

for AMR-WB in 3G network

NTT active in pushing G.711 WB

France Telecom plans to deploy G.729.1 in its VoIP network

Nokia embedded AMR-WB is several handsets in 2006-2007,

announced in Feb. 2008 3GSM introduction of new models

Iristel deploys HD services in Canada (April, 2007)

Microsoft Real Time Audio (RTA) – the only coder supported by

Microsoft for Office Communications Server 2007 implementations
Agenda

 Observations

 Business Challenges

 Introduction to HD VoIP

 AudioCodes’ HD VoIP Strategy and Products

 Closing Thoughts and Q/A

 Narrowband VoIP

Based on decisions made by Bell Labs in the 50’s

Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
8 kHz Sample Rate
Limits audio from 200 Hz – 3.4 kHz
G.711, G.723.1, G.729a… are all narrowband
Result – high and low frequencies are missing
 Wideband VoIP

Result of work done in late 80’s

Doubles sampling rate to 16 kHz
Extends bandwidth to 50 Hz – 7.1 kHz
Substantially higher voice quality
Superior Clarity, Intelligibility and Richer Sound
WB Speech Spectrogram
 Demonstration

Narrowband Speech (G.729a)

www.audiocodes.com/objects/nohdg729.mp3

Wideband Speech (G.722)

www.audiocodes.com/objects/hdg722.mp3
Wideband Speech Codecs

Codec Technology Rate (Kbps) Application

G.722 Subband ADPCM 48-64 Wireline

G.722.2 AMR-WB ACELP 6-24 Wireless

EVRC-WB CELP 8.5/13 Wireless

G.729.1 ACELP+MDCT 8-32 VoIP

G.711-WB MDCT 96 kbps VoIP

SVOPC – Skype proprietary / 2007

RTA – Microsoft proprietary / 2007

HD VoIP Applications

Mobile Web
Communication Applications
Broadband
Telephony ASR / TTS

Broadcasting
Audio and Video
teleconferencing

Call Centers
HD VoIP Vertical Markets

Banks and
Trading
Rooms
Government
Travel

Health and Telemedicine

Public Safety Military

Air Traffic Control Education

HD VoIP Market Adoption – Phase I

•G.722 in the VoBB and Cable operators

•AMR-WB & EVRC-WB in the wireless operators
•RTA & G.722 in the Enterprise

G.722
DECT Phone
Cable
Mediant™ 3000 Gateway

Enterprise PSTN Mobile

AMR-WB
RTA
IP Phone

Initially Creating HD Islands that are interconnected by PSTN

– benefits only if you “stay on the island”
HD VoIP Market Adoption – Phase II

•Move to All-IP to maintain voice quality

•Eliminate Dependence on PSTN
•Accomplished via Peering/Federation over IP
Why can’t they
all use the
same coder?
G.722
DECT Phone
Cable
Mediant™ 3000 Gateway

Enterprise IP Mobile

AMR-WB
RTA
IP Phone

 Requires a means to convert from one coder to another in HD

Agenda

 Observations

 Business Challenges

 Introduction to HD VoIP

 AudioCodes’ HD VoIP Strategy and Products

 Closing Thoughts and Q/A

HDVoIP:
It starts with Feature Rich Processors

We’ve added Wideband Vocoding to our VoIPerfect™ DSP software, offer

enhanced voice quality for VoIP Media Gateways, IP PBXs, IP phones,
Residential Gateways and ATA products.

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Original Design

Manufacturers (ODMs) using the AC49x Family of chips and the Tulip
AC494 ATA are now able to provide state of the art products for next-
generation telephony systems, focusing on high voice quality utilizing
the increased bandwidth.
AudioCodes HDVoIP technology scope

AudioCodes HDVoIP technology is embedded in a broad range of

feature-rich and scalable products supporting the popular wideband
coders including:
– G.722
– G.722.2 (AMR-WB)
– G.729.1
– EVRC-B
– G.711-WBE
– Microsoft RTA

In addition a suite of Enhanced Algorithms and Services enriches the HD

VoIP experience:
– Wideband Voice Conferencing
– Wideband Media Transcoding
– Packet Loss Concealment
– Acoustic Echo Cancellation
– Adaptive Jitter Buffers
HD VoIP Transcoding / Conferencing

AudioCodes Mediant 3000 Transcoding Resource

 Conversion from one HD voice coder to another.
 Required for Wireline / Wireless points of intersection
 Maintains full fidelity

G.722
DECT Phone
Cable
Mediant™ 3000 Gateway

Enterprise Mobile

AMR-WB
RTA
IP Phone

AudioCodes IPmedia 3000 Conferencing Resource

 Mixes different wideband coders and narrowband.
HD VoIP for Enterprise Business:
Enhancing Communication

Enhances worker collaboration and bridges geographical gaps with

remote branches.

Higher customer satisfaction and increased productivity.

Headquarters
Branch Offices
Gateway
MSBG Firewall
and
Router
Enterprise
LAN LAN
WAN

IP-PBX IP Phones
AudioCodes HD VoIP Products

IPMedia™ 3000 Media Server

IP Phones Mediant™ 3000

Enterprise and
Carrier-grade Media Gateway

MP-20x™
Mediant™ 1000 MSBG Residential/SOHO Gateway
Multi-service business gateway

Voice Over Packet

Processors & Modules

www.audiocodes.com/hdvoip
 Analyst reviews

"AudioCodes is well positioned to gain a market share in the IP Phone HD

voice market since its takes care of most of the wideband codecs and
algorithms and has an increasing ecosystem of partners.“
Mohamed Alaa Saayed, Research Analyst, Unified Communications

“Why HD voice? ... VoIP has dramatically brought down the cost of phone
calls, so margins are non-existent. Deploying HD voice services … would
provide carriers with a service differentiator and a product with a price
premium people are willing to pay for.

“HD voice has the potential to reverse the trend of declining landline
sales, Pulver asserted ... People will start to purchase home lines again
because it sounds so damn good..”
AudioCodes as a “One Stop Shop”

IP-PBX Recording,
(i.e. Asterisk,
running on OSN
Conferencing,
Server) Fax to Email,
MSBG VoiceMail…

LAN
IP Phones
FMC Mobile
Handsets
 AudioCodes Differentiators
Summary

•Wide selection of wideband coders (G.722, AMR-WB, ..)

HD VoIP •Available in all models

Interop •Wide Interoperability with IP-PBXs and Soft switches

•Customization per demand, including Labels, Logos and

Private Labeling Manuals

•Multiple products from one Vendor

“One Stop Shop” •Media Servers, Gateways, MSBG, SBC and Applications

•In-House DSP R&D

DSP Expertise •Quick turn around for new features and fixes

Pricing •Compelling Price Point

Agenda

 Observations

 Business Challenges

 Introduction to HD VoIP

 AudioCodes’ HD VoIP Strategy and Products

 Closing Thoughts and Q/A

 Closing Thoughts

Future is all-IP communications

Market is looking for differentiation/affinity
IP penetration - reached a point of inflection
All-IP paves the way to HD VoIP

AudioCodes - making HD VoIP a reality

Chips
Gateways
Transcoding / Conferencing
IP Phones
 For more information….

HD Voip Strategy: www.audiocodes.com/hdvoip

IP Phones: www.audiocodes.com/ipphone

To find:
Whitepapers
Presentations
Datasheets
Demonstrations