10.5.0 - An Overview of Features

F-0614 GSM Support (RFC 3551)

Brief Description:

The GSM Network (Global System for Mobile Communications) supports four different codecs.

1. FR (Full Rate)

2. EFR (Enhanced Full Rate)

3. AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate)

4. Half Rate Feature

F-0614 provides support for the wireless GSM-FR (Full Rate) codec. The GSM-FR codec was the first digital speech coding standard used in the GSM network. 

• Payload types support RFC3551

• The Codec GSM-FR can be implemented on the IMG using Vocoder Profiles 6 and 7. Refer to the topic Setting Host Flags in the related topics section below on how to set Host Flags to support Feature F-0614.

• GSM-FR payload type can be either static or dynamic.

• The dynamic payload types are selectable in ClientView between 96-127. The Static payload types are an option for older equipment which may need the older payload types. They are selectable between 0-95.

• The configurable Payload sizes in ClientView are 20ms, 40ms, and 60ms

• The GSM-FR codec will be supported on the voip modules that are using the Mindspeed chips only

• There is no AnnexB support in GSM-FR Codec

• The Codec GSM-EFR (Enhanced Full Rate) is not supported at this time.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Setting Host Flags

IMG 1010 - Vocoder Entry

IMG 1010 - Vocoder Information

F-0712 SIP Support for G.726-32 (RFC 3555, section 4.1.6)

Brief Description:

Feature F-0712 gives the IMG 1010 and IMG 1004 support for the audio codec G.726-32. G.726-32 is a speech codec which converts a single 64 kb/s a-law or mu-law PCM Channel to a 32 kb/s channel. G726-32 was introduced to replace G.721. The most common mode is 32 kb/s which is about half the rate of G.721 which increases the network bandwidth by approximately 100%. G-726 is used primarily on international trunks.  

• G.726-32 can be implemented on the IMG using Vocoder Profiles 5, 6 and 7. The value of the HostFlag in the dhcpd.conf file must be changed to accept this codec.

• G.726 payload type can be either static or dynamic.

• The dynamic payload types are selectable in ClientView between 96-127.

• The Static payload types are an option for older equipment which may need the older payload types. They are selectable between 0-95

• The G.726 codec will be supported on the voip modules that are using the Mindspeed chips only. It is not supported on the older Broadcom Modules

• G.726-32 is supported in the SIP stack only. It is not supported on the H323 stack.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Setting Host Flags

IMG 1010 - Vocoder Entry

IMG 1010 - Vocoder Information

F-785 Q.1912 Support for SIP-ISUP

Brief Description:

Currently, IMG supports SIP and ISUP Interworking that complies with RFC 3398. This benefits ANSI SS7/ISUP network users. Feature F-0785 will add the interworking between SIP and ISUP, which covers basic call (signaling) conversion and procedure that follow ITU-T Q.1912.5 (03/2004).

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Interworking from ISUP to SIP

IMG 1010 - ISUP Cause Codes - ISUP to SIP

F-0848 ClientView Auto Save

Brief Description:

ClientView AutoSave feature gives the customer the option of auto saving the configuration file they are using at different time intervals from 1 minute up to 5 minutes. ClientView AutoSave will prevent losing data when users forget to save their configuration file or if there is a some unknown circumstances such as power failures or host reboots. The AutoSave feature can be enabled and disabled from the "Configuration" object in Clientview.

Related Topics:

 IMG 1010 - ClientView AutoSave

F-0967 ARP Caching for Non-Gateway Destinations

Brief Description:

Feature F-0967 will add the ability to support ARP cache for the local subnet. When establishing RTP connections, the MAC address for the Destination IP address needs to get resolved. This IP to MAC resolution uses standard protocol called ARP. Whenever IP to MAC resolution is needed a cache is always examined before sending ARP request. If the entry exists then ARP request is not sent since the cache contains the IP address and it's MAC, therefore the MAC can be returned immediately.

Before software 10.5.0, we supported caching for destinations outside the local subnet. The IMG cached the IP to MAC entry only for the gateway (not Media Gateway) on the local subnet. Many customers have their destination end points within their local subnet. Therefore the ARP Resolution service is being used for every call on the local subnet which causes lot of wasted bandwidth.

Feature F-0967 allows caching of IP to MAC addresses on the local subnet as well. The default gateway will no longer be the only piece of equipment on the local subnet to get cached for RTP connections. The IMG will cache up to 256 endpoints (Class C Network). After the 256 endpoints are cached the IMG will look at the LSB (Least Significant Byte) of all its cached values. The IP address in the Cache which has the same LSB as the new entry will be replaced.

For the cached values there is a default timer which will delete any cached entries after the timer expires whether there are calls being processed or not. This timer is set at 5 minutes.

Related Topics:

None

F-1065 Remote Provisioning of SD Card

Brief Description:

Feature F-1065 gives the IMG 1010 the ability to connect to an SD card through use of FTP application. When an IMG is so remote that it does not have the ability to connect to an ftp server it relies on loading software from an SD Card. The SD Card is a small memory card much like the memory cards used in digital cameras and other devices. The IMG has an SD card slot positioned on the right hand side of the front panel just below the USB port. The SD card up to software 10.3.x has the ability hold a software build on it. Up till software 10.3.x the only way to access and edit the information on the SD Card would be to physically go to the remote IMG, pull the card out, insert it into an SD Reader, and edit it that way. A new feature has been implemented for software build 10.5.0 which provisions the IMG as an FTP server instead of just an FTP client. This gives the user the ability to transfer files to and from the SD Card using the ftp utility. The IMG running as an ftp server is disabled by default and would need to be enabled through ClientView in order for the functionality to work.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Downloading System Software Using Boot File on SD Card

IMG 1010 - Downloading System Software from SD Card

IMG 1010 - Distributing System Software Using SD Card

IMG 1010 - Default bootup.cfg

IMG 1010 - SD Card Remote Provisioning

IMG 1004 - SD Card Remote Provisioning

F-1124 Vocoder Information in CDR

Brief Description:

Feature F-1198 includes changes made to the GCL to allow L3 information to be sent to the GCL. Previously this messaging only occurred during signaling messages. These changes will allow CDR information to be updated independent of the signaling messages. Feature 1124 involves the addition of 3 new VSA parameters to the CDR information generated by the IMG. The new VSAs are:

These VSAs will add VOIP codec information to the information already collected by RADIUS. The data contained in VSA 57 & 58 comes from the m line of the SIP SDP. This will give customers more information about how calls are progressing through the system.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - RADIUS - Attributes

IMG 1010 - RADIUS - Codec Info in CDR

F-1195 Allow More Than 4 SS7 stacks (IMG 1010 only)

Brief Description:

Feature F-1195 gives the customer the ability to configure up to 16 stacks per GCEMS. Each Logical IMG Group supports creating four SS7 signaling stack objects under it. The SS7 stacks can be created all under one physical IMG 1010 or can be spread out under multiple physical IMG 1010's. Any combination of stacks can be created under the Logical IMG. SS7 stacks cannot be created if the IMG configured is not under a Logical IMG Group. See related topics below which explains this better with tables etc.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - An Overview of SS7 Configuration

IMG 1010 - Configuring SS7 Signaling - 10.5.1

F-1226 Low Density Gateway

Brief Description:

Feature F-1226 introduces the IMG 1004 platform for System Software build 10.5.0. The IMG 1004 is a low density gateway in the IMG product family.  The key purpose of the platform is to support standalone Voice over IP Gateway features, which shall include both Time Division Multiplex (TDM) and Internet Protocol (IP) interfaces. Like the IMG 1010, the design shall be sufficiently flexible to allow routing of calls over any of the available interfaces, including combinations of TDM-IP, IP-IP and TDM-TDM. The IMG 1004 supports configuring from 1 to 4 spans on the TDM side and a total of 128 VoIP channels on the IP side. The IMG 1004 will operate on the 10.5.0 software required to run the IMG 1010 and will support most of the functionality currently residing on the IMG 1010.

Related Topics:

 IMG 1004 - Specifications

F-1273 SDP Support for Prack (RFC 3262)

Brief Description:

Feature F-1273 gives the IMG the ability to embed the SDP (Session Description Protocol) information within the PRACK message. The purpose of this feature is to guarantee the reliable receipt of 1xx responses by the User Agent. Provisional responses (1xx) tell the User Agent that the request has been received and is being processed. The 1xx messages are not sent reliably under the core SIP specifications. This poses an issue in situations where the 1xx must be received reliably, for instance, a SIP/PSTN inter-working scenario where a 180 or 183 loss cannot be afforded. The IMG supports incoming PRACK with SDP support and all currently implemented rules of SDP decoding/overlap failure still apply. This means the following:

• An invalid SDP message will be ignored by the IMG

• The IMG will accept a valid PRACK message which has invalid SDP information embedded. It will discard only the SDP portion of the PRACK message. (Media parameters will not change.)

• The IMG does not support sending out a PRACK message with the SDP information embedded.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - SIP PRACK

IMG 1010 - SIP PRACK Call Flows

F-1274 SIP Privacy Header Enhancements (RFC 3325)

Brief Description:

With this feature the IMG changes the way SIP Privacy is configured. SIP Privacy is a way for trusted network elements operated by the service providers to communicate the identity of the subscribers to such a service, yet also need to withhold this information from entities that are not trusted when necessary.  Such networks typically assume some level of transitive trust among providers and the devices they operate. SIP Privacy is configured in two separate objects in ClientView and the second is configured is under the Profiles object in ClientView. SIP Privacy can be enabled on some trusted gateways and not on others. For more information on configuring etc see the related topics section below.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - SIP Privacy Overview

IMG 1010 - Configuring SIP Privacy 

IMG 1010 - External Gateway

IMG 1010 - ISDN Group

F-1282 Configuration Wizard

Brief Description:

The Node Configuration Wizard was designed to help the ClientView user create a configuration for the IMG. The Node Configuration Wizard was also designed to help simplify the configuration process. The application written will help a user create a new configuration for the IMG by first asking some simple questions and then implementing the answers given. The Node Configuration Wizard can be started in a few different ways. See below for the various ways the Configuration Wizard can be started

• When the user first starts GCEMS and there is already a configuration loaded in /opt/cantata/common/config the IMG will ask "Would you like to start a new configuration?" If the user selects yes and then opens up Clientview a screen like below will appear and ask whether the configuration wizard will be used. If there is no configuration in /opt/cantata/common/config (For Instance: First time configuring IMG) the IMG will automatically go into New Configuration mode and the screen like below will appear when starting ClientView.

• Once the screen below appears and the user selects the Wizard button then the configuration wizard will begin and the first screen that will appear is setting T1/E1 Profiles. If the answer is no then the Configuration Wizard will not begin and the user can now manually configure the switch through ClientView. See screen capture below

Open

The second way of starting the Configuration Wizard is in Clientview under the IMG EMS object there are two buttons labeled "General Configuration Wizard (Profiles)" and "Add IMG Wizard".

1. If the General Configuration Wizard button is selected then the wizard will start at the T1/E1 Profiles screen like above.

2. If the Add IMG Wizard button is selected the wizard will bypass all the General Configuration and start at the point of Adding a New IMG. This wizard will be for scenarios where the user just needs to add a New IMG to an existing configuration.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Configuration Wizard

F-1283 Facility Changes

Brief Description:

Feature F-1283 changes the way the GCEMS application configures some of the objects. The changes were made to simplify and be more logical about how things are configured. See related Topics Below

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Configuring T1 or E1 Bearer Profile - 10.5.x

IMG 1010 - Configuring T1 or E1 Bearer Spans - 10.5.x

IMG 1010 - Configuring T1 or E1 Signaling Spans - 10.5.x

IMG 1010 - Facility Wizard

IMG 1010 - Configuration Wizard

IMG 1010 - Timing Synchronization Priority List

IMG 1010 - Configuring a Synchronization Priority List

IMG 1010 - ClientView Indicators

F-1285 ClientView Button to Collect Logs

Brief Description:

Support personnel often need to collect log files from the IMG in order to troubleshoot a problem or issue that may have occurred. Within ClientView an object named Support can be created under the Dialogic IMG EMS object. Once the Support object is created then the ability to collect the log files is made very simple. When implementing the Support object and collecting the log files, all the log files created under each Logical and Physical IMG under ClientView will be compressed into one file and transferred to the GCEMS server where it can be uncompressed for viewing.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Collect Log File Button

IMG 1010 - Log Files

F-1294 Reason Header Interworking (RFC 3326)

Brief Description:

The Reason Header field for SIP is included in each of the following messages. (ITU-T Recommendation Q.850)

• BYE

• CANCEL

• 4xx, 5xx, and 6xx messages

Up till software 10.3.3 the IMG had the ability to propagate the Reason Header in each of the above messages from the TDM leg of the call to the SIP leg of the call. The Reason Header would indicate why a SIP request or response was issued. In software 10.5.0 the ability to propagate the Reason Header from the SIP leg of a call to the TDM side of the call was added. The Reason Header Field in each of the SIP messages is used primarily for debugging problems in a circuit. Clients and servers are free to ignore this header field as it has no impact on protocol processing. The Reason Header Field satisfies RFC 3326. The Reason Header field now gives the customer the ability to propagate cause code information from SIP to TDM and TDM to SIP without having to configure SIP-T.

Related Topics:

 IMG 1010 - SIP Reason Header

F-1327 CAS Stats to the Host

Brief Description:

There are certain statistics such as Cacti (10.5.0), MRTG, and Channel Group Call Statistics that are available to the host. The host queries the IMG and the IMG reports the data being queried using specific log files. These log files are designed to provide Support Personnel with key information used to identify the operational status of the system. The statistics are kept on a per object basis and are stored in a separate directory. The statistics files are stored in a Microsoft® Excel spread sheet format so that they can be easily viewed and manipulated. Feature F-1327 adds CAS information that is sent to the host for processing the statistics.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Call Statistics

IMG 1010 - Overview of Cacti Watcher

IMG 1010 - Overview of MRTG

F-1332 RCOMM State for All Nodes Per Node

Brief Description:

Feature F-1332 RCOMM State for all nodes per node enhances how RCOMM is displayed and also adds a few alarms that will appear in EventView. RCOMM is signaling that occurs between each of the IMG nodes within a Logical Node Group.  An example of RCOMM signaling is when there is a master SS7 node that is controlling CIC's on other remote nodes it is the RCOMM messaging that accomplishes this. See Related Topics below for more information on this feature.

Related Topics:

 IMG 1010 - Physical IMG

F-1334 Graceful Upgrade of Node

Brief Description:

Graceful upgrade is the ability of a customer to upgrade GCEMS & IMG software as well as their configuration with minimal loss of service to their network of gateways.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Upgrading the System Software

F-1344 Cacti Watcher Function

Brief Description:

Cacti is a network monitoring/graphing application which is replacing the MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) monitoring/graphing tool. Cacti is built around the RRDTool which is an open source high performance data logging and graphing system. Cacti will be used to monitor information such as Network Traffic, CPU Utilization, Memory, and Temperature. Based on some preset thresholds, Cacti has the ability to send alerting Email once the thresholds have been exceeded. Cacti has better performance than MRTG and operates using user generated graphs. Below is a list of the components that make up the Cacti monitoring system

• Apache HTTP Server - A web server responsible for accepting HTTP requests.

• mySQL database - Multi Threaded, MultiUser, SQL database management system.

• RRDTool - Round Robin Database - RRD is a system to store and display time-series data like network traffic, temperatures, etc

• php scripting - PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development. PHP can be embedded into HTML.   

• Perl Scripting - Perl is a high level programming language that is stable and is a  cross platform programming language. It is used in critical projects in the public and private sectors and is widely used to program web applications of all needs.

• Cacti Monitoring Tool - Cacti is a complete network graphing solution designed to harness the power of RRDTool's data storage and graphing functionality

• Cacti Plug-In Architecture -  Ability to add features to Cacti

• Cacti Thresholding Plug In - Enables the ability to send e-mails based on preset thresholds

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Overview of Cacti Watcher

IMG 1010 - Installing Cacti

IMG 1010 - Upgrade From MRTG to Cacti Watcher

IMG 1010 - Revert back to MRTG from Cacti

F-1361 ISDN to SIP UUI Support

Brief Description:

The IMG supports sending UUI (User to User Information) between called and calling parties. The purpose of the User to User Information support is to pass specific information not pertaining to the call from one user to another. The information can be passed during the following phases of a call.

• Setup and Clearing Phase - UUI message is embedded in the ISUP call control message

• Setup Phase of the Call - UUI message transferred independently of Call Control Messages and sent through the ISUP Information message

• Active Phase of the Call - UUI message sent through ISUP User Info message during the call

The information is transferred transparently through the network and does not have any effect on the call. The IMG supports UUI for multiple protocols. On the TDM side UUI is supported between ISDN to ISDN, ISDN and SS7, SS7 to SS7. On the VoIP side UUI is supported in messages between ISDN and SIP. In the ISDN to SIP scenario the IMG will interwork the UUI parameters into the SIP INFO message.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - SIP UUI Support

F-1369 IMG Licensing in 32 Port Increments

Brief Description:

The IMG and various components require a license to be operated or enabled.  The licenses are generated at the factory and are distributed on one of the software discs supplied with IMG. Each license will unlock different functionality in the IMG and the licenses are sold in different increments to cater to different customers needs. Feature F-1369 reduces the incremental value in which the licenses are sold. In order to accommodate the IMG 1004 the value was decreased to 32. The license will need to be transferred to /opt/cantata/common/licenses directory which is located on the GCEMS server.

Related Topics:

IMG 1010 - Licensing

IMG 1004 - Licensing

 F-1382 Call Release Origin in CDR

Brief Description:

One problem when troubleshooting a failed called is knowing where the call release came from. The IMG has a feature (F-1382) where the release information on a failed called will be written into the CDR information in Radius. The information will inform the user whether the release came from the IMG (local) or the release came from the remote party (remote). The Call Party Release Info in CDR feature will display one of the following in the Radius CDR "cantata-release-source"

• CALLED PARTY RELEASE - Local

• CALLED PARTY RELEASE - Remote

• CALLING PARTY RELEASE - Local

• CALLING PARTY RELEASE- Remote

Related Topics:

 IMG 1010 - Call Release Origin in CDR