SIP Trunking and VoiceCon

The three-hour SIP Trunking session at VoiceCon drew over three hundred participants. That is SIPnormous. It demonstrates the growing interest in SIP by enterprises as they begin to supplement their intranet VoIP implementations with extranet SIP. While Broadvox was not invited to participate in those sessions, we did speak at a smaller breakout sponsored by AudioCodes. The message of that particular breakout was to understand some of the FUD associated with SIP Trunking and risk mitigation in transitioning to SIP.

Too often, when we discuss transitioning to SIP, we insinuate that the SMB or enterprise must go out and purchase an IP PBX or make drastic changes to their networking infrastructure. This is not necessary and in many cases would be the wrong thing to do. The transition can be done using a media gateway that preserves or extends the TDM based investment. AudioCodes refers to this as "Come as You Are". We even highlighted this message in an IP Man episode "SIP Trunking as You Are" where IP Man and Metoo save a distraught IT manager when he is at a loss in making the transition from TDM to IP communications. Using gateway technology can be the best way to address remote and branch offices allowing them to benefit from the new features associated with SIP and perhaps a new corporate IP PBX. This is a key risk mitigation approach.

The Broadvox message during the session was mostly on voice quality. I noted that while I have attacked the FUD put forth by some of the ILECs and CLECs regarding IP based voice quality and Bring Your Own Broadband (BYOB) strategies, I have neglected to share with you the study done on the subject. Broadvox is a BYOB ITSP because it has been shown that a proper broadband connection with minimal latency delivers exceptional voice quality. The G.711 codec Mean Opinion Score (MOS) is 4.4 on a scale where 5.0 is perfect. That compares with the same score, 4.4, for a toll call over a TDM network and 3.8 for a wireless or cellular network call. Interestingly even the use of compression with a G.729a codec does not marginalize the voice quality. That MOS score was an impressive 4.2.

You are probably wondering how a MOS score is established. I'll go over that on Friday.

Thanks to those of you that noticed I forgot to create the link to Monday's recipe. It has been corrected. You can now make Roasted Brussels Sprouts with my white seasoning mixture. Enjoy!