w w whot telecomcom

360 VISIONTRANSCODINGA LOOK AT HOW TRANSCODING CAN HELP IPX PROVIDERS CLIMB UP THE VALUE CHAIN

07 2016

Sponsored by w w wradisyscom

FUTURE PROOFINGYOURDigitalBUSINESS

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360deg VISION TR ANSCODING 3

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2

WHERE IS THE VALUE

DIFFERENT APPROACHESTO TRANSCODING

Before we transcode we need to Encode 5

The world of telecom services is evolving faster than at any time in the past as customer expectations for always-on and faster solutions grow with each new handset design

In this new world there are a plethora of applications making use of the high definition audio and video capabilities of modern mobile handsets And these applications require data processing that would eclipse a serious gaming PC from just a few years back

While this is great for consumers and the industry this evolution also comes with a massive increase in overall service complexity

For the foreseeable future these evolved handset capabilities will still need to interwork with much less powerful earlier generation handset or even a standard telephone

IPX providers responsible to interconnect calls between disparate endpoints and networks could fall back to the lowest quality lowest complexity service However as subscribers now demand a better quality of experience this simple route is not always the right one

IPX providers are in an ideal position to offer the evolved transcoding services required for communications interoperability to happen partly because of their position as the interconnecting engine of the global telecom network and partly because of the efficiency they can generate from sharing a transcoding infrastructure investment across many customer groups

In contrast while each originating service provider could provide the necessary transcoding to make international calls work their transcoding requirements are more sporadic and variable and for them investing in transcoding solutions is therefore less cost effective

It could be said that basic transcoding is just a necessary function to make a call work when the end devices or networks are unable to directly establish a call As such it could be one of those capabilities that does not create any visible differentiator for IPX providers

So why should IPX providers bother when simpler options exist One strong driver is the growing adoption of VoLTE services with many more advanced interactive services driving opportunities for IPX providers with a future-proof vision for delivering transcoding and other value added services for their service provider customers

This 360 vision will not only explain what transcoding really is but also why it is becoming increasingly important for IPX providers to support it We will also discuss the challenges related to offering transcoding services and will finally outline potential real life use cases that will convince you to add this capability to future-proof your business

Steve HeapCTOHOT TELECOM

EVOLUTION CREATES COMPLEXITY table of ContentS

11CARRIERS TRANSCODINGOPPORTUNITY 16

20about HOT TELECOM about radisys 26

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360deg VISION TR ANSCODING 3

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2

WHERE IS THE VALUE

DIFFERENT APPROACHESTO TRANSCODING

Before we transcode we need to Encode 5

The world of telecom services is evolving faster than at any time in the past as customer expectations for always-on and faster solutions grow with each new handset design

In this new world there are a plethora of applications making use of the high definition audio and video capabilities of modern mobile handsets And these applications require data processing that would eclipse a serious gaming PC from just a few years back

While this is great for consumers and the industry this evolution also comes with a massive increase in overall service complexity

For the foreseeable future these evolved handset capabilities will still need to interwork with much less powerful earlier generation handset or even a standard telephone

IPX providers responsible to interconnect calls between disparate endpoints and networks could fall back to the lowest quality lowest complexity service However as subscribers now demand a better quality of experience this simple route is not always the right one

IPX providers are in an ideal position to offer the evolved transcoding services required for communications interoperability to happen partly because of their position as the interconnecting engine of the global telecom network and partly because of the efficiency they can generate from sharing a transcoding infrastructure investment across many customer groups

In contrast while each originating service provider could provide the necessary transcoding to make international calls work their transcoding requirements are more sporadic and variable and for them investing in transcoding solutions is therefore less cost effective

It could be said that basic transcoding is just a necessary function to make a call work when the end devices or networks are unable to directly establish a call As such it could be one of those capabilities that does not create any visible differentiator for IPX providers

So why should IPX providers bother when simpler options exist One strong driver is the growing adoption of VoLTE services with many more advanced interactive services driving opportunities for IPX providers with a future-proof vision for delivering transcoding and other value added services for their service provider customers

This 360 vision will not only explain what transcoding really is but also why it is becoming increasingly important for IPX providers to support it We will also discuss the challenges related to offering transcoding services and will finally outline potential real life use cases that will convince you to add this capability to future-proof your business

Steve HeapCTOHOT TELECOM

EVOLUTION CREATES COMPLEXITY table of ContentS

11CARRIERS TRANSCODINGOPPORTUNITY 16

20about HOT TELECOM about radisys 26

TR ANSCODING 5

Before we transcodewe need to encode

I nteractive voice and video communication services involve the exchange of sounds and images Audio encompasses a wide range of frequencies from sounds that we feel rather than hear through to the highest notes that we might not be even able to discern Our eyes see a broad range of colors and perceive

images in 3D

When we try to transmit this information to another location we need a way to convert it into the basic building blocks of modern telecoms packets of digital information A coderdecoder algorithm (or a codec) encodes an analog audio soundwave or a video stream into 1s and 0s for transmission across the network so it can then be decoded to recreate the original audio or video as accurately as possible at the far end

TRANSCODINGSimplifying the digital evolution

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CODECS CODECS AND MORE CODECS

Although more bandwidth is available now than at any time in history there continues to be bottlenecks and costs associated with its provision especially toward the edge of mobile networks

Due to these constraints codec technology has evolved to deliver ever improving voice and video quality while compressing as much information as possible into the lowest bandwidth to minimize transmission costs

But another big technology change needs to be overlaid on codec evolution the move from TDM to IP TDM (or Time Division Multiplex) basically assigns a full circuit (at 64Kbits) to a voice call and uses that bandwidth to encode a narrow approximation of the original audio

The evolution to IP packet networks meant that service providers had to encode the original audio into a series of data packets

Voice calls in IP networks are vulnerable to lost packets noise delay and jitter (variances in delay) hence modern codecs along with the transcoding functions in IP networks are also designed to compensate and minimize their impact on the real-time audio call experience

As a result we have gone from a world of TDM circuit networks encoded with G711 (the basic codec which compressed a very narrow range of audio frequencies into a 64kbits stream) to a variety of open source and commercial codecs used with IP packet networks

As the diagram below explains modern codecs have managed to support a massive improvement in quality ndash up to full band stereo ndash in basically the same bandwidth allocation as the narrow ldquodead soundingrdquo audio of that old telephone call Simply put HD voice and beyond is quickly becoming the new norm

However with the growing number of codecs comes growing complexity Service providers now have to be in a position to support most

of these encoding technologies to ensure that the latest handsets will communicate with legacy devices and interwork with other service providers that are at different stages of their network evolution

THE ROLE OF THE HANDSET

Voice over IP calls use a signaling system (known as SIP) to establish and control the call During call setup these signaling messages also exchange codec ldquocapability and preferencerdquo messages from the originating equipment to the terminating device

Each endpoint outlines the specific codecs that the endpoint can support in priority order If there is no match between the available codecs the network needs to quickly insert a transcoding function in the call path during call setup to establish a call between incompatible handsetsnetworks

WHAT IS TRANSCODING REALLY

Transcoding is the interception of the media (the voice andor video) in real time and modifying it to make it work with the equipment in the distant network If the source and destination endpoints discover they support the same codec during call set up negotiation transcoding is not required However when a codec mismatch is identified transcoding will be required somewhere in the call path

But the real value add of transcoding comes from honoring the best quality codec offered by the source and destination to get the best possible performance from that specific session ndash what we like to call agile transcoding

Voice transcodingWhen it comes to voice current ldquophonesrdquo have a defined set of codecs and service providers pre-select certain ones to be preferred For instance 2G and 3G mobile networks use AMR-NB as a low bandwidth way of providing basic narrowband audio service

As customers sought out better quality some service providers added a wideband version of the codec (AMR-WB) into 3G smartphones and provided the necessary transcoding to make calls between these HD enabled phones and the older 2G3G devices work

With the rollout of LTE (and particularly Voice over LTE or VoLTE) the entire network structure is finally being moved from its traditional TDM architecture to an end-to-end IP environment New codecs for both audio and video continue to be developed and continue to grow in complexity

Agile transcoding allows service providers to carefully select which codecs to deploy in order to maximize utilization and minimize cost

In situations with incompatible endpoints service providers could elect a simple strategy to transcode any high definition source down to the lowest common denominator (narrowband voice)

While you could use narrowband end-to-end on a call there are benefits to applying transcoding and keeping the VoLTE call portion on HD codec Agile transcoding would allow AMR-WB and Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) codecs to be utilized for better bandwidth efficiency over the expensive air interface and then transcode within the IPX network for connectivity with endpoints using older handset technology

Types of audio codecs currently in service

Source opus-codecorg Radisys

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8

Finally communications app designers are much less constrained on which codecs to use They tend to prefer high-definition open source codecs to differentiate their audio quality with no licensing fees to minimize their costs

As each new technology rolls out such as WebRTC more advanced codecs are often rolled out in parallel The days when the International Telecom Union (ITU) would bless a codec for global deployment are over

Video transcodingVideo with its differing screen sizes formats and image refresh rates has many more

options to compress real-time video into a stream of packets making it far more complex to transcode than voice

Yet video is the future of communication with LTE providing the high speed IP connectivity to the handset and consumers and a growing number of networks offer video over LTE (ViLTE) services to their customers

In the presence of the GoogleSkypeFacebook generation the challenges for interworking video must be tackled with the same urgency as voice

For example service providers must ensure that every video conference doesnrsquot step

AMR-NB AMR-WB

Transcoding requirements

4GLTETablet video

VoLTE Mobile

IP SoftphoneOn PC

WebRTC

PSTN Phone

2G Mobile

Transcoding Transrating Media conditioning

back the quality to the level supported by the oldest video device on the video call but rather delivers the highest quality of experience for the end-users when it comes to live media

Going beyond the needs of end-to-end calling (whether audio or with video) the world of digital content is itself an enormous marketplace

A service provider can deliver additional value and differentiation by managing the real-time needs of transcoding live video to make it viewable with the highest quality on the diverse screens of a global audience

Transcoding and transrating (which corrects for different frame rates) is the new normal in the communications industry and will generate many profitable opportunities for those service providers that can support it

EASIER SAID THAN DONE

Obviously people expect all of the different technologies to seamlessly interwork and so the challenges of transcoding continue to grow

In our opinion the key areas that need to be addressed when implementing transcoding solutions are threefold

1 Where should the transcoding take place2 When is transcoding needed3 How do you perform the actual transcoding

The answers as you may expect can vary

depending on the case being dealt with and we will provide you answers to most of these in the remainder of our 360 vision document

Source Radisys

TR ANSCODING 11

different approachesto transcoding

Transcoding is basically the function of decoding an incoming audio or video signal encoded using one type of codec format and then re-encoding the same signal into an alternative codec format before forwarding to the distant party In 2-way or N-way conversational voice and video services

this needs to be done in real time in a way that minimizes delays or distortion that might impact call quality

Architecturally transcoding can be performed inside an existing call processing element (a Session Border Controller for instance) or deployed as a stand-alone transcoding solution The transcoding function itself can also be undertaken in software or dedicated hardware This article looks at the drivers for these different solutions and identifies what the likely long term answer is going to be for many large service providers

TRANSCODINGOne size does not fit all

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12

Taking all of these factors into account designing a solution where the transcoding function takes place in software does work for small scale deployments However as the volume of media processing increases in a network the cost of assigning more and more processor capacity for software-based transcoding can become prohibitive when total cost of ownership is considered

As a result delivering transcoding at scale is often still best achieved using dedicated hardware resources engineered using digital signal processing chips optimized to process codec algorithms with high efficiency

TRANSCODINGINTEGRATION OR STAND ALONE

Another key consideration is the architecture of the transcoding solution with other call processing elements

Do you integrate the transcoding function either in software or through dedicated chips into the voice gateway or session controllers

Or do you implement standalone transcoding solutions that are brought into the media stream as and when they are needed

TRANSCODINGSOFTWARE OR HARDWARE

Transcoding can either be performed in software running on a general purpose CPU or in hardware elements designed using digital signal processing (DSP) chips that are optimized to efficiently deliver transcoding

As we know there is a general industry move toward the virtualization of network specific hardware onto standard industry servers (Network Function Virtualization or NFV) Transcoding however brings some key challenges when implemented in software on standard servers

1 Media transcoding brings a constant demand on processing power

Unlike call signaling where the processor load is ldquoburstyrdquo during call setup and tear down media is a constant flow throughout the session and so the processor load is constant for each call ndash in effect each new call adds a new steady demand on the processing power of the server

2 The complexity of modern codecs adds significantly to the processor load

Modern codecs deliver the benefits of higher quality with lower bandwidth requirements at the expense of much higher algorithm complexity This adds significantly to the processor load as it needs to make many more calculations on each media stream

To illustrate this complexity the diagrams below show that the latest wideband codec for audio known as EVS requires up to four times the processing power of the original HD mobile codec (AMR-WB) and up to 40x that of VoIP era codecs

3 No tolerance for delay

Delay cannot be tolerated and jitter (the inconsistency of delay) can make the session unintelligible Unlike signaling which can easily absorb a small delay if the processor is busy on other tasks the media must be processed immediately as it arrives A sudden peak in calls requires enough spare processor capacity to deal with that peak as it happens

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Audio

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

H261 H263 H264 VP9 H265 VP9

Video

Rela

tive

Com

puta

tiona

l Com

plex

ity

VP8

VoIP era Today 5G era VoIP era 5G eraToday

Rela

tive

Com

puta

tiona

l Com

plex

ity

Reducing bandwidth while maintainingimproving quality comes at the cost of computational complexitySource Radisys

Source Radisys

Media processing capacity amp complexity

Tota

l cos

t of o

wne

rshi

p

Software transcoding solutions are more economical for smaller and simpler deployments

Several hundred to thousand ports

Simpler audio and video codecs

Software vs Hardware transcoding applications

Software Media Resource FunctionHardware Media Resource Function

Hardware transcoding solutions are often more economical for larger and more complex deployments

Several thousand ports

Modern complex codecs such as EVS and Opus

Source Radisys

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14

With this standalone architecture the signaling and media processing functions can be scaled independently and the transcoding resources can be updated independently to support new codecs as required

Another benefit of a decomposed strategy is that the separated functions can now be implemented in optimal locations For example signaling functions are best centralized in core data centers while transcoding functions often should stay distributed to minimize end-to-end delays

In addition a decomposition strategy can also extend the life of existing SBC investments SBCs continue to perform call signaling and

border control functions very well ndash it is the transcoding of modern codecs where legacy SBCs are often challenged as no contemporary SBCs were designed or intended to support HD audio and video transcoding services

By separating transcoding processing into standalone devices SBCs continue to do what they do best ndash signaling and border control functions while transcoding requirements are addressed by modern adjunct platforms that complement the SBCs with complex HD audio and video transcoding capabilities

This future-proofed network architecture can provide the best balance of cost efficiency and performance now and in the 5G era

Integration

While there are probably no one-size-fits-all solutions the industry has often followed its traditional path in this space Early deployments of media gateways and session border controllers (SBCs) ran on dedicated hardware with built-in transcoding functions often on dedicated cards

These systems were designed and installed when the large majority of sessions used narrowband audio connections connecting endpoints using the same codec For the small percentage of calls with incompatible endpoint codecs media resource cards within the SBCs would process the transcoding required

With this design however there are two issues

1 The relationship between transcoding resources as a percentage of overall capacity is relatively fixed so if the requirements for transcoding increase the common solution is to deploy another SBC with more transcoding cards Unfortunately this will force you to buy more signaling resources that will likely sit idle in order to meet the increased transcoding need

2 The second issue is that if a new codec comes into common usage ndash as is happening more frequently ndash then the answer might have to be a complete replacement of the SBC itself This is a significant forklift upgrade and cost

The integrated design causes further issues when carriers look at the virtualization of the SBC As mentioned signaling is an intermittent function that is well suited to virtualization into a cloud computing environment But a virtualized transcoding solution puts much more stress on the shared servers to the extent that the effort does not become cost effective

Virtualization efforts are also intended to consolidate network functions into larger central data centers to achieve economies of scale across the cloud computing platforms with many other applications

While the delays introduced by centralization may be acceptable for call setup and signaling functions the centralization of transcoding functions may add noticeable and unacceptable delays in the media path

Standalone

As a result of these challenges the current state-of-the-art comes from the decomposition and separation of the signaling and control functions with the transcoding processing functions deployed on separate standalone processing platforms

The relatively small bandwidth and bursty nature of call routing and the signaling processes are well suited to virtualized software functions centralized in next-generation telco data centers At the same time the media can be directly routed on the shortest IP paths from originating service provider to terminating service provider when the end points are able to agree on a common codec

When the controlling processes decide that transcoding is required the media flows can be routed to standalone transcoding functions which efficiently fulfil the requirements for complex media processing required between modern audio and video codec standards

When transcoding volumes are small the standalone transcoding function might also be implemented in virtualized software but more often it continues to be delivered in purpose-built hardware solutions specifically designed to provide economical complex transcoding processing at scale

Stand alonetranscoding solution

Integratedtranscoding solution

Stand alone vs Integrated transcoding requirementsto support 80000 sessions of transcoding

80k simultaneous sessions of signaling15-20k simultaneous sessions of transcoding

Supplements SBC with +60k sessions of transcoding

Transcodingcapabilities

5 SBCs required to transcode 80000 sessions

1 SBC and 1 transcoding engine required to transcode 80000 sessions

SBC

TranscodingPlatform

Source Radisys

Source Radisys

16 360deg VISION

service providers transcoding OPPORTUNITY

All of this codec complexity provides great opportunities to make a significant difference to the way customers perceive service providersrsquo offerings Some service providers might be serving markets with rapid adoption of the newest telecommunication technologies such as VoLTE or WebRTC

Meanwhile other service providers may be serving markets which are slower to adopt new wireless and endpoint technologies

While the growing list of codec variants could be managed within one network or country by local agreements there are so many possible variants that exist around the globe There is therefore a need for middle-men willing and able to step up to the challenge of making the increasing complexity of interworking really work

And this is where the IPX provider steps in

TRANSCODINGAt the center of the equation

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18

THE ROLE OF THE IPX PROVIDERIN TRANSCODING

With the rapid evolution of the global telecom industry certain norms have arisen to ensure that the media can be transported end-to-end

One of these norms is that the responsibility for ensuring that the audio (with its codec choice) that can be supported belongs to the originating service provider If some transcoding is needed to make it work then the originating service provider is responsible for that

Many service providers have internal and national transcoding needs between fixed and mobile networks Meanwhile a new mobile service provider with a pure LTE network (with VoLTE as their only voice offering) may not have any internal transcoding needs but would still have to deploy their own transcoding solutions to enable call termination and interworking of roaming with other networks around the globe

Overlaid on the telecom networks we have been discussing we now also find an increasing variety of multimedia and multi-modal communications applications offering various flavors of voice video and messaging solutions In effect we have already moved from the voice era through the VoIP era to the world of multi-media delivered to our handsets

The growing complexity around maintaining interoperability and connectivity between diverging endpoint technologies is forcing communication service providers to look to IPX providers to help them deal with this new challenge so that they can focus on what is key for them their subscribersrsquo quality of experience

An IPX provider with a cost-effective transcoding solution could offer a service to manage the growing transcoding and interconnect needs for regional service providers

This would allow their service provider customers to avoid having to invest in a large amount of transcoding capacity while offering an interesting new revenue source for the IPX provider

In return IPX providers who are able to bridge the old with the new the different technologies standards and signaling approaches will see their relevance and value grow in the eyes of their service provider customers

Some areas in which IPX providers can play a key role when it comes to transcoding include

bull TDM to VoIP

bull VoLTE to 2G3G

bull VoLTE to Unified Communications Solutions

bull VoLTE to Communications Application providers

bull Video Transcoding for content delivery

bull Video Transcoding for streaming live events

bull Video Transcoding for ubiquitous and global consumer video conferencing

In the next article we will discuss the value proposition for IPX providers in this new era of transcoding

Operator A

IPX

Operator C

Operator B

Enterprise Enterprise users

WebRTCContact center

Mobile callers

WiFi callers

OTT userOTT 1

WebRTCGateway

OTT userOTT 2

Fixed OperatorMobile operator

Fixed callersMobile callers

WholesaleTermination network

Fixed callers

The potential roles of IPX providers in transcoding

Source Radisys

Source Radisys

20 360deg VISION

WHERE IS THEVALUE

While transcoding has been seen in the past as a necessary piece of plumbing in the network going forward we believe that transcoding will become an increasingly valuable part of IPX providersrsquo portfolio of capabilities and in fact become a competitive differentiator

For example new technologies are being deployed with WebRTC and are changing the landscape for customer contact and support Over The Top (OTT) communication application developers are fighting for market share with new features VoLTE deployments are accelerating around the globe

At the same time handsets supporting Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) are becoming a key part of service providersrsquo offerings The growing variety of communication services is introducing new interworking challenges as the newest services are often based on the latest advanced codecs such as the Ultra HD Enhanced Voice Service (EVS) codec

An IPX provider with an agile transcoding approach can deliver an increasingly valuable service to the industry resulting in differentiation and increased revenues In this section we look at two potential areas where transcoding capabilities offered by the IPX provider could be key to end-to-end services VoLTE and WebRTC

TRANSCODINGClimbing up the value chain

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22

end-to-end with the handsets trying to agree on a suitable codec ndash perhaps falling back to narrowband audio in many cases

The better solution is for the IPX provider to recognize for example that the particular destination network prefers to use the EVRC-NW codec Rather than let the handsets degrade to narrowband the IPX could take proactive action to confirm AMR-WB on the originating side confirm EVRC-NW on the terminating device and insert a transcoding function into the media path to maintain HD audio quality for that session

Similarly calls to an IP-based Unified Communications destination or to an addressable communications application on the smartphone would be transcoded to a wideband codec that the end user could support maintaining high quality audio rather than just making a ldquoleast common denominatorrdquo decision

Of course a lot of calls will still need to be connected to PSTN endpoints using older codec standards (G711 or G729 for example to use a VoIP based wholesaler for a specific destination) Delivering this increasing volume of VoLTE to non-VoLTE connectivity will require increasing transcoding horsepower

In this role IPX providers are fulfilling a key high value-add function which is to hide the complexity of international termination from their service provider customers while maximizing the quality of experience for the end users

In return this gives IPX providers the

opportunity to price the termination on a call by call basis compared to pricing calls per destination based on the routing used It could apply the ldquogold directrdquo pricing for VoLTE calls terminated on a high quality route end-to-end while charging a lower ldquosilverrdquo rate to terminate the calls that fallback to the PSTN

This is an interesting business model that should be of growing interest to service providers that are constantly looking to streamline their cost structure while ensuring the highest quality of experience possible for their customers

TRANSCODING TO ENABLE WebRTC INTERCONNECTION

WebRTC is an up and coming technology that embeds media functions directly in the browser to allow new communications capabilities to be offered without any downloads or separate applications

WebRTC-based customer contact is therefore a key new opportunity to replace traditional ldquo800rdquo based telephony call centers with customer support becoming a much more natural and contextually aware interaction with the company representatives

Using WebRTC a consumer can click a ldquoget helprdquo button on the company website which opens a text or audio chat with a representative with the ability to share a screen move to video or provide access to appropriate information to help solve the problem via another window

Amazon Mayday is a perfect example of this integration providing real-time technical support for its tablets within 10 seconds of the

TRANSCODING TO ENABLE VoLTE

VoLTE has rolled out very quickly in some markets such as in Korea and the USA but it is still in early stages in many other markets This scenario gives service providers a major headache as their customers become used to the quality and features available on their VoLTE phones

However as soon as they call their family overseas the high quality is stripped away leaving an unsatisfactory mobile conversation experience

In addition as distant networks are updated to VoLTE according to their own timeframes and to their own standards the service providers have a new challenge the status of a specific distant number will remain unclear Is it a

VoLTE enabled handset in an LTE coverage area or not and if it is what codecs does that network and handset support

By nature mobile service providers will aim to maximize the number of VoLTE to VoLTE calls in order to benefit from their high quality features and spectrum efficiency To achieve this each originating mobile network would ideally like to maintain AMR-WB or potentially EVS as the preferred codec

The IPX provider can add significant value here to maximize the availability of end-to-end VoLTE calls by maintaining a database of the capabilities of each destination around the world

Without this direct involvement of the IPX provider each call would be established

LTE MNO

Legacy MNO

IPX platformVoLTE

handset

SBC SBC

Routing

Transcodingplatform

AMR ndash WB

Audio

VoLTE transcoding

Enterprise

Fixed orCable MSO

4G5G MNOVoLTE

handset

G711

AMR-NB

EVRC

G722

EVS

EnterprisePhone

2G3Ghandset

FixedPhone

Source Radisys

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360deg VISION TR ANSCODING 25

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24

request and solving most issues without leaving the tablet for any other form of communication

But what is the international service providerrsquos role in this ecosystem and use case This brings us full circle to codecs again WebRTC has standardized on the OPUS audio codec a relatively new and computationally complex codec capable of supporting very high quality audio VoLTE and traditional fixedmobile handsets donrsquot generally support this codec

Therefore putting in place the capability to transcode OPUS endpoints through to AMR-WB Enhanced Voice Service (EVS) or even back to G711 and G729 is critical

For video WebRTC also standardized on VP8 video codecs so real-time video transcoding may also be required to interconnect VP8 video with H264 video or legacy H263 video endpoints

Of course the service provider offering the call center functions can provide this transcoding and interworking but the scalability and cost of that function for a somewhat unknown demand is problematic

An IPX provider with an accessible and cost-effective audio and video transcoding solution could take on this complexity not only for international calls but as a service supporting domestic interconnects as well

Once this capability is integrated within the IPX providerrsquos platform this business model can easily be replicated with other similar call center customers around the world extending IPX providersrsquo target market beyond the usual service provider segment and from audio transcoding support into video

As the digital world evolves the agile IPX provider can maintain its key central role in optimizing international communications

CONCLUSIONS

Overall we therefore see that the world of communications is not getting simpler over time ndash in fact complexities are increasing

IPX providers are in a key position to offer solutions to that complexity in a highly cost effective manner Agile transcoding is just the latest of these opportunities

H264Video

AMR-WBAudio

PublicInternet

IPX platform

WebRTCgateway

SIP VideoClient

Support Center

Softswitch

WebRTC transcoding

Transcodingplatform

OTT Service

Fixed orCable MSO

4G5G MNO Video LTEhandset

G711

G722Audio

H264Video

FixedPhone

OPUSAudio

VP8Video

Source Radisys

lsquoWe believe that transcoding will become an increasingly valuable part of IPX providersrsquo portfolio of capabilitiesrsquo

Source Radisys

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ABOUT HOT TELECOM HOT TELECOM is one of the most innovative and creative research and consulting companies which has been providing International operators and carriers with specialized intelligence and advice for the past 13 years

We understand the challenges faced by international carriers better than anyone and have therefore developed a number of research and advisory tools and expertise to mirror these needs and provide the support any wholesaler requires to survive and thrive in the current environment

To find out more about what we can do for you and how we can make the difference in your success contact us and it will be our pleasure to provide you with tailored real-life solutions that will meet your needs challenges and objectives

For more information please visit wwwhottelecomcom

ABOUT RADISYSRadisys develops high performance software and integrated systems focused on key growth markets in the telecoms industry including SDNNFV and cloud architectures LTE networks and IMS service delivery

Radisysrsquo hyperscale software defined infrastructure service aware traffic distribution platforms real-time media processing engines and wireless access technologies enable its customers to maximize virtualize and monetize their networks

With over 25 years of experience in telecom networking and high-reliability platforms combined with our professional service capabilities Radisys delivers to our partners and customers the technologies and expertise to solve some of the industryrsquos toughest challenges

For more information please visit wwwradisyscom

ABOUT THE AUTHORSIsabelle Paradis President HOT TELECOM

Isabelle has the customerrsquos experience at heart She has spent the last 20 years working with over 100 Tier-1 Tier-2 operators and wholesalers on all continents looking at how to improve and launch innovative services She has written many reports white papers and articles on the subject and has spent time looking at how telecom services are evolving and what the future holds for the increasingly customer centric society

Steve Heap CTO HOT TELECOM

Steve has a lifetime of experience in designing engineering and operating networks both domestic and international With leadership experience in small technology start-ups through to global service providers he has deep experience in a wide range of products technologies and geographies He has the rare skill of being able to explain complex technical issues in easily understood concepts and uses that extensively in his consulting work with HOT TELECOM

Tel +1 514 270 1636e infohottelecomcom

Web wwwhottelecomcom

HOT TELECOMThe international wholesale expert