Consumer VoIP

Overview

With the majority of homes now connected to broadband (more than 60% in the US), the stage is set for widespread adoption of consumer VoIP as the next big step in the evolution of telephony. And consumer VoIP looks set to become a major competitive battleground, since over-the-top service providers can compete on more or less equal terms with incumbents.

While many incumbent service providers may view consumer VoIP today as no more than an opportunity to cannibalize their own POTS revenues, others who are aggressively migrating their access networks to IP see VoIP as a means of driving down the cost of delivering telephony service, while at the same time meeting the competitive threat from over-the-top providers head-on.

VoIP drives down the cost of delivering residential telephony by eliminating the analog and TDM infrastructure associated with POTS. Broadband access facilities permit multiple VoIP lines to be delivered to the same home, effectively at no extra cost, offering the opportunity to upsell residential customers to a personal line for each member of the household. Consumer VoIP services can be enhanced to differentiate them strongly from POTS, for example by supporting wideband voice, nomadic access to telephony services, forking of calls to two or more endpoints in different locations, and the addition of enhanced features such as rules-based call routing. Finally, consumer VoIP services may be treated as unregulated and therefore not subject to the tariff limitations associated with POTS – enabling incumbent service providers to compete more effectively with over-the-top offerings.

The Metaswitch solution for Consumer VoIP includes all of the ingredients for a highly successful service offering: both standard and enhanced residential calling features, network-based voicemail, Web access to voice services, and interoperability with a wide range of VoIP access and infrastructure devices. Metaswitch’s Consumer VoIP solution is equally suitable for deployment by ILECs, CLECs and over-the-top service providers.

Features And Benefits

• Complete set of legacy POTS calling features available to consumer VoIP subscribers, maximizing customer satisfaction by eliminating the learning curve
• Wide variety of Web-enabled next-generation features including rules-based incoming call management, home auto-attendant and unified messaging, enabling service providers to create a range of attractive, high-value differentiated service bundles to suit all types of households
• Built-in monitoring of voice quality on all calls all of the time, enabling service providers to spot any adverse trends in voice quality before they impact subscribers
• Automated remote management of configuration and firmware for consumer VoIP CPE, to minimize the operational costs of mass deployment of VoIP services
• Full support for unique capabilities of VoIP services, including wideband voice, video calling, call forking and nomadic service access, enabling service providers to maximize the value of VoIP services to their subscribers

Solution Elements

The Metaswitch solution for Consumer VoIP is available in two different configurations to suit network environments with and without existing back-end SIP connectivity.

For network environments which already have SIP connectivity to trunking gateways, the following elements are required:

• MetaSphere, configured with Local Calling Features, Voicemail, Session Control and Lawful Intercept
• CommPortal, to provide the subscriber-facing Web interface for consumer VoIP services
• Media Resource Server, to provide interactive voice response and announcement capabilities needed to support consumer VoIP services
• MetaView, configured with Service Assurance Server, Voice Quality Monitoring and SIP Provisioning Server

For network environments that do not have existing SIP connectivity to trunking gateways, the elements listed above must be augmented with the addition of MetaSphere Gateway Control and one or more MG2510 or MG3510 Universal Media Gateways. Since the UMG incorporates media server functions, the Media Resource Server is not required in these environments.

Both configurations also require Session Border Controllers to protect the service provider’s VoIP network and to handle network issues such as NAT. These may be supplied by Metaswitch, or service providers may choose to deploy their own SBCs.

The Consumer VoIP solution may be enhanced with the addition of the following elements, which provide additional service features and capabilities for subscribers:

• MetaSphere applications including Incoming Call Manager, Easy Attendant and Live Message Screening
• CommPortal applications including CommPortal Mobile Voicemail and CommPortal Assistant