Welcome to the module “ISAM Voice Architecture with Megaco.
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After you finish this module, you will be able to:
• Describe the concepts of the ISAM MEGACO Voice architecture.
Please click Next to continue.
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Chapter 1 – ISAM MEGACO voice architecture
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The ISAM Voice provides Voice over IP media gateway functionality to interconnect legacy POTS (Plain Old
Telephone Service) and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) customer premises terminals to the
Next Generation Network (NGN). It is an ideal solution for incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) where
the local loop will be re-used thanks to the ISAM voice acting as Media Gateway which converts TDM to IP
and vice versa for the voice over IP service. Alternative service providers, even the ones leasing the local
loop from ILECs, can also benefit from the ISAM voice service.
The ISAM voice easily converts legacy POTS and ISDN voice traffic to IP traffic using H.248 or only legacy
POTS voice traffic using SIP (Session Initiation Protocol).
For H.248, there is the possibility of one gateway controlling local and remote Alcatel-Lucent ISAM
subscribers like it is shown in the diagram: The central office ISAM voice controls the signaling not only for
itself but for the rest of the remote ISAM voice elements and the subtending ones.
In the NGN platform the softswitch also called Media Gateway Controller (MGC) is the one having the call
logic and control. Along with the MGC we can also find the Application Server Process (ASP) if there are
ISDN subscribers. It will take care of the ISDN signaling (the Q931 messages). The Access Gateway
Control Function (AGCF) in the IP Multimedia System (IMS) platform is the one that will handle the H.248
signaling.
The Trunk Gateway (TGW) will connect both worlds; the PSTN and VoIP.
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Here we see the functionalities and protocols used in the FD/FX ISAMs.
The NVPS (Network Voice Packet Server) board is the one in charge of the call signalling. It uses H.248,
also known as MEGACO (Media Gateway Controller) with the MGC or IMS and XLES signaling (internal
within the ISAM) with the voice line cards; the POTS card, NPOT (Network Plain Old Termination) and the
ISDN card, NBAT (Network Basic Access Termination). The XLES signalling travels via the backplane
through the NT towards the corresponding line board.
The RTP voice streams, the call itself, will be between the voice line board and a media gateway.
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The ISAM Voice Package encapsulates voice information in UDP (User Datagram Protocol) over IP using
the Real-Time Protocol (RTP), which provides the information needed to restore the original digital voice
stream (see RFC 3550). The voice line card supports RTP, as well as the Real-Time Control protocol
(RTCP), the control protocol associated with RTP.
Signaling and call control messages interchange between the NVPS and the MGC is achieved using the
standard H.248 protocol. The XLES proprietary protocol is used between the NVPS and the voice line cards.
Inside the NVPS, the H.248 transactions are associated to subscriber ports based on H.248 termination
names (the L3 address). The NVPS internally maps the port’s L3 (Layer 3) address to the physical
termination (a UDP number) and delivers the XLES messages to the corresponding voice line card by using
the UDP number which is related to one of the voice line card ports. The voice line card relates this UDP
number to one of its physical ports. This would be the same for ISDN. In this case H.248 indicates the Layer
2 address of the subscriber and the NVPS maps this L2 address to an UDP number which in turn is related
to a voice line card port.
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The eXtended BLES (Broadband Loop Emulation Service) protocol, called XLES, is used between the voice
line cards and the NVPS. The protocol is based on the standard BLES protocol with a proprietary extension.
The extension of the standardized BLES protocol includes specific VoIP features and controls to enable the
command of signals (for example dial tone, and CLIP transmission).
Some of the extensions are:
• Set packetization time,
• Set codec,
• Set jitter buffer configuration,
• Enable and disable Voice Activity Detection (VAD) and Comfort Noise Generation (CNG),
• Enable and disable echo cancellation,
• Enable and disable named telephone event with RTP packets (RFC 2833),
• Call statistics,
• Metering pulses,
• Line testing,
• Alarms from the voice line card,
• Audits,
• Play signal, and
• POTS OAM
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As we have seen in previous slides, the voice will be handled by the line boards NPOT or NBAT where in
one side it will have the analogue loop connecting the telephones and on the other side it will have the RTP
voice streams.
The NVPS board will take care of the call signaling: H.248 signaling with the MGC and XLES signaling with
the voice line boards. The SIGTRAN (Signaling Transport) is used to transport the ISDN signaling to the
destination ends without intermediate elements interpreting it (a transparent signaling transport). There can
be eight pairs of NVPS in an ISAM 7302 FD; an NVPS pair for protection purposes.
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The ISAM voice architecture is the ISAM with the addition of the voice service, which translates into the
addition of three new boards as we’ve seen before: the NPOT and NBAT providing POTS and ISDN
respectively, and one Voice Packet Server card, NVPS, which is the VoIP signalling gateway for ISAM
voice.
The NVPS communicates with the voice line cards by means of an “extended BLES” (the XLES) proprietary
protocol as seen before. The NVPS terminates the proprietary signaling messages from the voice cards,
provides a Megaco interface with the call server and handles the specific OAM needed to support VoIP
service.
The NPOT interfaces and integrates functions, such as ringing, digit detection and tone generation. This
Line Interface Module (LIM) provides a classical POTS interface towards the subscriber and performs the
packetization of the voice over RTP using a specific codec and sending the voice directly to the network as
VoIP over Ethernet. The voice path is separated from the signalling path as we see in the diagram.
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The voice service in the micro-nodes 7353 ISAM MDU, 7353 ISAM CX, 7363 ISAM MX-6, and 7367 ISAM
SXs is handled differently compared to the FD and FX ISAMs (7302, 7330, 7356 and 7360), which was seen
in previous slides.
This difference is due to two things; first of all, these micro-nodes have a TDM bus, which connects the
POTS LTs with the NT, and secondly the DSP is not in the POTS LT but in the NT or NTIO.
The DSP card terminates the TDM bus from the POTS LT and converts the TDM voice to RTP packets. The
NT converts the POTS LT proprietary signaling to H.248 and also handles the call flow management, line
status and line test functions.
These micro-nodes either work with H.248 or SIP.
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This is the NBAT in the VoIP scenario.
As seen before the signaling between NVPS and MGC is using the SIGTRAN which carries the Q.931
signalling over IUA over SCTP over IP.
SIGTRAN (Signaling Transport) is a working group within the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
standard organization. Its primary purpose is to address the transport of packet-based public switched
telephone network (PSTN) signaling over IP networks.
Q.931 is ISDN's connection control protocol, roughly comparable to TCP in the Internet protocol stack.
Q.931 doesn't provide flow control or performs retransmission, since the underlying layers are assumed to
be reliable and the circuit-oriented nature of ISDN allocates bandwidth in fixed increments of 64 kbps. Q.931
does manage connection setup and breakdown. It has layer 3 which are the ISDN messages and layer 2
which is the Q.921 where it contains, among other info, the Service Access Point Identifier (SAPI) and the
Terminal Endpoint Identifier (TEI).
ISDN User Adaptation (IUA) defines an adaptation module that is suitable for the transport of ISDN Q.921-
User Adaptation Layer.
The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is designed to transport PSTN signaling messages over
IP networks. SCTP is an application-level datagram transfer protocol operating on top of an unreliable
datagram service such as UDP.
The signaling between NBAT and NVPS is Q.931 over XLES.
The functionality of MEGACO in ISDN will depend on the ASP features but in general it will handle the off-
hook and on-hook of the subscriber.
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In a subtending architecture, one NVPS plus NPOTs and NBATs distributed among several subtending
shelves will be one voice system.
Note that we can have a voice path in the ISAM Voice between two LT (Line Termination) cards within the
same system. This would normally only be possible by using “routed mode” forwarding model, and enable
user-to-user communication.
Voice calls between two lines on the same LT will be switched internally on the NPOT card.
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This is exactly the same as the subtending architecture where one voice system will be one NVPS and
several shelves instead of being subtended are located remotely. In this case, the XLES travels through the
EMAN (Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network) towards the corresponging remote ISAM.
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So far we have seen:
• The NVPS and the voice LT cards locally located in one ISAM
• The NVPS in one ISAM and the voice LT cards in subtending ISAMs, and
• The NVPS in one ISAM and the voice LT cards in remote ISAMs
The NVPS can serve multiple LT cards from different nodes; subtending, remote, and locally. So one voice
system will be one NVPS or a pair of NVPS for protection purposes and the sum of the local LTs,
subtending LTs, and remote LTs with up to a total of 5000 subscribers.
The NVPS will know where is each subscriber (either locally, subtended or remotely) by the configuration
previously done in the NVPS. The NVPS will have the IP and LTs of each subscriber so at the start-up of the
NVPS, it will ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) all the IPs it has.
All XLES messages must go through the NT since it has a Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) which
routes all these messages based on the IP of the ISAM and the UDP number (layer 4). Each LT has its
proper link towards the NT so if the XLES message goes to a voice LT in the same shelf as the VRF (based
on the IP), the VRF based on the UDP number will know what link to forward the XLES message. If the
voice LT is not in the same shelf as the VRF (based on the IP) then it routes the XLES message externally
towards the corresponding ISAM with that IP. It will be the VRF of that external ISAM which routes the XLES
message to the corresponding voice LT through its link. It is the voice LT which translates UDP number to
the physical port like it was mentioned before.
The ISAM Voice has a Non-blocking voice path which consists of the media traffic not going through the
NVPS, local routing for local calls, and there is non-blocking voice line cards which means that it is possible
to have an RTP stream (or 2 for ISDN) for each port available in the voice line card when using the G711
compression technique. Local routing for local calls will be done unless it is configured to be done
externally, in the EMAN, for lawful interception of the calls.
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Here we see the ISAM voice solution in an IMS network using MEGACO. Recall from the ISAM VoIP
overview module that SIP is the main protocol used for service delivery in the IMS although H.248 is used
for media gateway control through the Access Gateway Control Function (AGCF) as we see in the diagram.
For more info on the other IMS elements, please review the ISAM VoIP overview module.
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The NVPS is a server card like the NT which stores the NVPS software, database, and CDE (Customer
Design Engineering) profile. The CDE is country- and operator-dependent, which defines specific settings
such as dialing tone, Digit map, and default codec.
Since the NT is the master for the three above items it means that when the NVPS boots, it checks with the
NT, the NVPS software version, NVPS database CRC, and the CDE profile version. Only the items whose
check fail are downloaded.
However, database updates through SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), for example, the 5520
AMS (Access Management System), are done locally on the NVPS, and only periodically a database back-
up is made to the NT, so be careful with NVPS resetting or reseating too quickly after a change in
configuration. A back-up can be forced, which is advisable before resetting or reseating the NVPS.
This means that the ISAM Voice configuration belongs to the ISAM and no longer only to the NVPS. Storage
in the NVPS is only for speedy restart of the card. Moving the NVPS to another ISAM system, makes it
follow that systems’ voice configuration. Automatic back-up of the ISAM now also includes the NVPS
database and active CDE profile.
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Now that you have completed this module, you should be able to:
• Describe the concepts of the ISAM MEGACO voice architecture.
You may now continue with the next modules of this learning.
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