The Commetrex Outlook | June 2015

FaxLogic™ Wins With BladeWare

FaxLogic offers its enterprise customers a unique cloud-based way to outsource the enterprise fax server using BladeWare andBladeWare Fax Media Server. Indeed, FaxLogic has developed what is, in all likelihood, the industry’s most-sophisticated FoIP routing algorithm to deliver trouble-free FoIP.

Back in the last half of the last decade they used multi-protocol label switching to avoid carrier routing and the low success rates it provided. According to Wikipedia:

“Multi-protocol label switching is a scalable, protocol-independent (packet-based) transport. In an MPLS network, data packets are assigned labels. Packet-forwarding decisions are made solely on the contents of this label, without the need to examine the packet itself. This allows one to create end-to-end circuits across any type of transport medium, using any protocol.”
Of course, major carriers offer MPLS over IP networks, and since the route is established by the carrier for the user, inter-carrier FoIP routing can be avoided by placing both FoIP endpoints in the MPLS network. But this solution required that the calls remain on the MPLS network to be fully effective, which wasn’t scalable.

But fast forward to today’s Internet and the improvements made by carriers in packet loss and other impairments. FaxLogic found that with their call volumes and the number of carrier partners they use (Would you believe 18?), they can predict, with a high degree of certainty, which of those carriers can deliver a given fax error free, making a highly informed choice as to which carrier should be assigned the task.

For inbound, they know which carriers do a good job with T.38 and which ones don’t and use that knowledge to negotiate their service agreements. They route the calls from the T.38-capable carriers to BladeWare servers configured to issue a T.38 reINVITE and the other carrier’s calls to G.711-only BladeWare servers. And remember, BladeWare’s proprietary design gets rid of PCM clock-sync problems, so they get solid G.711 performance.

FaxLogic’s service gives customers a cloud-based enterprise fax server. Their Advanced Web Client is a web-browser application that lets you send, receive, sort, store, manage and share all your faxes, much as you would an on-premises fax server. FaxLogic also provides ATAs so their customers can continue to use their legacy fax machines.

FaxLogic combines the convenience, features and benefits of analog fax, Internet fax, and fax servers, while eliminating the drawbacks and incompatibilities. A complete fax communications and document-management system, FaxLogic securely sends, receives, stores and manages business documents starting at prices lower than the phone lines that the service replaces.

And it’s all done with BladeWare and FaxLogic’s amazing routing software. To learn more, please click to read the latest white paper on “How to Make FoIP Work”.

What Is It About Carrier Routing?

In many presentations and white papers, Commetrex has identified carrier routing as the source of many of the FoIP failures your customers experience. Indeed, the number-one problem solved by Commetrex’ patented Smart FoIP® is late-T.38 reINVITEs, which only happens with carrier-routed calls. If you avoid carrier routing, Smart FoIP’s primary benefit goes from solving the late-T.38 reINVITE problem to making G.711 pass-through calls work, which is still a big deal, but not quite as big.

So, what’s the problem with carrier routing? Well, from our experience, it’s primarily due to the carriers believing that an FoIP call is to be routed just like a voice call–after all, it begins life as a G.711 INVITE, doesn’t it? Well, yes, but we don’t expect an HD voice call that is mindlessly routed to succeed as an end-to-end HD call, do we? Best effort just doesn’t hack it.

Of course, Smart FoIP is a big step in the right direction, but Commetrex’ marketing reach is not such that we can change the industry with this innovation. Instead, the carriers must realize that fax calls must be routed as fax calls…no IP-TDM/PSTN-IP…only IP routes that have been tested for FoIP “friendliness.” And one way to make that happen is for service providers to pitch in and insist on the adoption of RFC6913.

Let’s talk about it. Call 770-449-7775 and press 1. Yeah, it’s “One for sales”, but you’ll reach us.

RFC6913?

Yes, we’ve been harping on it. RFC6913 is a big part of the answer to the carrier-routing problem. Check it out. A simple addition to the SIP-invite header that indicates this is a fax call is the beginning of the end of bad carrier routing. We’ve done our part; we hope you’ll do yours. We’ve added support for this new recommendation to Commetrex BladeWare (and NetGen’s Smart ATA®).

According to Cliff Schornak, NetGen’s CTO, “Less-than-optimum routing of FoIP calls by carriers is the primary reason for poor FoIP success rates in international FoIP calls. And it’s not because they don’t want to, it’s because the SIP standards haven’t supported it prior to RFC 6913.”

If you are a service provider, insist that your vendors and carrier partners support it. Contact us now to learn how this will decrease costs, reduce FoIP-related customer service calls, and improve service reliability.

Avoiding Carrier Routing

There are some operators that deliver reliable FoIP to the end user by avoiding carrier routing of a(n) FoIP call. The diagram below shows of this approach, which is used, for example, by Cbeyond/Birch Communications, USA Digital, and, perhaps, by BabyTel and others.

Here, the service provider uses an industry-standard ATA or IAD (integrated access device) to convert the endpoint’s analog connection to IP. The call is routed to the ITSP’s gateway and then to the incumbent’s PSTN network. There is no third-party routing of the FoIP call. Responsibility for getting the call to the destination terminal is given to the incumbent after it has been converted back to PCM.

This usually works, but it requires that the routing be handled by the legacy PSTN, which may not be a good long-term plan.

If you’re interested in a good long-term plan, get is touch: 770-449-7775 or drop us an email, and don’t be surprised if the guru who designed this thing answers quickly.