High Definition voice conferencing solutions

One of the advantages of WYDE conferences bridges is that in addition to standard definition voice codecs like iLBC, G.711 (uLaw, aLaw) and G.729; the WYDE bridge supports the following HD voice codecs: G.722, G.722.1 (siren7), G.722.2 (siren14), G.722.2 (AMR-WB), SILK16, SILK24, and ISAC.

Why is HD Voice important? Traditional (PSTN) calls deliver sounds representing only a fraction of the range one would hear in a live conversation — the rest is deliberately filtered out. HD voice, while still not transmitting all audible frequencies, delivers enough of the ones relevant to human speech such that many listeners say it seems like the speaker is in the same room. Long calls, especially conference calls with multiple speakers with different accents, become less tiring and thus more productive.

Let’s review it in details. Your calls sound quality highly depends on what audio codec is used to reproduce the speaker’s voice. Telephone networks use codecs to minimize the amount of bandwidth required for transmission; mobile phone companies use even more aggressive compression to meet their requirements. Because of that phone calls don’t replicate your actual speaking voice, for example differences between letters “S” and “F” or “P” and “T” or “N” and “L” during such conversations sometimes are hardly noticeable.

During ordinary conversations, human voice frequency is between 80 Hz and 8,000 Hz; but the most normal speech occurring between 300 Hz and 3,000 Hz. Because of that low bitrate audio codecs were designed to transmit only such frequencies. The goal of such codecs is to provide sufficient quality to be understood, but not to replicate speech quality.

HD codecs supported by WYDE bridge provide more accurate, natural, better quality voice conversations, audio playback.

For billing purposes the Wyde bridge software can store, process and transmit CDRs (Call Detail Records). More formally, in terms of Wyde bridge software, “billing” is the information about completed conferences and calls. Please note, that the Wyde bridge software is not responsible for financial billing; it neither tracks credit cards nor sends invoices to the clients. It only provides CDR data and it is up to you how to use them in your financial billing. To do so you could either use standard billing adapters provided with the Wyde bridge software or write you own billing adapters.

Wyde bridge billing is formed from CDR information produced by Billing Adapters and Billing Rules. The Billing Adapter is the component (function) responsible for storing billing, i.e. CDR information; it receives this completed calls information, transforms it into required format and stores it in required data carrier. The Billing Rule is the set of billing adapters that are being used to store CDR information by specific conferences; billing rules determines the specific billing adapters that are used to save CDR information.

Billing Integration of completed conferences and calls information can be made in one of the following ways:

• Wyde bridge software provides standard billing adapter that saves CDR information into local SQL database; for instance once a day you can retrieve data from this database and transfer them to your data carrier.
• Wyde bridge software provides standard billing adapter that saves CDR information into local comma-separated (CSV) file; for example once a day such file can be transferred to your FTP and you can import these data into your local system.
• A custom billing adapter can be written to store CDR information in your own database on the fly in the real-time mode; in this case this adapter will be responsible for saving CDR data as it is required for your organization.

For detail information about standard and custom billing adapters and rules, CDR
format, billing integration process as well as samples of billing adapters see
Wyde Voice Product Documentation “Wyde Billing Guide” at
http://docs.wydevoice.com/.

The WYDE Voice conference bridge provides comprehensive management reports that allow Administrators to track conferences taking place on the bridge, view DNIS and port utilization statistics, and troubleshoot disconnects and other problems during calls. All of the above reports are available through both the bridge web administration interface and the flash operator console. The reports include the following:

1. Calls report
ü gives administrators the ability to view individual call detail reports (CDRs) and document all inbound and outbound calls processed by the system during a specified date range

2. Conference Report
ü allows an administrator to view a list of conferences which have taken place during a specified date range, access previously recorded conferences, and generate GANTT charts to show which participants talked during the conference and when

3. DNIS report
ü provides usages statistics on each DNIS, including number of calls processed both inbound and outbound

4. Disconnect report
ü provides details on disconnects, date, time, and reason—a very useful tool for troubleshooting

5. Load charts
ü shows actual port utilization over a specified time period

In addition to the above reports, you can design your own custom reports using the web services API.

Formally, “controlling access to the conference call” is defining the access policy, i.e. the right to connect to the conference and getting specific role (host/moderator/listener) in the conference. This could be done either based on the standard Wyde bridge conference authorization features or could be defined based on your own security infrastructure using customized authorization adapter written to integrate your security into call flows authorization.

Wyde bridge authorization is formed from Authorization Adapters and Authorization Methods. The Authorization Adapter is the component (function) responsible for specifying access rights in the conferences. The Authorization Method is the specific authorization adapters together with its parameters (if necessary) that are used to authorize in the conferences.

Authorization Integration for conference access can be made in one of the following ways:

• You can turn off authorization completely, i.e. anyone who calls the conference DNIS number is allowed to connect to the conference regardless of access code entered. Usually this approach is used in the free-for-all conferences.
• Authorization can be made via a local database so that when a person dials the conference DNIS number, they are then asked to enter an access code. This access code is then verified in the local database against subscribers’ conference account definitions. User roles in the conference (i.e. host, participant, listener roles) are assigned according to the DNIS number and access code used. This approach is usually used in the conferences with toll free numbers.
• Authorization can be made via external RADIUS or LDAP server by standard authorization adapters that come with the bridge. Your organization may be already using one of those external authorization servers (for example Active Directory service created by Microsoft).
• A custom authorization adapter can be written to determine which users can connect to the conference and what role that user will be granted. Typically, the information can be taken from your external SQL database or others.

For detail information about standard and custom authorization adapters and methods, authorization integration process as well as samples of authorization adapters see Wyde Voice Product Documentation “Wyde Authorization Guide” at http://docs.wydevoice.com/.

WYDE Voice conference bridges are designed on the “Datacenter in a box” concept, which means that they can be deployed quickly with minimal technical resource. The platform is virtually “plug and play”.

“Datacenter in a box” deployment consists of installing the specified conference hardware which is then configured for use in that conferencing telephony communications solution. The primary hardware that is being used is WYDE platforms – the SB-HD1000 and the SB-HD10000 conferencing bridges. WYDE conference bridges are designed to be attached to your network in appliance-fashion. They are, for all intents and purposes, servers that can be installed and managed as such.

We have deployed the platform in multiple countries to date and the average time taken from placement of an order to a fully functional conference service is typically less than one month for the SB-1,000 and less than two months for the SB-10,000.

The following characteristic features are distinctive for a “Datacenter in a box” WYDE bridge deployment: 
• All-in-one datacenter for 1,000-10,000 simultaneous conference calls
• 10U enclosure, 7KW power consumption (full load), redundant 1GB uplink to the VoIP GW (for 10,000 calls)
• High level of redundancy
  • 16 individual hot-swappable blades
  • 2x1GB Layer 3 network switches
  • 6 (N+N) power supplies
  • 9 (N+N) fan modules
• Remote management and SNMP based monitoring

WYDE Voice conference bridges can be deployed to allow “Geo-Dispersed conferencing”, allowing several bridges to be deployed in different regions or countries yet acting as one large conference bridge. This means that calls are being made to separate bridges located in various regions, but these calls are connected to the same conference.

You may need to use geo-dispersed conferences if your users are geographically located remotely from each other in different regions or countries and you would like to optimize calls traffic and costs. For example you could have local bridges for users and the users will be able to call to these regional datacenters, but their calls could be joined into geo-dispersed conferences. Using this approach the various regions could be easily and efficiently connected together with the optimal cost of the calls.

Additionally you may use geo-dispersed conferences connecting several bridges if you need to perform large conference (for instance for several tens of thousands of calls) and the facilities of your single bridges do not allow you to have all these calls on any of them. With this method you can split your call traffic between different datacenters, but all these calls could be connected to the same conference.

• Bridges communicate to each other to build a bigger virtual bridge
• Users can call either bridge and be connected into one conference
• Connection is very efficient – only one SIP/RTP channel required per conference to join two bridges
• System is resilient to network problems between the bridges
• All group operations (mute, recording, etc) and UI can be utilized from either bridge
• Up to 16 bridges can be connected together

Check out our website at http://www.wydevoice.com, for questions call us toll-free at 866-508-9020
Customer Support 24×7 support@wydevoice.com

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