1. Tempest: <product description> - TELCO in a box
The Franklin Telecom Tempest Data/Voice Gateway is a complete Internet Telephony solution providing low cost, high performance global connectivity. The Tempest consists of three units: the data voice gateway (DVG), the Billing System and the AMAS. This system was built and delivered as a telephone company in a box. The Tempest can unite geographically distributed workgroups seamlessly integrating voice and fax over an existing LAN/WAN data network. Use our Microsoft NT BackOfficeTM based integrated accounting, debit card billing, authentication, mapping and least cost routing software and become your own international telephone company. The Tempest DVG is the new “gold standard” for serious Internet telephony communications.
The Franklin Tempest is more than a gateway for a “cheap phone call’. It is the power to enable real business communications solutions over the Internet. The Franklin Tempest Data Voice Gateway easily installs between two telephone networks and uses the public Internet or a private Intranet to complete phone calls between the networks. Typically, these telephone networks are geographically remote and would normally result in a long distance charge from the phone company in order to complete a call from one location to another. Using emerging industry standards for voice and fax compression, the same bandwidth that previously supported only one voice connection can now carry 8 voice conversations. If your company’s business operation is global, the ROI for the purchase of a Franklin Tempest solution might be measured in hours, not years!
For example, a company with an office in California and a manufacturing facility in Ireland would place a Tempest Data/Voice Gateway in both offices and connect them to the Internet. Long distance charges between the two locations would be eliminated. California office workers would effectively be making local telephone calls to Ireland! Does your company have a PBX at the headquarters and leased data lines to the branch offices to support a local area network? A Franklin Tempest installed at either end of that data connection would eliminate more expensive toll traffic between these offices by integrating the PBX phone calls with the data network.
The Tempest DVG enables the use of an IP path as the intermediate connection between distant telephone circuits. The telephone circuits may be a company’s private phone system, local PSTN lines or distant long distance lines. A traditional telephone connection consists of a constant connection between two phones for the duration of a telephone call. On a PSTN or trunk circuit, the call occupies 64,000 bits/second (64kbps) of bandwidth between the two ends, whether anyone is talking or not. IP Telephony technology compresses the voice-data stream by a factor determined by the algorithm (codec) used. Compression in some cases can exceed a 10:1 ratio. The Tempest DVG utilizes a G723.1 codec, occupying 5.3 kbps as it is compressed at the ratio of 12:1. This significantly reduces the bandwidth needed for a call; conversely it permits a conventional 64 kbps circuit to handle multiple telephone calls.
The Tempest DVG is built entirely on Franklin’s designed, developed and manufactured hardware, firmware and software technology. Inside a host Pentium PC, the minimal configuration is a three board card set consisting of:
Franklin Digital Signal Processor (DSP board)
Franklin Telephone line interface board (8 Port FXO, FXS, T1 or E1)
Industry standard LAN interface
The Franklin DSP contains the vocoder technology that compresses the digital voice or fax information coming from the Franklin telephone line interface. The Franklin DSP board utilizes one 40 Mips AD2181 DSP per channel for enhanced quality and greater throughput. The Franklin DSP board is a full length PCI board with MVIP connectivity. Each Franklin DSP board contains up to 12 DSPs for up to 12 simultaneous sessions. Two DSP boards would be installed in a 24 port system. The DSP board supports G.723.1 voice, H.323, G.711 FAX and T.30 FAX with automatic recognition and control.
The industry standard 10/100BaseT LAN interface is incorporated for ease of connectivity, general LAN compatibility and high speed throughput.
The Tempest DVG is a self contained, Pentium PC based, rack mount chassis with telco and Ethernet input/output controlled by Franklin’s system software and firmware. Due to the efficient MVIP above bus connectivity of the DVG components, only 32Mb of RAM and a 166Mhz Pentium CPU host are required. The system contains a CD-ROM drive to load all Linux system software and maintenance releases onto an industry standard hard disk drive. The Tempest can be ordered in a variety of hardware configurations to meet various reliability goals. From a simple AC powered solution with limited redundancy to a ~48 volt DC powered solution with multiple processors, RAID and redundant telephone line interfaces.
For more information on the Tempest product overview and installation, please click here <link to Tempest DVG Installation and Operations Manual>
Products - Tempest
