Where the Rubber meets the PSTN

Starting point - Other than the obvious implication from the name of the device, as an analog/PSTN gateway, I had little idea what the functional scope of the MediaPack device is.  My need was for something to connect to a traditional POTS line for testing/demonstration.  As mentioned elsewhere, my initial motivation to select the AudioCodes device was supportability... really the hope to find readily available technical resources for the system.

As it turns out, the MediaPack product family appears to be the very scaled down version of what is probably AudioCodes' main product line, the Mediant family.  The good news is the prices are reasonable, reports are they are very dependable and provide high quality voice.  Another potential benefit is the very sophisticated functionality.  The only downside to this is need to deal with the complexity of the possible configuration options, especially for the un-initiated.  As I explore online discussions of configuring the device, I find frustration of "computer" folks/geeks dealing with the strange new world of sophisticated telephony gear.

So the MediaPack is a lot more than a softphone adapter.  It provides a processing center for:

• Analog telephone and FAX devices (FXS)

• POTS lines to the TELCO (FXO)

• Line interfaces to a PBX system (FXO)

• IP interface to anything that talks the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)

• SIP clients, Lync Server being my primary, but potentially other systems/devices.

• SIP Service Providers - offering trunking/line services in competition with the traditional circuits delivered by TELCOs.

• Doing all this with the ability to adapt to various worldwide standards.

As time goes by, I'm sure I will grow to appreciate all this functionality, but initially I was hoping for something brain-dead simple.  In response to an email thread with AudioCodes support, where I had asked if they had a "MediaPack for Dummies" whitepaper, the response was a good-natured "LOL ;-)" and the offer for referral to a partner.  Hopefully these pages will provide some of that.

My impression of AudioCodes is that of a sophisticated telephony hardware provider, accustomed to dealing with a professional distribution channel in the telephony industry.  Their products are finding favor in the expanding VOIP world, especially with MS UM, and a broader market of end users less familiar with telephony.  This is not an issue for larger installations because they will have a telephony partner with relevant skills.  But if Lync follows the adoption path of many MS products, it will trickle down to the SMB arena and require a different support model.  Microsoft frequently steps in to fill gaps during this process, and I look forward to more information on TechNet to ease adoption of Lync-based telephony.  On that note, here is a link to a blog that helped me get over my last hurdle to outbound dialing.  It is OCS-based.

AudioCodes documentation is thorough as far as identifying the various product features and how to enter values for them.  It does not act as tutorial for someone who doesn't know what those settings should be.  Next, I will ramble on about various settings and why you might want to set them a particular way.  The link above, to the blog by DaveH is a good place to start.  It is a big step toward the why of the settings, and it approximates my environment.

Get the device on the network

Quickstart documentation covers this well.  I think it is cool you can do the basic network setup through a built-in  IVR application and a telephone, but I didn't use this method.  Docs discussed a direct/crossover Ethernet connection to the device and changing the attached workstation's address into the MediaPack's default 10.1.10.10/16 network.  I just connected the MediaPack to my 192.168.1.xxx subnet and temporarily added a 10.1.10.12 address to an existing NIC; connect to and change the MediaPack's address.   Note, you need version 6.x firmware to work with Lync.  Download it from AudioCodes website after you register with them.  This whole process is well documented in the User's Manual.  One note, the only file you need to update is the firmware file.  The same interface offers to update other configuration files, which is not necessary (in United States).

Thinking about it

The next phase was some study and head scratching.  There was significant setup on the Lync side to enable and configure Enterprise Voice.  That is discussed on the Lync page.  As soon as connected to the MediaPack, who could resist browsing through the config menus and making some initial settings...

In that inital pass, I configured a NTP time server (Network Settings\Application Settings) .  I didn't see a place to enter a time value directly.  Other network settings allow configuration of static routes and Quality of Service, if you need them.

Config for outbound dialing

 

 

Work continues...