opentext - understanding foip fax solutions

Understanding FoIP Fax SolutionsAugust Startz, RightFax Sales Engineer

Amy Campos, Product Marketing Manager

OpenText ©2013 All Rights Reserved. 2

Presenters

Amy Campos, Product Marketing Manager for RightFax Fax Solutions with OpenText Responsible for helping customers understand how OpenText fax

solutions increase the speed of exchanging information to maximize productivity and cost-savings

August Startz, Sales Engineer OpenText Fax Solutions Expert technical resource working with hosted and on-premises

RightFax servers using FoIP and TDM faxing


Key Takeaways

3

3 Network Needs and Requirements

Benefits of FoIP4

Understanding FoIP2

Evolution: VoIP to FoIP to UC 1

Fax Servers and FoIP5


The Evolution of Faxing

The first fax device was invented in 1846 by Alexander Bain The first commercial fax service was between Paris and Lyon,

France in 1865, eleven years before the inventionof the telephone

The first commercial fax machine was launched by Xerox in 1964

Growth in the 70s and 80s, with today over 100 million fax machines in use today

Fax became, and remains today, the common denominator of communication for diverse organizations to exchange information


Evolution of Faxing

Faxing isn’t about machines, paper, and toner anymore

UC strategies were developed and implemented in companies to support VoIP and a system of globally unified communications

Analog

1980s

Digital

1990s

FoIP

2000s


Companies transitioned to VoIP

Voice over IP revolutionized telecommunications Cost savings Integration and collaboration with other applications No geographical boundaries Rich features

But voice traffic is not the only way to leverage IP


Fax over IP was born

VoIP is meant to optimize voice traffic, not fax traffic Poorly designed fax solutions can be difficult to implement in a

VoIP environment Fax machines do not work without additional equipment on a VoIP

network

Fax over IP (FoIP) is sending and receiving faxes by utilizing an IP network

Fax IP FoIP


UC strategies were born

Bringing communication together in one location

EmailVoice

Multimedia


UC strategies must include fax

EmailVoice

MultimediaFax


Do you have any of these challenges?

You have a fleet of standalone fax machines that you want to get rid of

You’ve transitioned to VoIP, but what about fax?

Your UC strategy does not include fax

You need to make faxing more efficient within your organization


What is FoIP?

Understanding FoIP

What equipment does FoIP require?

How does FoIP work?

Integration with a Unified Communication network


Understanding FoIP

FoIP uses your IP network to send faxes by leveraging your existing VoIP infrastructure

Eliminates the need for analog phone lines for a fax machine

Integrates with your existing UC equipment (ie Cisco, Avaya, etc)

Send faxes to any faxing device around the world Fax machines Other fax servers


FoIP interoperability and equipment

Cisco

Avaya

Verizon

Level 3

Alcatel-Lucent

Dialogic

AudioCodes

HP

BabyTel

Aastra

Mitel

ShoreTel

XO Communications

Siemens

CenturyLink

Sonus

Telstra

Quintum


Leveraging your IP network to send fax traffic

Fax Passthrough

Real-time protocol

Fax passed using G.711 codec

Same as a G.711 voice call

Fax Relay: Based on T.38 protocol

Real-time faxing

Fax is demodulated and streamed to the other gateway using a fax relay protocol

Store and Forward (T.37)

Not real-time faxing

Not used much


G.711

Modulated data information is sampled and encoded as standard PCM (i.e. G.711) and encapsulated in RTP for transport over IP just like a voice codec does for human speech

From the gateway perspective, this is more or less a G.711 voice call

FoIP call using PassthroughRTP Packet with PCM Payload

RTP RTP RTPT.30 Fax call

IP PSTN


T.38

T.38 is the industry standard for FoIP faxes

T.38 is not a real-time protocol, but converts fax traffic into data packets for real-time fax transmission

T.30 Fax call

IP PSTN

RTP10110

T.38

Data 01100Data 10010Data


T.30 absolutely matters in Fax over IP

T.30 analog / digital PSTN

End to end T.30 conversation

T.30 absolutely matters in Fax over IP

T.30 T.30 T.38 / T.30

T.30 wrapped in T.38 packets

PSTNIP-enabled Equipment

RTP10110

T.38

Data 01100Data 10010Data


FoIP

A fax server solution canbe easily deployed on top of an existing VoIP infrastructure

The T.38 fax traffic can use the same QoS prioritization policies designed for VoIP to ensure error-free faxes

Rule of thumb - if VoIP works between two locations, then FoIP should work as well

IP

Headquarters

IP


FoIP and Gateways

T.38 is not a call control protocol

We still have to use SIP or H.323 for call control

T.38 will have to be enabled on the gateway

G.711 is used during the first second of the call

High compression codecs such as G.729 do not support faxing

Voice Gateway

H.323/SIP Call Setup

G.711 Voice

T.38 Fax

Fax Server


Integration with Unified Communication network

Call manager handles all call routing and call control signaling to the voice gateways when a fax server is directly connected

For example, a fax server connected via H.323 to a call manager can communicate with H.323, SIP, or MGCP to voice gateways via T.38 FoIP

Voice Gateways

H.323

T.38 Fax

Call Manager

H.323

SIP

MG

CP

T.38 Fax

T.38 Fax

SIP

Fax Server


FoIP Network Considerations

Quality of Service Packet loss Delay Jitter

Bandwidth


QoS Network Factors

Delay or latency: the amount of time it takes a packet to travel from source to destination

Packet loss: the amount of packets that are unsuccessful in arriving at the destination

Jitter: the measure of the variability over time of the latency across a network

Terminating Gateway

Originating Gateway

T.38T.38 T.38T.38T.38

Delay

Packet Loss Jitter


T.38 FoIP and Packet Loss

Fax over IP (FoIP) is generally more affected by packet loss than VoIP

Ideally no packet loss should occur for a fax call

T.38 has an optional redundancy feature that allows for multiple levels of redundancy to be configured to deal with varying amounts of packet loss

Each level of T.38 redundancy requires more bandwidth

T.38 Fax Relay With Redundancy Level Set to 1

Gateway

IFP 2(Primary)

IFP 1(Secondary)

IFP 3(Primary)

IFP 2(Secondary)

IFP 1(Primary)

T.38 Fax Packets


T.38 FoIP and Delay

Delay is not as impacting to FoIP compared to VoIP

FoIP calls have been known to handle network delays of 1 second or more

However, as a best practice it is still recommended to minimize network delays as much as reasonably possible because too much delay will cause FoIP calls to fail

Watch out for multiple IP and PSTN hops and satellite links

PSTNIP

IP

Multiple IP and PSTN hops areprime sources of additional delay

Satellite linkscause largeamounts of delay

PSTN


T.38 FoIP and Jitter

All gateways support a playout buffer that can be adjusted depending on the needs

With large playout buffers, FoIP can handle larger amounts of jitter than VoIP but as a best practice it is still recommended to keep jitter to a minimum

IP

Variably spaced T.38 packets arrive at the playout buffer and some may even be out of sequence

Packets are re-sequenced if necessary and placed in the required order for playout

Evenly spaced packets are played out to the DSP for transmission on the PSTN

300 ms Fixed Playout Buffer

11

Fax

8

Fax

10

Fax

9

Fax

7

Fax

6

Fax

5

Fax

4

Fax

3

Fax

2

Fax

1

Fax

DSPCodec(T.38)


QoS Design Parameters for T.38 FoIP

Delay Jitter Packet Loss

Voice

< 150 ms (one-way, mouth to ear)

< 30 ms (average, one-way)

< 1%

Fax

< 1000 ms < 300 ms for fax relay, < 30 ms for passthrough

None*, unless using T.38 with redundancy

*Fax passthrough is very sensitive to packet loss and may be able to handle 0.1%–0.2% loss depending on when in the fax transaction the loss occurs and if it is consecutive packets. Cisco fax relay can handle more loss than passthrough but T.38 with redundancy is still the best choice for fax calls when packet loss is occurring.


FoIP Bandwidth Utilization

Different FoIP transports use varying amounts of bandwidth

On links where saving bandwidth is a priority then relay is a better choice

T.38 redundancy handles packet loss much better than fax passthrough/ passthrough with redundancy

Codec Bandwidth1

G.711 (64 Kbps) 83 Kbps

G.729 (8 Kbps) 27 Kbps

G.723 (6.3 Kbps) 19 Kbps

Fax passthrough/pass-through (G.711) 83 Kbps

Fax passthrough (G.711) with redundancy 170 Kbps

T.38 (no redundancy) 25 Kbps2

T.38 (redundancy level 1) 41 Kbps2

T.38 (redundancy level 2) 57 Kbps2

1Values are approximate with Ethernet or Frame Relay headers

2Values are peak and only occur during the sending of a page at 14.4 Kbps; gateways can force lower fax speeds for additional bandwidth savings


Things to remember about FoIP

Moving from analog/TDM faxing to FoIP is possible and you can leverage your current UC environment

FoIP will use gateways (hardware), SIP and H.323 (call control protocols) and G.711, T.30 and T.38 (transmission protocols) to send faxes to any fax machine

Every network is different so make sure to leverage a FoIP provider with a large and trusted interop network


When does FoIP make sense?

You’ve transitioned to VoIP, but you are still using TDM or analog faxing

You have a fleet of standalone fax machines that you want to get rid of

Your UC strategy does not include fax

You need to make faxing more efficient within your organization


Benefits of FoIP and UC

Cost savings over traditional faxing

Unified Communications network which includes faxing

Ease of disaster recovery and high availability for faxing

Centralized reporting of allUC traffic, including fax

Rapid deployment of new fax lines/numbers


Using a fax server with FoIP

What is a fax server? Software installed on a server or servers that allows users,

applications and devices to send and receive faxes electronically

Unified, centralized system for all faxing within an organization

Ways to send and receive faxes: Desktop application Web application Email MFP devices Any backend application


Benefits of fax servers

Secure

Compliant

Enterprise Grade

Configurable

Integrates

32


Fax servers – key characteristics

Secure

Secure fax transmissions with on-premises fax

server

Keep faxed document private and confidential

“Point-to-point” transmission

Immune to malicious viruses and malware

Compliant

Maintain regulatory compliance such as HIPAA, PCI, SarBox

Private exchange of information

Full audit trail

Legally recognized proof of delivery

Enterprise Grade

Business continuity, high availability and DR options

Supports virtual and collective environments

Supports high volume and production faxing

Centralize a single fax solution across multi-national organizations


Fax servers – key characteristics

Configurable

Highly configurable and customizable

Multiple APIs for custom integration with business

applications

Admin tools designed to help configure RightFax to unique settings and rules

Multiple deployment options to meet any need

Integrates

Email applications such as Exchange/Outlook, Lotus

Notes, Office 365

Applications such as SAP, Oracle, OpenText eDOCS,

SharePoint

Any MFP including pre-built connectors for HP, KM,

Ricoh and Xerox

Supports UC strategies with interoperability with UC

vendors


OpenText RightFax Fax Server

RightFax provides a comprehensive fax solution perfect for enterprises to integrate fax with

virtually any industry application to increase the speed of

exchanging information to maximize productivity and

cost-savings.


OpenText Corporation

OpenText is the global leader in Enterprise Information Management to empower organizations to maximize the value of information and make better business decisions

OpenText is also: #1 provider of enterprise fax services #1 provider of on-premises fax servers #1 FoIP supplier #1 Production fax server supplier

The #1 provider of Information Exchange solutions.


Learn more about OpenText Fax Solutions

Visit us at faxsolutions.opentext.com Call us at 800.304.2727 or 1.425.455.6000 Email us at [email protected] Follow us at @OpenTextIX Join us: http://www.opentext.com/community/ix

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.opentext.com/community/ix

opentext - understanding foip fax solutions

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