Vocality is pleased to announce some enhancements to the established V25/V50plus/V150/V200 range of Mux/Router products in the 4_07.01 software release.

Secure Voice Relay
The Secure Voice Relay(SVR) card relays STUIII secure calls digitally allowing the calls to be relayed in the native Vocoder bandwidth. The SVR card can be fitted to any analogue or digital card in the current product portfolio(V25, V50FXS/FXO, V150FXS/FXO, V150/V200 Digital Voice card). The SVR also interworks with the legacy V100 STU III card and support for STU-IIB will be available in a forthcoming release.

IP Aggregate Enhancements
In previous releases, an IP aggregate could be used across a NAT (network address translation) gateway if no port translation was done and a dynamic DNS name was available for the translated address. A new authentication feature now removes these restrictions. An IP aggregate can be configured at one end to accept a connection from any peer multiplexer. A challenge/response authentication scheme ensures that we only accept connections from authorized peers, as long as the same password is configured at both ends.

The layout of the IP aggregate menus has been changed. Previously the aggregates were arranged in a single table with two rows assigned for configuring the parameters for each aggregate. Now a single menu page is presented for each IP aggregate configured, simplifying the setup.

The Setup Delay and Setup Idle time are designed for use in networks where the ToS in multiplexed traffic is used to setup bandwidth across a packet switched network. If this bandwidth reservation is not instantaneous and the network equipment does not buffer outstanding traffic when establishing the circuit, the IP aggregate can be configured to buffer this traffic for the Setup Delay period.

A robustness mode has been implemented using a new field to configure a simple forward error correction scheme for IP aggregates. When enabled, the bandwidth used by the IP aggregate is increased.

Push Config over IP Aggregates
The addition of the IP aggregate enhancements (described above) allow the Push Config feature to be used over an IP aggregate service. Push Config provides a mechanism for configuring remote multiplexers from a central hub in order to remove the need for multiplexer management skills from personnel in the field, whilst retaining the ability to dynamically change network operation.

Improved IP packet filtering
It is now possible to configure both the received and target channel that each IP filter applies to. The Ethernet interface of IP tributary that a packet was received on can now be identified as well as the source address, destination address, protocol and TOS, as before.

PEP Enhancements
A new simpler and more efficient scheme for selecting which TCP traffic is subject to the Proxy Enhancement Protocol (PEP) optimization has been included. Any combination of the received interface, the target interface, source address, destination address, ToS and the TCP protocol decide whether the packet is subjected to PEP or bypassed. If no match is found in then the default result is to optimize all traffic.

DHCP Client
A DHCP client has been added to this software release. This allows the multiplexer to be assigned an IP address from an external DHCP server on the network. This should be used when the multiplexer uses IP for aggregate and management services only. If the multiplexer is used for routing IP it should be configured with fixed IP addresses as before.

Jitter Buffer Management
The multiplexer implements jitter buffers on voice and constant bit rate (CBR) serial data tributaries. These are designed to handle small amounts of jitter that are typically experienced on satellite services. Some IP aggregate services are prone to more jitter. In previous releases it was possible to tune the size of the jitter buffer implemented on each voice and data tributary via TTY commands to account for this additional jitter across the aggregate connection (contact your Vocality support representative for details of these commands). To supplement this individual tributary jitter buffer tuning, this software release has introduced a system wide baseline jitter buffer size to provide a simpler mechanism for increasing the size of all jitter buffers in the system. The tributary jitter buffer sizes are configured to be this new baseline size plus the amount configured for the individual voice or data port. Note than an increase to jitter buffer size results in an increase in delay through the multiplexer.

Vocality is pleased to announce some enhancements to the new SIM3 IP Satellite simulation product.

• IP Simulation is enhanced with the new IP Scripting feature. This allows parameters such as the error rate, error type and delay to be varied over time and so more closely represent real-world scenarios.

• Packet-based triggers allow the IP Simulation parameters to be automatically changed when packets of particular types occur. So for example, when a particular TOS value, protocol type or address is detected in the data the behaviour of the unit can be changed. This is an extremely powerful feature that allows the SIM3 to operate interactively with the traffic and thereby emulate a network reacting to stimuli.

• The Ethernet MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) size can now be configured. This allows the unit to simulate the effect of a network with a smaller than standard MTU and to either fragment or discard large packets as a result. Simulation impairments may be applied to the packet fragments - for example, to cause re-sequencing or to discard them.

• A new option “Enqueue Bandwidth”: controls the amount of data buffered on each profile – with the option to overflow to a different profile (or discard) if the bandwidth is exceeded. This allows the simulation of (for example) a network with a limited amount of high-priority bandwidth, where traffic overflows to a lower-quality class when a bandwidth limit is exceeded.

• The IP Simulation bandwidth management options are improved with the option to discard oldest or newest packet(s) if the queue length is exceeded.

• Intelligent fan control – the fan now comes on at power up by default but then turns off until the unit reaches a maximum internal temperature.

• The Vocality TFTP firmware download facility used on the larger rackmount mux/routers is now available on the SIM3, dramatically improving the upgrade time.

We are pleased to offer the following packs of Visio Stencils in Visio 2002. Download them and install them in the 'My Shapes' directory in My Documents to add Vocality equipment to your list of icons for network diagramming. The icons remain © Vocality International

Visit the Visio download page

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