Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway

Cisco AS5850 Data Sheet
The Cisco ® AS5850 Universal Gateway is a high-density universal gateway, with carrier-class attributes, offering highest capacity and high availability in its class. This gateway is designed to meet the demands of large, innovative service providers, supporting up to 5 Channelized T3s (CT3s), 96 T1s, 86 E1s, or 2 STM-1 (108 E1s) of data, voice, and fax services, on any port at any time. It offers high-availability features such as hot-swap on all cards, load-sharing and redundant hot-swappable power supplies, redundant fans and fan banks, redundant route switch controller (RSC) cards, and Call Admission Control (CAC), all part of the carrier-class attributes required to provide a highly available system.

The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway supports a wide range of IP-based value-added services such as high-volume Internet access; corporate VPNs; long distance for Internet service providers (ISPs); international wholesale long distance; distributed prepaid calling; Signaling System 7 (SS7) interconnect; managed voice services such as hosted IP telephony; managed IP private branch exchange (PBX); multiservice VPNs; and IP contact centers.

Using the rich set of Cisco IOS ® Software features and SS7 interconnection, service providers can quickly provision their networks for new services to meet the rapidly changing demands of the communications provider marketplace.

As a highly flexible voice gateway, the Cisco AS5850 supports any coder-decoder (codec) at 100 percent capacity, simplifying network engineering. An open programmable architecture simplifies rapid voice-service creation with H.323, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), or Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP).

Cisco customers worldwide have proven that the Cisco AS5000 universal gateways provide the

flexibility, scale, reliability, and suite of services needed to meet today's market demands. By providing the industry's broadest line of access-server products with universal-port digital signal processors (DSPs), Cisco Systems ® enables customers to choose the right starting point for a "pay-as-you-grow" rollout without compromising future capabilities. Complemented by the industry's highest-rated service and support, Cisco can also provide assistance with startup, maintenance, and marketing tasks as well as advanced and custom deployment solutions as shown in figure given below.


The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway offers the following:

Primary Features

Cisco Any Service, Any Port
The economic environment is prompting service providers to generate revenues quickly, improve returns from invested capital, and adapt to changing demand for various services in the marketplace. Cisco Any Service, Any Port (ASAP)—the architecture for rapid deployment of concurrent services on Cisco AS5000 universal gateways—allows service providers to meet these challenges. Cisco ASAP enables faster service introduction using a common platform for quick return on investment (ROI). Service providers can generate new revenue streams from multiple voice and data services such as long distance voice over IP (VoIP), hosted IP telephony, VPNs, and dial up Internet.

Cisco ASAP provides universal-port capability and enables the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway to operate simultaneously as a network access server and a voice gateway delivering universal services on any port at any time. The Cisco ASAP services on the Cisco AS5850 include dial access, real-time voice and fax, and unified communications on a call-by-call basis. The Cisco AS5850 achieves cost savings through optimized use of the universal-port-access infrastructure. Service providers can now quickly capitalize on new opportunities and realize multiple revenue streams from a single access infrastructure.

The Cisco ASAP architecture is based on universal DSP technology. The universal DSP can execute multiple codec and modem algorithms on any DSP at any time. When the type of codec or modem required for a specific call is determined, the DSP activates the appropriate service type in real time. When the call type is determined, different signaling schemes and modem negotiations are used to determine the actual firmware code to be downloaded onto the DSP for that particular call.

Capacity
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway supports CT3, T1, E1, and STM-1 ingress interfaces and a Gigabit Ethernet egress interface. It supports up to 3360 (five CT3s) data, voice, or fax calls. With T1 interfaces, 2304 calls (96 T1s) are supported and with E1 interfaces, up to 2580 (86 E1s) calls are supported. Dual load-sharing redundant Gigabit Ethernet packet interfaces provide highly available back haul.

The Cisco AS5850 chassis is designed to scale up to six times the current ingress capacity for future expansion.

High Availability
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway is designed to meet the high-availability requirements found in carrier-class environments. Redundancy, hot-sparing, call-management, and self-management features are all part of the carrier-class attributes available in the Cisco AS5850.

Mean Time Between Failures
Mean time between failure (MTBF) statistics and data have been developed through extensive testing in Cisco development testing labs. For major software and hardware components of the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway, the MTBF has been extrapolated to be 146,000 hours.

RSC Redundancy
The RSC hosts the centralized functions of Layer 3 packet switching, time-division multiplexing (TDM), bus clock, and Stratum 4E timing generation, as well as external connections, including egress interface to the IP or packet-based network. Hardware is present on the RSC to detect critical faults and provide an auto-reboot capability. Each RSC provides dual redundant back haul interfaces. These interfaces can be connected to the same core device or different core devices, depending on the type of interface resilience required.

When two RSCs are installed, chassis-management functions such as clock control and environmental monitoring benefit from redundant circuitry on the RSCs. Chassis management redundancy is automatically enabled any time two RSCs are present in a Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway.

RSC High Availability
High availability on the high-end access-server platform is an increasingly important customer requirement. This is particularly true with the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway because it is deployed into the traditional telecommunications-carrier space with VoIP and other packet-based converged services at higher (and increasing) port and trunk densities.

The Cisco AS5850 offers high-availability features such as hot swap on all cards, hot spares, redundant hot-swappable power supplies, redundant switch fabrics, and redundant routers, all part of the carrier-class attributes required for a highly available system.

Fault Tolerance
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway achieves fault tolerance through the use of hot-swappable DSP cards, power supplies, redundant RSCs, fan units, and Ethernet connections. RSC redundancy enables a system to keep running in the event of failure. Additional mechanisms enable redundant components to be built into the system and used when required without resulting in active call loss.

Call Admission Control
Call Admission Control (CAC) provides the ability for the platform to gracefully refuse calls based on local call-processing resources, such as CPU load, memory utilization, bandwidth availability, or measured congestion on the IP network. Such call control dramatically improves the reliability of the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway RSC by preventing CPU- and memory- overload conditions that could cause RSC functioning failure. The CPU adjusts "the DSP autobusy" algorithms when memory is low or CPU is high.

Hot-Swapping on all Cards and Modules
Hot-swapping on all cards allows hardware maintenance to be performed on an active access server with little or no service interruption. During a hot swap, any card may be replaced, and only the calls on the card being removed are affected. "Soft busy" commands can be used to gracefully remove traffic before card removal.

The power entry modules (PEMs) are load sharing and fully redundant with separate power feeds and separate breakers. In the unlikely event of a PEM failure, the failed unit can be removed and replaced while the system continues normal operation. The thermal performance margin of the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway cooling system allows up to 15 minutes for a hot-swappable cooling module exchange. The optional AC supply has hot-swappable modules and N+1 power module redundancy.

Hot Spares
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway can be configured with spare DSPs, RSCs, and trunk cards for added resiliency. Because DSPs are pooled and allocated on a call-by-call basis, a DSP failure will not cause a DS0 or B channel to be left without a DSP to terminate the call. This prevents the occurrence of "holes," or unused channels, within a hunt group. Having spare DSPs in the pool also allows DSP code to be updated without affecting active calls. There can be more DSPs in the DSP pool than available DS0s to cover for resources that are being upgraded or tested.

DSP Resource Recovery Feature
DSP resources are tested at power up and after disconnect to check for defects. Any defective DSPs found are moved to the resource recovery pool. An automatic recovery feature can be turned on to recover defective DSPs in the recovery pool and add them back into the resource pool if possible.

Redundant Data Paths
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway provides multiple paths for data packets from a DS0 to an external backbone device. Redundant packet buses exist from each feature card slot to both RSCs along with multiple separate TDM buses for expansion and resiliency. Backhaul redundancy to the IP core network is accomplished using the redundant back haul interfaces provided on each RSC.

Power Management
Redundant load-sharing DC PEMs are standard on the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway. Voltage and current levels on each PEM can be monitored at the RSC console, and alarms for voltage and current thresholds are available for use by an element management system.

Thermal Management
Twelve adjustable-speed fans in three N+1 redundant banks provide cooling for the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway. If one fan in a bank fails, the others automatically increase speed (which increases airflow) to compensate for the lost fan. If a fan-controller fault occurs, all fans automatically run at full speed. A fan failure or fan-controller failure will cause the RSC to generate an alarm. Redundant power feeds to the fan controller help ensure power to the fans and controller.

Thermal sensors are installed on each card near the air inlet and outlet positions to monitor the inlet and outlet temperatures and temperature rise across each card. The fans increase speed in the event of high-temperature readings, providing additional cooling in extreme conditions. If an individual feature card within the dial shelf exceeds its maximum operating temperature, only the affected board is shut down. If the system continues to exceed its maximum operating temperature, the thermal sensors initiate further shutdowns, preventing damage to the unit or its surrounding environment from excessive heat. An incremental shutdown sequence targets DSP cards first and trunk interfaces last to avoid alarms at the central office.

Regulatory Compliance
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway complies with Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS) Level 3 requirements, as defined by Telcordia SR-3580; and European requirements, as defined by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI).

Rich Protocol Support
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway takes advantage of the full-feature richness and strong IP capabilities of Cisco IOS Software. The gateway was optimized for service-provider IP networks. In addition, it fully supports the specialized needs of AOL dial up services through Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP), or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Clear connections. Through its support of all IP routing protocols, the Cisco AS5850 integrates easily into any service provider's aggregation layer.

V.92 and V.44 Support
V.92 and V.44 are the latest modem standards to be adopted by the industry. The standards specify a set of features that allow modems to mimic many of the benefits of broadband:

Service providers can offer revenue-generating services and increase subscriber retention with V.92 and V.44 standards. Cisco Remote Access Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) support for Modem on Hold allows premium subscribers to suspend their Internet sessions for longer periods of time to place or receive phone calls. Quick Connect saves the line conditions of the last number dialed, encouraging subscribers to dial into the same ISP to reduce connection time. Combined with greater compression and connection speeds, V.92 and V.44 allow service providers to offer their subscribers a "broadband-lite," which enables Internet users to experience the qualities usually associated with broadband for the price of dial up or modem access.

Packet Telephony
The framework for voice services on the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway is based on open interfaces and standards, and it allows an ecosystem of partners to work together to develop innovative network services.

Service providers are not locked into a single VoIP signaling technology when they choose the Cisco AS5850 because H.323, SIP, and MGCP support are all built in. This allows service providers to enable the call control protocol that is the best fit for their networks today, with confidence that they can respond to evolving market requirements whenever necessary.

H.323
Leading the industry through the adoption of new standards-based H.323 technology, the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway supports the scalability enhancements introduced in H.323 Version 3 and H.323 Version 4. For example:

The Cisco AS5850 supports a broad array of proven, interoperable H.323-based solutions for service-provider networks: global long distance, distributed prepaid calling, SS7 interconnect, telephony applications, and unified communications.

SIP
SIP is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard for multimedia conferencing over IP. SIP is an ASCII-based, application-layer control protocol (defined in RFC 2543) that can be used to establish, maintain, and terminate calls between two or more end points. The SIP implementation on the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway includes support for important features like third-party call control and RFC 2833 Dual Tone Multifrequency (DTMF) Relay for interconnection with application service provider (ASP) networks.

Similarities between H.323 and SIP

Although SIP messages are not directly compatible with H.323, both protocols can coexist in the same packet telephony network because the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway has the ability to process individual SIP and H.323 calls simultaneously. This allows service providers to integrate complementary H.323 and SIP services in the same network.

MGCP
MGCP 1.0 is a protocol for centralized control of VoIP calls by external call-control elements known as media gateway controllers or call agents. It is described in the informational RFC 2705 published by the IETF.

The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway includes support for the MGCP network access server package. This allows the platform to operate simultaneously as a network access server and a voice gateway to deliver universal port services in an MGCP network. Standards-based T.38 Fax Relay and RFC 2833 DTMF Relay are available with MGCP.

IP Signaling Transport
In addition to the signaling protocols already mentioned, the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway also supports the IETF Sigtran Working Group's Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) described in RFC 2960 and the ISDN Q.921-User Adaptation (IUA) layer protocol described in RFC 3057.

By supporting SCTP and IUA, the Cisco AS5850 can terminate a Primary Rate Interface (PRI) connection and then transport or back haul the Layer 3 signaling (Q.931) information to an external signaling controller or media gateway controller (MGC). The signaling controller or MGC will process the PRI Q.931 call-control messages and then communicate with the Cisco AS5850 via MGCP to signal call-handling procedures.

SCTP and IUA can handle Facility Associated Signaling (FAS), Non-Facility Associated Signaling (NFAS), and NFAS with backup D channel.

Programmable Interactive Voice Response Using Tool Command Language 2.0
Integrated, programmable interactive voice response (IVR) extends the ability of the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway to support unique and differentiated voice services. Voice application software developers can use the Tool Command Language (TCL) IVR 2.0 application programming interface (API) to create customized TCL scripts that control calls coming into or going out of the gateway. IVR systems collect user input in response to recorded messages, and the prompts used in a TCL IVR 2.0 script can be either static or dynamic. The scripts are event-driven, and the flow of the call is controlled by a finite-state machine (FSM) that is defined by the TCL script. All verbs are nonblocking; they can execute without causing the script to wait. Prompts can be played and digits can be collected over telephony or VoIP call legs. Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)-based prompts are supported. TCL IVR 2.0 offers enhanced multilanguage support by providing the capability to add new languages and text-to-speech (TTS) notations to the core IVR infrastructure. Support is available to companies that are developing or modifying TCL IVR 2.0 scripts through the Cisco Developer Support Program.

Voice Quality
Users can take advantage of the extensive voice and fax capabilities of the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway to build a reliable, high-quality VoIP network. Voice-quality tests confirm that the Cisco AS5850 delivers end-to-end voice-quality performance that meets the high standards established for toll-quality voice services in the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Comprehensive voice-quality testing is a critical component in the Cisco AS5850 development process. Cisco conducts subjective voice-quality tests to determine mean opinion scores using a methodology derived from International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardized Sector (ITU-T) Recommendations P.830 and P.831. Objective voice-quality tests are also conducted using the Perceptual Analysis Measurement System.

The high-performance design of the Cisco AS5850 minimizes delay and packet loss during the voice encoding and packetization processes. The Cisco AS5850 introduces minimal delay as voice data is received from the PSTN and transmitted to the IP network for G.711 calls. Cisco quality-of-service (QoS) features, including IP Precedence, Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), and Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED), implemented on both the universal gateway and backbone routing infrastructure, can provide a low-latency, high-reliability path for sensitive voice traffic through today's networks.

Echo control is essential for packet-switched networks to carry voice traffic successfully. The Cisco AS5850 supports ITU-T Recommendation G.168 for echo cancellation with a tail length up to 128 milliseconds (ms). Fixed and adaptive jitter buffering and comfort-noise generation further enhance voice quality.

Voice Codecs
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway offers multiple codecs to meet interoperability, compression, and latency requirements for various phone-to-phone and PC-to-phone applications: G.711, G.723.1 (5.3K and 6.3K), G.726, G.729ab, G.Clear, and GSM-FR. The same number of calls is supported across all codec types to simplify network engineering. Enabling voice activity detection (VAD) reduces packet traffic through the network. With VAD enabled, the Cisco AS5850 detects silence and stops transmitting packets when callers stop speaking. Variable frame sizing provides further control over speech packetization.

CAC for Voice Services
For VoIP to be a realistic replacement for standard PSTN telephony services, customers need to receive the same consistently high-quality voice transmissions they receive with basic telephone services. For real-time delay-sensitive traffic such as voice, it is better to deny network access under congestion conditions than to allow traffic onto the network to be dropped and delayed, causing intermittent impaired QoS and resulting in customer dissatisfaction.

A variety of QoS mechanisms exist in Cisco IOS Software to allow service providers to design and configure packet networks that provide the necessary low latency and guaranteed delivery required for voice traffic. These mechanisms include tools such as queuing, policing, traffic shaping, packet marking, fragmentation, and interleaving.

CAC extends the QoS tool suite to protect voice traffic from being negatively affected by other voice traffic, keeping excess voice traffic off the network. CAC allows the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway to make deterministic and informed decisions before a voice call is established based on whether the required network resources are available to provide suitable QoS for the new call. Some CAC mechanisms include:

Fax Features
Fax transmission over an IP infrastructure is an important and growing service opportunity, especially in international markets where fax represents a large percentage of network traffic. The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway supports the standards-based T.38 Real-Time Fax Relay, allowing greater interoperability between networks. The fax-detection capabilities of the Cisco AS5850 allow service providers to offer a single E.164 number for subscriber voice and fax services. Half as many subscriber phone numbers are needed, resulting in significant cost savings. The Cisco AS5850 also supports fax pass through for VoIP environments that cannot support T.38 Real-Time Fax Relay end to end.

TDM Switching
TDM switching is the ability to take an incoming call on a given DS0 and send it out on a different DS0 before the call is answered by the gateway. This feature is used in such applications as:

This feature does not require any DSP resource and hence has no impact on the dial, voice, and fax-handling capability of the platform. TDM switching plus network-side ISDN capability provides a means of grooming incoming traffic and passing selected calls to external devices, such as PBXs, test sets, VoIP gateways, or access servers. The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway is capable of switching calls between SS7, PRI, and channel associated signaling (CAS) trunks.

Manageability
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway has a wide range of management tools designed to reduce operational costs. The Cisco Universal Gateway Manager is an element management system that supports the configuration, management, and troubleshooting of Cisco universal gateways. It supports the entire Cisco AS5000 universal gateways for voice, dial, and Cisco ASAP applications.

The console-management features include a comprehensive set of debugging commands that can be enabled on a specific calling line identification (CLID), automatic number identification (ANI), called number (Dialed Number Information Service [DNIS]), user, or interface to immediately isolate only the relevant debugging output.

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Version 2 and Version 3 management capability includes a rich call-tracking SNMP Management Information Base that provides highly detailed records for active and historical calls, with a configurable call-history buffer. Call records can also be obtained via syslog or RADIUS as an alternative to polling via SNMP. Call records include connect rate, connect duration, disconnect codes, end-to-end delay, and line statistics. This information allows service providers to debug problems for individual users. Wholesale service providers can use this performance-management data to establish service-level agreements (SLAs) with their retail ISP customers.

Network-Security Management
Cisco IOS Software network-security features allow authorized users dial access while preventing access to intruders. These features include multilevel password protection, user authentication such as Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) and Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP), access control lists (ACLs), IP address spoofing prevention and logging, and support of the industry-standard authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) protocol RADIUS.

SS7 and Common Channel 7 Integration
Service providers around the world are deploying Cisco access servers with SS7 and Common Channel 7 (C7) interfaces. With SS7, carriers realize immediate benefits of improved scaling, reduced network costs, and faster time to market. The Cisco SS7 solution, implemented through the Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch and Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch, also guarantees investment protection in existing Cisco access servers while providing a smooth migration to IP packet telephony.

The Cisco PGW 2200 and Cisco BTS 10200 provide signaling connectivity to the SS7 network and provide all the functions for signaling and SS7 network management. The access servers provide digital interoffice trunk interfaces for completion of the calls. Control traffic is logically separated from management and customer data to provide greater information security and reliability. Resource management, call control, and system health monitoring complement SS7 to facilitate network scalability. The Cisco PGW 2200 or Cisco BTS 10200 can be at a centralized location or distributed.

To connect to the PSTN as a network element, the Cisco solution supports two- and four-wire continuity check and test calls at the access server. TDM switching plus network-side ISDN capability provide a means of grooming incoming traffic and passing selected calls to external devices, such as PBXs, test sets, or VoIP gateways.

The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway also works with several partner call agents and Cisco softswitches in an MGCP configuration providing centralized call-control architecture.

Full Cisco IOS Software Support for IP Services
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway has two software-image options. The first is the IP Plus feature set, which is the full Cisco IOS Software Enterprise Feature Set with all non-IP functions removed (for example, Internetwork Packet Exchange [IPX], AppleTalk, Systems Network Architecture [SNA], and so on). This image option provides a complete palette of software functions to enable rapid deployment of feature-rich IP services using the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway. Important features include H.323v2, H.323v3, H.323v4, SIP, MGCP 1.0, interactive voice response (IVR), T.38 fax, fax and modem pass through, carrier-sensitive routing, CAC, full RADIUS support (standard IETF plus third-party vendor proprietary extensions), L2TP, QoS, multicast, resource pool management for wholesale services, extended ACLs, AOL, and Prodigy support.

The second Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway image option is an encryption image, which supports IP Security (IPSec) with 40- and 56-bit RC5, data encryption standard (DES), and Triple DES (3DES) plus automated key distribution.

Multivendor Back-Office Integration
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway supports the RADIUS protocol for back-office integration, control, and network security. In addition to supporting the IETF-defined RADIUS attributes, Cisco IOS Software supports many vendor-proprietary RADIUS attributes for both preauthentication and user authentication. This means that the Cisco AS5850 can be integrated into any multivendor remote-access network with no changes to the back-office systems.

Worldwide Certification
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway is homologated worldwide with all major T1 and E1 switch types.

Cisco ASAP
The experience gained by Cisco in both data and voice is unique. Known industry-wide for its strength in data products, which is reflected in majority market share in all segments of the remote-access marketplace, Cisco has also taken a leadership role in the VoIP gateway market since analysts first started tracking that product category. The company's experience in building voice networks extends beyond millions of VoIP operating hours, and Cisco boasts the world's largest deployment.

Cisco is taking advantage of this experience by providing the next generation in technology—Cisco ASAP— the architecture for rapid deployment of concurrent services on Cisco AS5000 universal gateways.

Cisco ASAP provides easy integration and migration by using a standards-based architecture for all applications, and lowers operational costs through common equipment, call control, billing, and management. Only Cisco ASAP allows service providers to easily adapt to changing markets with minimal additional investments.


Flexibility in Deploying New Services
Demand for new services can be easily accommodated with the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway whether the initial business opportunity is wholesale dial, prepaid calling card, global long distance, or any other application. The capability to use the gateway in multiple service environments provides unprecedented capital-investment protection. The access equipment can promptly adapt itself to any change in business environment or demand for new services. The ability for service providers to offer innovative new services allows differentiation from competition.


Remote-Access Services
Internet Connectivity
Enterprises and service providers need to extend network access to a broad range of remote users, including employees, customers, and partners. Successful remote access means being able to connect these users from practically any location, almost transparently. The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway, combined with Cisco IOS Software, meets these needs by extending the core infrastructure by providing secure, reliable dial-in connections.

Data over voice bearer service (DoVBS) is used in areas where ISDN data calls are charged at a higher rate (or tariff) than ISDN voice calls. The ISDN customer premises equipment (CPE) device (terminal adapter or router) must support DoVBS operation; most popular ISDN devices available today support DoVBS. The ISDN CPE device is programmed to signal all ISDN data calls as voice calls so that these calls will be billed at the lower voice rate. Cisco Resource Pool Management (RPM) on the Cisco AS5850 is used to configure a customer profile for DoVBS calls based on DNIS. This profile configures the Cisco AS5850 to treat all calls received on that number as ISDN data calls, even if they are signaled as voice calls by the PSTN.

Wholesale Dial
Many ISPs and content providers (or "portals") must provide dialup Internet access as part of their service packages, and enterprise companies want to offer "private-label" Internet access to promote their brands. However, they do not have the experience, personnel, time, or money to build out a dialup-access infrastructure, or they cannot build it quickly enough, particularly when expanding into new regions. Service providers can now take advantage of this opportunity through Cisco wholesale dial solutions.

The Cisco wholesale dial outsourcing solution delivers "virtual port" capability across any number of Cisco remote-access servers. Coupled with sophisticated port-policy management that guarantees port availability to wholesale customers, Cisco enables carriers and ISPs to offer unique services that bring incremental revenue while holding down operations costs. The network infrastructure deployed for wholesale dial can also be used to offer standard retail dialup services, plus other value-added services such as corporate dial outsourcing, Internet gaming, unified communications, VoIP, and VPNs.

Access VPNs
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway is ideally suited to providing wholesale dial services to both large corporations and ISPs who do not want to support their own dial pools. With support for VPNs in Cisco IOS Software, service providers can take advantage of their existing infrastructures to deliver local dialup access for users of enterprise networks.

By providing virtual-dialup solutions, service providers can offer a full range of services closer to the remote user. Local calls can now be placed to gain access to the core infrastructures. Virtual-dialup services not only attract more users of this service—because calls are terminated locally, long-distance charges are eliminated and infrastructure costs are reduced.

VPN Provisioning and Accounting
Service providers in the VPN environment need to both provision and account for the number of connections that are allowed by VPN customers. The Cisco Virtual Private Dialup Network (VPDN) session-counting software can keep track of the number of connections from the Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway to the user's home gateway. This software is provided in Cisco IOS Software running on the Cisco AS5850 and in the Cisco access control server to provide comprehensive accounting and billing information to ISPs about the virtual connections that their customers make.

AOL Support
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway offers 100 percent coverage for dedicated AOL dial installations, as well as other services that use the TCP Clear or autocommand Telnet method of carrying dialup data. Domain Name System (DNS) round robin is also supported to allow load balancing of connections across multiple AOL hosts. The Cisco AS5850 also includes all the L2TP features necessary to support clients of AOL 7.0 and later.


Packet Telephony Services
Cisco Voice Infrastructure and Applications
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway supports Cisco Voice Infrastructure and Applications (VIA), an ideal solution for service providers building next-generation networks. Cisco VIA is a VoIP solution designed to lower network costs and rapidly deliver a multitude of revenue-generating carrier-class voice transport services. These include: national and international transport, prepaid and postpaid calling card services, application service provider (ASP) termination, dial access, voice mail, and unified communications.

The Cisco VIA solution scales easily for small and large voice networks. Using the Cisco AS5850 and Cisco VIA, service providers with existing data networks can quickly and easily add voice services to their portfolios, while carriers who offer voice services over existing TDM networks can expand their coverage more cost-effectively. Cisco VIA extends network reach through worldwide compatibility and operability, and is a field-proven solution that has been deployed in over 80 countries worldwide.

Distributed Prepaid Calling
The Cisco prepaid-calling-card solution gives Internet telephony service providers a competitive advantage in the prepaid-calling market. By tapping the intelligence embedded in IP network components, the card allows service providers to centralize the service application in a single location at a low cost while bandwidth-intensive call connections are handled at the network edge in Cisco gatekeepers and gateways. The benefit: lower costs than traditional debit-card applications, which are based on service points in large points of presence (POPs) in circuit-switched networks. The prepaid-calling-card solution supports IVR in different languages, so carriers can target specific markets.

Managed Voice Services
Telephony ASPs are emerging as an important market force, offering new, hosted, enhanced IP communications services that provide additional capability beyond the services offered by the PSTN. Example applications hosted by telephony ASPs include hosted IP telephony, managed IP PBX, PC-to-phone services, unified communications, multiservice VPN, IP contact center, IP teleconferencing, voice-enabled Web commerce, click to dial, Internet call waiting, and content delivery. This creates new business-partnering opportunities for VoIP service providers. The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway enables interconnection between telephony ASPs and VoIP network-infrastructure providers to bring complete solutions to end users.

SS7 Interconnect
Using the Cisco PGW 2200 PSTN Softswitch or Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch (or a third-party SS7 gateway), service providers can interconnect their data and VoIP network with the PSTN via SS7 links. In many countries, carriers must interconnect via SS7 to qualify for reciprocal compensation. The Cisco PGW 2200 and Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway provide the interface needed to interconnect using Q.931 over IP or MGCP, allowing service providers to enter markets they otherwise would not have access to because of signaling requirements. SS7 trunks are more efficient than CAS trunks, and they typically cost less than PRI trunks. With SS7, call setup time decreases, increasing the amount of billable traffic carried by the network.

Service-Level Management
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway supports Cisco RADIUS-based RPM. This enables service providers to offer guaranteed port availability across shared infrastructure, helping them to guarantee service levels to their customers. In addition, Cisco RPM offers the ability to ensure "fairness" across multiple customers for the same shared ports when there is no service-level guarantee, and it also enables the Cisco AS5850 to support DoVBS.

Resource pooling can be configured on a per-gateway or per-network basis. In the former case, customer profiles stored on the Cisco AS5850 determine how resources are allocated to each of the wholesale service provider's customers. Each customer is identified based on a list of dialed numbers from DNIS. When network-wide service levels are required, external Cisco Resource Policy Management System (RPMS) software running on a Sun Solaris server holds the customer profiles and keeps track of port use across multiple Cisco AS5000 universal gateways or other vendors' RADIUS-compliant gateways. When the Cisco AS5850 receives an incoming call, the Cisco RPMS determines whether the call should be accepted based on information in the customer profile.

Summary
The Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway is a high-density universal gateway, offering highest capacity and high availability in its class. The gateway is designed to meet the demands of large service providers, supporting up to 5 Channelized T3s (CT3s), 96 T1s, 86 E1s, or 2 STM-1s (108 E1s) of data, voice, and fax services, on any port at any time.

It offers high-availability features such as hot-swap on all cards, load-sharing and redundant hot-swappable power supplies, redundant fans and fan banks, redundant route switch controller (RSC) cards, and Call Admission Control (CAC), all part of the carrier-class attributes required to provide a highly available system.

It supports H.323, SIP, and MGCP call control protocols with extensive SNMP management and debugging capabilities. It works with Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch, Cisco BTS 10200 softswitch, and several partner softswitches as well.