2010-04-29 08:16:11 Author: Ruth Bridger

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Howlet codec deploys with ease and increases network call capacity

Xorcom, a privately-held manufacturer of business telephony interfaces and appliances based on Asterisk open source software, and Howler Technologies, the high definition voice and video transcoding company, and providers of a wide range of cost-effective, carrier-grade transcoding solutions to the telecoms industry, announced today that they have successfully completed interoperability testing between Xorcom’s IP-PBX models and Howler Technologies’ G.729 software codec for Asterisk, known as “Howlet”.

Xorcom IP-PBX: Reliable, Flexible Asterisk-based Telephony Platforms
Xorcom’s all-in-one appliances allow seamless communication using both VoIP and traditional telephony protocols. Xorcom’s unique system design ensures the reliability expected from a propriety telephony system, while providing the flexibility, scalability, easy integration and competitive pricing afforded by an open source platform. The Xorcom IP-PBX line supports all the features of the extremely popular Asterisk PBX operating system while providing additional benefits, such as dual-PBX hot failover with the award-winning TwinStar feature, high density of telephony interface combinations in a small footprint, etc.

Howlet: High-performance G.729A Specifically Designed for Ease of Deployment with Xorcom
The G.729 codec is an industry standard algorithm that compresses and decompresses a digital audio stream. Applied to Voice over IP (VoIP) calls, G.729 compresses the audio data to use significantly less network bandwidth than a standard or uncompressed VoIP call.
Instead of the 64kbit/s required for a standard, uncompressed G.711 PCM audio data stream, the G.729 codec compresses the payload to 8kbit/s. This compression allows for more calls to be carried without increasing network capacity and allows voice to travel on limited-bandwidth connections that would otherwise not support VoIP.
Howlet delivers a high-performance G.729A implementation that has been specifically designed for ease of deployment with the Xorcom IP-PBX range of products. The Howlet is compatible with a range of popular software, including Asterisk, Elastix, and trixbox.

Partnership Provides Alternative to High Price Tag and Implementation Hassle
“Howlet allows Xorcom integrators to avoid the responsibility of paying the license fee for the Open Source version of the G.729 codec (for which initial license fees are approximately $25,000 – $30,000), since Howlet is GPLv2 compliant and includes the G.729 Patent Royalty,” notes Eran Gal, CEO, Xorcom. “It supports our standard software platforms — Asterisk, Elastix and trixbox — out-of-the-box, so implementation is a breeze.”
“The G.729 Howlet’s scalability, and its flexible, distributed licensing options, are perfectly suited Xorcom line of flexible and scalable IP-PBXs,” stated Mike Vieyra, CEO, Howler Technologies. “Xorcom customers can now benefit from increased call capacity over their existing bandwidth, at a reasonable price.”

G.729 for Xorcom Asterisk-based IP-PBX: Implementation Guidelines
G.729 requires CPU resources. On its Web site, Xorcom has published tables which show the conversion time (using different compression methods) that can be achieved by each member of Xorcom’s IP-PBX family (see http://www.xorcom.com/application-notes/g729.html).
Prior to purchase, integrators will need to compute the number of G.729 channels required by the specific configuration. The number can be estimated using the following information:
• a call between two SIP extensions usually requires two G.729 channels, unless the pass-thru mode is used (http://voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+G.729+pass-thru), in which case it doesn’t require any G.729 channel.
• a call between a SIP extension and a Zaptel/DAHDI extension/trunk requires one G.729 channel.
• a call to Voice Mail or another Asterisk service where IVR messages must be played requires one G.729 channel.  

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