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Surf Announces Simultaneous Triple-Play Media Processing Capabilities on a Single DSP
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VON Spring, San Jose, California – March 7, 2005 – SURF Communication Solutions® (“Surf”), the leading provider of high capacity MoP™ (Media over Packet) enabling technologies, today announced the launch of its line of Triple-Play media processing products, which enable developers of Voice and Video infrastructure gateways, CTI applications, Packet–to–Packet applications, and a multitude of other Voice, Video, and Data applications, to provide Triple-Play functionality using a single Texas Instruments TMS320C6412™ digital signal processor (DSP).
This new technology will revolutionize the way telecommunications infrastructure systems are designed. Currently, there are different systems or sub–systems for each media type. Video systems are comprised of various sub–systems, each handling a different media type. For example: Voice is handled on a TMS320C5x™ DSP and Video on a TMS320C64x™ DSP, others use host–based processing for one of the media types. This separation of systems results in a variety of drawbacks: systems which are not cost–effective, not scaleable, not balanced, and not synchronized.
In Surf’s new Triple-Play media processing products, all three media types can be processed simultaneously on a single DSP, using a single system. This revolutionary approach allows dynamic configuration of the ratio of Voice and Video channels running on each DSP in the system. The result is a cost–effective and scaleable system allowing step–by–step migration from ‘Voice only’, to ‘Voice intensive’ (with just a few Video calls), to a ‘full Voice and Video’ system. This approach allows customers to leverage their investment in both the intellectual property developed and hardware purchased, since the same system will be used with a different number of Voice and Video channels, based on system requirements.
“Surf’s Triple Play enabling technology allows operators to shorten the Triple Play deployment cycle and increase ARPU by bridging their Voice, Video and Data networks,“ claims Eyal Zagagi, CEO of Surf Communication Solutions. “It lowers the migration costs for equipment vendors, allowing them to integrate Triple Play solutions into their existing products today, providing them with a more efficient, integrated, Voice and Video media processing platform.”
The new Surf Triple Play media processing products, which utilize the Texas Instruments state–of–the–art TMS320C6412 DSP, provide cost–effective high port density and flexible Voice/Video port assignment. As an integral component of the strategy, Surf’s patent–pending Open Framework design facilitates integration of third–party host applications and shortens time–to–market. It comes complete with built–in diagnostics API.
“Surf has designed a system which takes full advantage of the performance available on the C6412 DSP, which has been optimized to reduce overall system costs and device board space in telecom infrastructure applications,” said Ram Sathappan, DSP Solutions marketing manager, TI. “By leveraging the capabilities of DSPs, Surf is able to offer customers a robust, programmable solution to drive the rapid adoption of Triple Play communications.”
For more information about TI’s C6412 see: www.ti.com/c6412720pr
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Applications for Triple Play Technology
Triple Play technology can be used in a variety of products, including Voice and Video gateway applications connecting mobile, broadband IP, wireless, and PSTN networks; CTI Applications, such as Voice, Video, and Fax mail, Interactive Voice/Video Response (IVR) servers, announcement servers, unified messaging servers, and call recording servers for Voice, Video, and Fax; Inter–Working Function (IWF); and Stand–Alone Termination Applications, such as RAS, Conferencing Servers, Voice quality monitoring, and non–intrusive interception and security applications.
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More About Surf's Triple Play Media Processing Technology
The SurfUP Triple Play Media Processing Framework comprises a media processing solution offering simultaneous support for “Triple Play” convergence—Voice, Video, and Data (Fax/Modem)—all running simultaneously on a single DSP. Featuring the SurfUP patent–pending open DSP framework, it enables customers to integrate user–defined algorithms into the DSP, based on simple and intuitive APIs that interface with Surf’s DSP software. Utilizing Surf's robust and field–hardened enabling technologies, customers can migrate their Voice systems to Triple Play today.
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Separating Media and Control Paths
Traditionally, a multi–DSP system contains a set of DSPs connected on one side to the TDM via an H.100 interface, and on the other side via a Host Port Interface (HPI) to a host processor. In this configuration, the host processor has two roles: 1) to aggregate DSP traffic; and 2) to run the control application. The aggregation task involves performing memory read/write operations to the multiple DSPs, encapsulating the traffic, and sending it to the network interface. The control application consists mainly of controlling each one of the individual tasks performed on each DSP, and implementing the signaling stacks. The high level operating system is not ideal for real–time handling of media packets, which need to be transferred from the HPI to the IP interfaces (and visa versa) in a restricted system with severe time constraints.
An alternative approach is based on the principles of a complete separation between the media and control paths, enabling allocation of the appropriate resources for the implementation of these two very different tasks. The Surf solution utilizes the DSP’s direct TDM and IP interfaces. As a result, media is received and sent directly, without the need to be routed through the host processor.
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Open Framework
Surf’s Open Framework technology enables users to easily incorporate user–defined algorithms into the DSP framework without the need to recompile the DSP software components, drivers, or APIs. The procedure for adding such algorithms to the DSP framework is:
- Compile the new algorithm.
- Link it to the existing code base to create a new executable.
- Modify the host application to enable use of the new algorithm.
- Execute the updated host application and DSP load.
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Optimized for Carrier and CTI Applications
Many DSP software frameworks are optimized for a specific application. This is due to the architecture of the software, the DSP characteristics, and lack of external memory. The Surf solution is based on TI’s C64x™ DSP generation and takes advantages of its prominent features, such as direct Ethernet interface and external memory of 32/64 MB. Using a DSP with several megabytes of external SD–RAM enables the equipment manufacturer to easily add features without worrying about code and data size. It also allows large amounts of data, which were previously stored on the host system controller, to be stored on the DSP. This method relieves the host processor from performing rapid data transfers, which reduces overall system cost.
Having external memory in a DSP–based media processing device doesn’t automatically imply that it will be used in the most effective manner. In order to make the best use of external memory, the system architect must ensure that the following applies to the system:
- External memory size and width comply with current application needs and leave enough room for future expansion.
- Access to external memory data is performed through a predictive caching mechanism. Accessing the external memory using a caching mechanism can reduce the memory access duration by up to five times.
- A mechanism for off–line data transfer from the host to the DSP’s external memory should be established. This mechanism will simplify the host–DSP interface, and enable the host to view the DSP memory as an expansion to its own memory.
Access to external memory should be mainly through DMA operations that work in the background, transferring blocks of data from external to internal memory and visa versa.
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Remote Diagnostics
In many systems, the diagnostics are not part of the release version. As a result, when a problem occurs in the field it is necessary to disengage the system and activate a debug version. This is due to software design considerations and lack of sufficient memory to support the larger version with diagnostics. In contrast, the Surf solution includes the diagnostics in the release version and allows the diagnostics to be engaged on per DSP/call/channel/media type basis.
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Cross Platform
The Surf software is written in ANSI C and runs on various native and embedded operating systems. Additionally, it can be easily ported to other operating systems by modifying only the operating system related part of the package.
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