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Feature Articles
Building the Perfect Ringback Tone System
By Maggie Smith, Director, Product Marketing, maggie_smith@nmss.com
The mobile phone personalization market continues to grow as subscribers look for new ways to customize their mobile phone to suit their personality and lifestyle. Screen savers, specialized ringtones, and ringback tones are just a few applications that mobile operators are deploying to increase revenue within their subscriber base. While screen savers and ringtones are ways to personalize the subscriber’s experience with the phone, ringback tones let subscribers extend this personalization to their callers, by showing off their favorite tune, sound, jingle, or phrase when friends and family call. With the ability to choose what a caller will hear as they wait for the subscriber to pick up the call, subscribers have an instant way to express their own individuality and provide a unique experience to their caller.
Ringback tones add a more sophisticated dimension to customization. Unlike ringtones, which reside in the handset and may require specific resident features, the ringback tone service resides on the telecom provider’s network. Every mobile customer, regardless of handset, can use the ringback tone service, and all of their callers, regardless of whether they’re calling from a fixed-line or mobile phone, will hear the ringback tone that the subscriber has chosen for them to hear. Most important, because ringback services are not dependent on specific handsets to work, they provide operators with an additional method to increase average revenue per user (ARPU).
But, how difficult is adding ringback tones into an operator network? What are the main ingredients and overall recipe for building the perfect ringback system? It all starts with the management and provisioning of subscriber content.
Ringback Tone System Building Blocks
Figure 1 shows the building blocks of a successful ringback system implementation. The most important element—the subscriber management block represented in the lower half—demonstrates the user interaction when registering and purchasing a new ringback tone. Either through a web interaction or through the wireless access point (WAP) from the handset, the user should be able to review, purchase, and provision unique ringbacks for all their callers. Either through web interaction or using SMS text codes to the subscriber’s mobile phone, the operator can confirm the purchase, securely download the subscribers’ purchased ringback tones, and provision the right ringback tone to the associated subscriber caller. As noted within the diagram, a web server and SMS server are critical to establish a point of sale along with an IVR engine to play back digital content for selection.
Figure 1 — Building blocks for a successful ringback tone system
Additionally within the subscriber management function, access to all the digital assets needs to be securely managed and accessible from the operator’s content managers so new and timely digital content is always fresh. Finally, a secure and highly reliable link between the audio digital assets and the subscriber information needs to be in place so that the proper ringback tone is played per the subscriber’s purchase. This ensures that Aunt Mary hears the more sedate “You are My Sunshine” ringback tone versus the more raucous ringback tone meant for the subscriber’s younger brother.
Ensuring the network is configured properly to manage the ringback tone flow is the final consideration. Using SS7/ISUP call controls makes the ringback tone routing much easier to terminate the ringback tone to the right subscriber and their callers. In this scenario, the network is configured to route incoming calls for a specific called party to the ringback server. The ringback server is a network element that performs the following functions:
- Answers an incoming SS7 call
- Plays a specific ringback tone to the caller (based upon the calling and called party number)
- Makes an outgoing call to the called party number while the ringback tone plays
- Disconnects the ringback tone as the called party answers
- Connects the incoming and outgoing calls together
Building Block from NMS
NMS’s Open Access and SS7 signaling products are used extensively within globally deployed ringback systems. Open Access boards and software provide media processing solutions to manage ringback interactivity while the SS7 signaling solutions manage the intricacies of network signaling. NMS’s Natural Access development environment features tools and APIs to assist with managing SS7 call controls, building the IVR for sampling and playback of sample tones, and providing the media processing for the provisioned ringback tones.
For more information, contact an NMS sales representative at sales@nmss.com or visit our website for information on the sales office nearest you.
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Check Out the Open Access Promotions and Evaluations
By Joanne Babbitt, Product Marketing Manager, joanne_babbitt@nmss.com
If you would like to evaluate some of NMS’s software offerings, or jump start your development efforts, check out the listings on our Promotions page. Here’s a brief summary of the available packages:
Evaluations
Free evaluations are available for four of our software offerings—PacketMedia HMP, SIP for Natural Call Control, Video Access, and Software Video Transcoder. All come in both 30- and 90-day evaluation packages. The 30-day licenses are included in the software downloads on the NMS web site. The 90-day evaluations require use of the NMS License Manager, in addition to the software on our site. Follow the link in the box below for more details.
PacketMedia HMP
PacketMedia HMP is a scalable and cost-effective host media processing platform for deploying media server applications on standard, general-purpose computing platforms without the need for specialized hardware.
You can try PacketMedia HMP 2.0, with expanded vocoder support, native RTP play and record, and conferencing, for free using one of our two evaluation licenses. To download the 30-day, 4-session evaluation, just visit the PacketMedia HMP page, select your operating system, and download the software.
To obtain a 120-session, 90-day evaluation license, place a $0 order with your NMS sales representative for part number 83081. Then, download the PacketMedia HMP software as described above.
You may also want to try the PacketMedia Starter Kit, which comes with technical support. See the item below.
SIP for Natural Call Control
NMS’s SIP for Natural Call Control software, part of the Natural Access development environment, enables any CG Series media processing platform or PacketMedia HMP application to interface with SIP proxy servers and other SIP-based servers worldwide. This software abstracts the low-level details of the SIP protocol, simplifying development and reducing time-to-market for SIP User Agent deployments.
To try out an 8-session, 30-day evaluation license, go to the SIP for Natural Call Control page, select your operating system and download the software.
To obtain a 120-session, 90-day evaluation license, place a $0 order with your NMS sales representative for part number 83080. Then, follow the link above to download the SIP software for the desired operating system.
Video Access
Video Access, NMS’s mobile and IP video toolkit, is the ideal development environment for designing and deploying a wide range of powerful video applications, including 3G-324M-to-SIP video gateways, video media servers, and wireless video messaging and streaming servers.
If you currently have a CG Series board, you can try the latest version of Video Access for free. Simply visit the Video Access page and select your operating system to download the software, which includes a 30-day, 4-port evaluation license.
To obtain the 120-port, 90-day evaluation license, place a $0 order with your NMS sales representative for part number VAL313120. Then, follow the link above to download the Video Access software for the desired operating system.
If you are not a CG customer, you may purchase the Video Access Starter Kit, which includes a CG board and technical support. See the item below on our available Starter Kits.
Software Video Transcoder
NMS’s Software Video Transcoder (SVT) is a scalable networked transcoding software platform that allows you to incrementally grow resources as needed.The latest version of SVT features text and image overlay, which allows blending of images and text messages with the transcoded video stream. To download a 4-session evaluation license, valid for 30 days, just visit the Software Video Transcoder page and select your operating system.
To obtain a 60-session, 90-day evaluation license, place a $0 order with your NMS sales representative for part number VHL213030. Then, follow the link above to download the SVT software for the desired operating system. After your evaluation, you may purchase SVT 2.1 in your choice of 4-, 24-, 30-, 48, or 60-sessions licenses.
Starter Kits
NMS offers Starter Kits to help get your development efforts underway. Each kit contains a telephony processing engine, software, documentation, and technical support at significant discounts for developers who are new to NMS. Note: these kits are not available in all regions, so check with your NMS sales representative.
MG 7000A ATCA Starter Kit
If you are thinking about migrating your current offering to AdvancedTCA, then our Starter Kits provide an ideal opportunity for you to try NMS’s ATCA media processing blade—the MG 7000A. The MG 7000A features a powerful combination of high-speed IP packet handling, four Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, high-density DSP voice media processing power, and optional T1/E1 interfaces.
To jump start your development efforts, NMS offers two MG 7000A Starter Kits—an IP-only kit and a TDM kit. These Starter Kits provide a great way for you to leverage our experience and get your development efforts off the ground.
CG 6565 and CG 6060
The CG 6565 and CG 6060 families of media processing boards provide a scalable, high-performance development platform for converged PSTN and IP telephony solutions. These boards are designed to meet the connectivity, flexibility, and performance requirements of new applications ranging from media servers and enhanced service platforms to IVR, conferencing, messaging, and IP Centrex solutions.
The CG 6565 and CG 6060 Starter Kits are available in either PCI or CompactPCI form factors.
PacketMedia HMP Starter Kit
PacketMedia HMP allows developers to deploy media server applications on standard, general-purpose computing platforms. As part of the Open Access family, PacketMedia HMP developers leverage the powerful Natural Access development environment to bring media server applications to market quickly and at a lower cost.
With the PacketMedia HMP Starter Kit, you can begin developing new host-based applications in no time. The kit contains a developer license for 128 VoIP sessions, plus technical support.
Video Access
With Video Access Starter Kits, you get all the tools you need to begin developing new 3G-324M video applications. Each kit contains the Video Access 3.1 SDK, a 4- or 30-port runtime license, a PCI or CompactPCI media processing engine, and 2 incidents of technical support.
These starter kits are specifically intended to help developers rapidly architect, implement, and test their video applications using NMS’s application toolkit software, APIs, and communication building blocks.
SS7 Starter Kits
NMS’s SS7 signaling boards, the TX Series, provide powerful and flexible hardware for a variety of SS7 applications. These boards are supported by NMS’s SS7 software, a comprehensive yet flexible SS7 signaling stack that is optimized to provide the best price/performance for IN-based systems in the industry.
To get a start on your SS7 development, NMS offers SS7 Starter Kits that are available in either PCI or CompactPCI form factors. All kits include a TX Series board, the SS7 protocol stack with straightforward API interfaces, and the flexibility for worldwide deployment.
Contact your NMS sales representative for additional information on any of these free software evaluations or Starter Kits. If you don’t know who to call, send an email to sales@nmss.com to have an NMS sales person contact you.
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| Support Tip |
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Building or Modifying Prompt Tables for Use in IVR Applications
When creating an IVR system using Natural Access, the prompt builder tool uses the rules contained in american.tbl, the compiled rules table for standard US English, to build a list of message numbers that can be sent directly to the vcePlayList to say dates, times, numbers, and dollar amounts. The default setting for dates is that they be presented in MM/DD, MM/DD/YY, or MM/DD/YYYY format. However, many countries use different formats to represent a date. For example, the Canadian official format for date is yyyy/mm/dd. In order to use a date format other than the US standard, you will need to change the SAYDATE function in the american.ptx file, the source rule file, to reflect the appropriate date format. You will then need to recompile the edited american.ptx file into the american.tbl rules file, as shown in the example below.
Example: Changing the date format to read dates as YYYY/MM/DD
The american.ptx file defines the date format as MM/DD/YYYY in the SAYDATE function as follows:
;find the slash character, pass prev 2 chars to month decode
FIND FORWARD 1 “/” LEFT 2 EXCLUDE FOUND CALL MONTH
;find the slash character, pass following 2 chars to day decode
FIND FORWARD 1 “/” RIGHT 2 EXCLUDE FOUND CALL DAY
;find a second slash, if found, pass next to digits for year
FIND FORWARD 2 “/” RIGHT 4 EXCLUDE FOUND GOTO YEAR ELSE EXIT
;all done
To change the date format to YYYY/MM/DD, you need to change SAYDATE as follows:
;find the slash character, pass prev 4 chars to digits for year
FIND FORWARD 1 “/” LEFT 4 EXCLUDE FOUND CALL YEAR
;find the slash character, pass following 2 chars to month decode
FIND FORWARD 1 “/” RIGHT 2 EXCLUDE FOUND CALL MONTH
;find the slash character, pass following 2 chars to day decode
FIND FORWARD 2 “/” RIGHT 2 EXCLUDE FOUND GOTO DAY ELSE EXIT
; all done
Once the modifications are made to the .ptx file, you will need to use the utility mkprompt to compile the rule text file (.ptx) into prompt rules table (.tbl) as follows:
mkprompt source[.ptx] [dest[.tbl]]
Where:
- source[.ptx] is the source text file to be compiled. If no extension is specified, .ptx is assumed
- [dest[.tbl]] is the optional output file name. If no output file is specified, the source file name is used with the .tbl extension. If no extension is specified, .tbl is assumed.
For example, you can compile your modified american.ptx into prompt rule table (american.ptx) as follows:
mkprompt american.ptx
and it will generate the compiled rule table, american.tbl.
You may also re-record the american.vox file, which is the default voice message library for the standard American prompts, to change the voice that speaks the prompts. This file is opened and specified in vcePlayList in conjunction with the message list output of vceBuildPromptList.
Note that you need to have american.vox and american.tbl in the same folder for the voice file to use the newly generated .tbl file.
Testing Your Edited Prompt Rules
You can test your modified prompt rules table with the utility testpmpt. This utility allows you to test new prompt rules without having to pre-record the actual voice messages. When this utility is executed, the rules table (i.e., america.tbl) and the voice file (i.e., american.vox) are loaded. Then, you are prompted to enter a text string that the prompt builder will process. For example, if you use the date format for Canada and entered 2008/3/11, the prompt builder would return the following:
c:>\testpmpt -p american
Natural Access Test Prompt Utility V 1.2 (Dec 11 1997)
Prompt table = american.tbl
Prompt text from american.vox
Enter text: 2008/3/11
two thousand eight March eleventh |
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Customer Application
Globe Telecom: Mobile TV on 3G
Boredom may no longer be a problem for millions of Filipinos waiting for buses, trains or service at a restaurant now that Globe Telecom is offering mobile TV to its subscribers in a service built on NMS’s technology. The Philippines’ second-largest mobile operator, Globe Telecom, is offering Mobile TV on 3G, enabling users to watch their favorite live or made-for-mobile TV programs when and where they want.
Globe Telecom subscribers can now use their 3G capable phones to make a video call to a dial-in number and start their mobile TV experience. Subscribers have six channels to choose from where they can watch live feeds of CNN, three local broadcast television channels, sporting events as well as made-for-mobile looped videos of news, cartoons and entertainment content.
The 3G Mobile TV solution, deployed at Globe Telecom through a local NMS systems integration partner, does not require any software download and can be used in almost any 3G phone without configuration, enabling service providers like Globe Telecom to take advantage of the latest mobile multimedia technology.
NMS’s technology is becoming a springboard for operators around the world launching mobile TV services. Service providers and operators, including RTL Group, Europe’s largest TV and radio broadcaster, and CSL, Hong Kong’s leading mobile operator, are capitalizing on growing customer demand for multimedia options by using NMS’s technology to grow revenues, attract new customers and increase existing customer loyalty.
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Articles and Publications
Why There is No Internet QoS
By Brough Turner, CTO, NMS, rbt@nmss.com
Internet Quality of Service (QoS) comes up repeatedly, most recently in network neutrality arguments, as some claim QoS is needed to guarantee performance of telephony and IPTV. QoS is also a key feature of most of the proposed Next Generation Networks (NGNs), but the need for QoS has been a subject of argument for years. In the ATM-versus-IP debates of the mid-90s, one of the “advantages” of ATM was its fine grained QoS. All of the proposed approaches for Internet QoS are far more complex than required. By looking at how real applications are deployed today we can understand why existing Internet QoS measures have not been adopted and scope out what, if anything, might work.
Read Brough’s full article, published by IP Convergence TV , here .
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NMS Launches the Mobile Video Channel on TMCnet.com
TMCnet.com recently announced that the Mobile Video channel, sponsored by NMS, has been launched as the newest addition to the TMCnet channel program. The Mobile Video channel promotes mobile video solutions and includes an overview of NMS’s products. In addition, visitors can find valuable resources such as whitepapers, blogs, feature articles and industry news.
The advent of 3G networks worldwide and rising demand for mobile video services, such as mobile TV and video SMS, is creating major new revenue opportunities for both mobile network operators and application developers. With NMS’s enabling technology and tools for the rapid development and deployment of these voice- and video-based services, service providers are producing compelling and profitable mobile applications quickly.
Check out the Mobile Video channel today at: www.tmcnet.com/channels/mobile-video
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Spotlight Events
June Webinar: Making the Migration to PCI Express, 64-Bit Operating Systems and more
Location: On Your Desktop
Date: June 10, 2008
Time: 11:00am EDT
Speaker: Jack Chase, Director of Product Management and Joanne Babbitt, Product Marketing Manager
New architectures, such as PCI Express and multiprocessor computers, are giving telecom application developers more options for lower cost, higher performance platforms. But if you’re in the process of migrating to PCI Express, just like the engineers at NMS, then you are facing the possibility of purchasing a whole new set of systems for your development lab to accommodate this new architecture. At the same time, you’re also likely moving toward 64-bit operating systems, and you’re wondering if your development environment will support these latest OSs.
NMS Communications is pleased to present the web seminar “Making the Migration to PCI Express, 64-Bit Operating Systems and more.” The webinar, taking place on Tuesday, June 10, will provide you with information on ways to save money while making the migration to PCI Express. It will also provide information on recent and upcoming product releases from NMS, such as the new PCI Express board—the CG 6565e—and the migration toward exclusive support of 64-bit operating systems in our Natural Access™ development environment.
Register today!
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May Webinar Archive Available: Mobile Messaging—It’s Not Just About Texting
Mobile text messaging has created new opportunities for additional revenue resources for global mobile operators. Industry analysts predict mobile messaging to reach $65B in annual revenue by 2010. As a result of this messaging explosion, operators continue to look for ways to differentiate themselves in messaging services and to increase the revenue realized from text messaging. Adding voice and video messages to the standard text message service is just one of the services operators are using to enhance the texting experience within their subscriber base. This webinar examines video and voice short messaging services (SMS), discusses the technical considerations of implementing these types of services and reviews various operator successes with media messaging services.
Click here to download the webinar now!
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NXTcomm08: Come See NMS in Vegas!
With more than 100 in-depth keynote addresses, sessions and conferences, NXTcomm08 is the definitive knowledge center of the communications industry. This is where industry leaders gather to share their experience, intelligence and forecasts with executive and technical professionals so that they can stay steps ahead of the trends and—most importantly—the competition.
Visit the NMS Booth
NMS will be exhibiting at NXTcomm08 as part of the PICMG partner pavilion in booth SL5909S. Together with our partner Kontron, NMS will be showcasing a redundancy demo featuring the MG 7000A and the Kontron AT8020 AdvancedTCA processor board and AT8902 Base/Fabric Switch.
During this demo, a user calls into a simple IVR application, which uses an MG 7000A to stream a music clip to the caller. During the streaming, the active MG 7000A is powered down. The caller hears a brief interruption in the stream as the application detects the MG 7000A failure and enables the standby MG 7000A. Then the music stream continues as before, but uses the MG 7000A that was in standby mode and is now in active mode.
Be sure to stop by the booth to check it out!
Meeting request
If you are interested in arranging a meeting with an NMS representative at the show, please email sales@nmss.com, indicating your preferred meeting date and area of interest.
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