What is the WebSwitch?
What is the history behind the WebSwitch?
What markets does the WebSwitch serve?
What are the key benefits of the WebSwitch?
What are the unique features of the WebSwitch?
How is the WebSwitch positioned relative to Ericsson’s
other PBX products?
How is the WebSwitch positioned relative to other Ericsson
VoIP gateway products?
What is included in a WebSwitch system?
How many users does a WebSwitch support?
What WebSwitch models are available, and how are they
configured?
What kind of phones can be used with the WebSwitch?
How do I connect the WebSwitch to my IP network?
Does the WebSwitch replace my existing PBX or key System?
I want to replace the key systems in my branches, but
we have a new PBX in our main office. What are our options?
Does the WebSwitch support telecommuters?
I was told that the voice quality available over the
Internet isn’t good enough?
How fast an access connection do I need to have to my
ISP to network WebSwitches over the Internet?
Which compression algorithms does the WebSwitch support?
Will the WebSwitch work with Voice over IP equipment,
e.g. IP phones and gateways, from other IP Telephony equipment providers?
What about T1, E1 or ISDN connectivity?
How do I manage the WebSwitch?
Why not go straight to an IP-only IPBX solution?
What are the advantages of the WebSwitch as opposed to
an NT based solution?
What are the advantages of the WebSwitch over small PBXs
and key systems?
What is the WebSwitch?
The WebSwitch is an IPBX, that is, an IP enabled PBX. The WebSwitch
provides PBX, Voicemail and Voice over IP (VoIP) gateway services for small
and midsized businesses as well as remote and branch offices in large businesses.
All three functions are self-contained in a single appliance, similar in
appearance to a branch office router.
What is the history behind the WebSwitch?
The WebSwitch was initially developed and marketed by TouchWave, Inc.,
a privately held Silicon Valley company. The first WebSwitch shipped in
February of 1998. On April 12, 1999, TouchWave was acquired by Ericsson
Inc. Ericsson is an established player in the global telecom market place
and a leader in New Telecom. TouchWave is now called Ericsson WebCom Inc.
and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson Inc.
What markets does the WebSwitch serve?
Small and mid-sized businesses. The WebSwitch replaces the conventional
small PBX or key system.
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Corporate. The WebSwitch serves as an edge PBX in the remote and branch
offices of larger businesses, where the main office or offices are still
served by a conventional PBX.
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ISPs and CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier). WebSwitch serves
as a Voice-over-IP access device. It enables ISPs and CLECs to bypass the
local switch and provide voice services directly to their customer base.
This is often called IP Centrex or ISP Centrex.
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Enterprise Wireless Applications. WebSwitch serves as an H.323 gateway
for IP phones. For example, as the WebSwitch allows customers to use a
new generation of wireless IP phones from Symbol Technologies in conjunction
with a traditional PBX.
What are the key benefits of the WebSwitch?
Lower cost of ownership. As a one-box IP appliance, the WebSwitch has
a significantly lower cost of ownership than a PBX or key system. These
costs include integration, training, service contracts, travel and the
need for local telecom expertise in small and branch offices.
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Lower transmission costs. In a corporate environment, WebSwitches can be
networked between offices using a private or virtual private IP network
or the Internet. This reduces transmission costs for all intercompany voice
traffic as well as long distance traffic to and from customers in other
cities where offices are maintained.
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More efficient communications. A network of WebSwitches allows direct extension
to extension dialing between company sites. Ring groups, hunt groups and
ACD groups can be set up transparently across multiple locations. An on-screen
corporate directory allows users to easily find and dial corporate extensions
directly from their computers.
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Voice services for telecommuters. Many telecommuters have a data connection
to the company LAN but few are directly connected to the PBX. The WebSwitch
allows telecommuters to log on as remote extension from home using their
remote access data connection. This gives telecommuters access to the WebSwitch’s
PBX and voicemail services as their colleagues in the office. It also eliminates
the need for dedicated voice lines at the telecommuter site.
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Integrated voice/data services. The WebSwitch can interact directly with
PC based applications to provide services such as visual voicemail, unified
messaging, screen based dialing, etc.
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Mobility. The WebSwitch supports wireless IP phones, such as the NetVision
phone from Symbol Technologies. This provides mobility within the premise,
without the need for a proprietary in-house cellular network.
What are the unique features of the WebSwitch?
The WebSwitch combines PBX, voicemail and IP telephony in a single
network appliance setting a new benchmark for ease of use and management.
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The WebSwitch has its own industrial strength realtime operating system.
Windows NT and external PC servers are not required.
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The WebSwitch supports circuit switched telephony as well as IP telephony
right out of the box. It connects directly to the Public Switched Telephone
Network as well as the IP network. The WebSwitch supports IP phones and
standard analog phones alike to provide a very cost effective solution,
with the greatest freedom of choice.
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The WebSwitch has a unique distributed architecture. This allows a network
of WebSwitches to appear to users and system administrators as a single
"virtual" PBX. This simplifies inter-office communications as well as system
administration.
How is the WebSwitch positioned relative to Ericsson’s
other PBX products?
The MD110 addresses the high end of the market. The WebSwitch is an
IPBX for small to midsized businesses. In large business scenarios, the
WebSwitch can be deployed in branch and remote offices and networked with
the MD110 through a Voice over IP gateway.
How is the WebSwitch positioned relative to other Ericsson
VoIP gateway products?
The WebSwitch is specifically an enterprise IPBX and gateway targeted
at the customer premise. By supporting the H.323 standard, it is able to
interoperate with other gateways such as the carrier class gateways/gatekeepers
provided by Ericsson and other manufacturers. A complete IP Telephony solution
for ISPs, CLECs or other operators usually requires a customer premise
IPBX or gateway, such as the WebSwitch, as well as carrier class gateways.
What is included in a WebSwitch system?
The WebSwitch includes the WebSwitch hardware, which is preloaded and
preconfigured with default settings. There is also a 4 page installation
guide, and a CD ROM. The CD ROM contains PhoneLink, an application allowing
endusers to control their extension and voicemail functions from the desktop.
The CD also contains the SwitchLink configuration manager, which is used
for system administration. A detailed on-line guide is provided on the
CD.
How many users does a WebSwitch support?
This really depends on the application, but the number of user ranges
from 16 to 64 wireline analog extensions per switch. Later this year the
WebSwitch will support up to 128 analog extensions. Addtional H.323 extensions
can be set up subject to network traffic, capacity and the compression
scheme used.
What WebSwitch models are available, and how are they
configured?
The WebSwitch is available in a 2 slot version called the WebSwitch
2000 M2 and a 4 slot version called the WebSwitch 2000 M4. Each slot houses
a 16 port extension module or an 8 port CO line module. T1/E1 modules and
ISDN software will be released later this year.
What kind of phones can be used with the WebSwitch?
The WebSwitch supports most standard analog phones as well as IP phones.
The IP phones currently supported are the NetVision and DataPhone wireless
phones from Symbol Technologies as well as a software PC-as-Phone solution.
The PC-as-Phone solution uses Ericsson’s PhoneLink software and Microsoft
NetMeeting.
How do I connect the WebSwitch to my IP network?
The WebSwitch connects to the local area network via a 10 Mbit Ethernet
port on the front panel. The interface to the wide area network is through
any external router. This allows the WebSwitch to work with a wide variety
of interfaces including DSL, ISDN, fractional T1, etc.
Does the WebSwitch replace my existing PBX or key System?
The WebSwitch is a full PBX with voicemail and auto attendant, so it
can replace your old PBX or key system if desired. Alternatively,
the WebSwitch can function as a gateway and connect to your current PBX
— see next question. When connected to a PBX, the WebSwitch adds new capabilities.
These capablities include the ability to connect IP phones as PBX extensions
and the ability to integrate your web site with a call center on your PBX.
I want to replace the key systems in my branches, but
we have a new PBX in our main office. What are our options?
You can put a WebSwitch in front of the PBX in your main office and
use it as a Voice over IP gateway. You can then deploy WebSwitches in the
branches and network them through the gateway to the PBX in your main office.
Analog trunks on the WebSwitch connect to analog extension ports on the
PBX. T1 and E1 interfaces between WebSwitch and PBX will be supported later
this year.
Does the WebSwitch support telecommuters?
Yes, the WebSwitch includes PhoneLink software which works transparently
with Microsoft NetMeeting to provide a remote PC-as-phone solution. This
allows telecommuters to access WebSwitch services from home using their
remote access data connection.
I was told that the voice quality available over the
Internet isn’t good enough?
With the voice processing technology available today the Internet provides
acceptable quality for many applications. As a rule of thumb, round trip
delays of up to 200 ms. will provide acceptable quality levels. To ensure
quality levels at all times, we recommend a managed network service.
How fast an access connection do I need to have to
my ISP to network WebSwitches over the Internet?
Assume that each concurrent voice over IP conversation will consume
up to 16 Kbps of bandwidth. For 4 concurrent sessions with some other traffic,
we recommend at least a 128 Kbps connection.
Which compression algorithms does the WebSwitch support?
The WebSwitch supports the mainstream industry standard codecs, including
G.711, G.729A and G.723.1.
Will the WebSwitch work with Voice over IP equipment,
e.g. IP phones and gateways, from other IP Telephony equipment providers?
Yes, the WebSwitch supports the H.323 standard for Voice over IP. This
standard allows the Ericsson WebSwitch to work with IP phones from Symbol
Technologies and H.323 clients such as Microsoft NetMeeting. Ericsson WebCom
Inc. endorses the multivendor iNOW! initiative to provide multivendor interoperability.
What about T1, E1 or ISDN connectivity?
T1/E1 modules will be available for the WebSwitch 2000 later this year.
ISDN will be supported later.
How do I manage the WebSwitch?
The WebSwitch is managed from an easy to use Windows application called
SwitchLink. With SwitchLink you can change your WebSwitch configuration
at any office remotely, over the IP network or the public Internet.
Why not go straight to an IP-only IPBX solution?
An IP-only IPBX requires Ethernet phones at $300 - 400 a piece or a
separate gateway to support analog handsets. Either way it is not cost
effective. The WebSwitch supports standard analog handsets AND IP handsets
out of the box. This enables companies to use a combination of IP and circuit
switched phones to suit their individual needs. Support for standard analog
phones also guarantees customers freedom of choice.
What are the advantages of the WebSwitch as opposed
to an NT based solution?
The trend is to build appliances with operating systems that are optimized
toward the problem they need to solve. For instance, PDA operating systems
for Personal Digital Assistants, set-top operating systems for set top
boxes, internetworking operating systems for routers, etc. The WebSwitch
is an IPBX and gateway, and it uses a realtime telecom operating system.
This eliminates the complexity of a general purpose server OS like NT.
It is also smaller, more efficient, and has a much shorter reboot time.
On the other hand, it is just as open as NT becauses it supports industry
standard networking, IP telephony and telephony application interfaces.
What are the advantages of the WebSwitch over small
PBXs and key systems?
The WebSwitch offers lower cost of ownership due to IP based management,
it reduces transmission costs through its VoIP capabilities, and it adds
new features and functions not available on traditional systems. Examples
of new functions are the ability to support IP phones or PCs-as-phones,
and the integration of
web site and call center. The WebSwitch also supports voice/data applications
out-of-the-box, whereas PBXs and key systems require add-ons and integration.
As an turnkey PBX and voicemail appliance, the WebSwitch is highly competitive
with a small PBX or key system with voicemail.
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