Modular Telephony Hardware Design

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Modular Telephony Hardware Design

• How separating interfaces improves reliability
  and reduces costs

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Problem 2001 Obsolescence

• Designs were extensions of ISA card adapters
• Based on 8-bit technology
• On board software was highly optimized to get
  maximum performance from minimal hardware
• Shared memory interface low throughput, high use
  of PCI bus

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Problem 2001 Obsolescence

• Adequate for speeds to 2Mbps but impossible to
  scale
• Expensive to make
• Hard to debug because of on-board microcode
• Conclusion We had to move to modern FPGA-based
  bus master designs

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Advanced Flexible Telephony (AFT)

• AFT architecture splits the host interface,
  telephony interface and DSP resources
• Common host interfaces forall cards
• Common telephony interfaces for both PCI and
  the newer PCI Express motherboards
• DSP resources also separated so that different
  DSP functions can be integrated across all
  designs

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A family of telephony cards
Base PCI or PCI Express card
Optional DSP module for echo cancellation and
transcoding
Personality Card Quad port analog module
Personality Card Octal port T1/E1 module
Personality Card Quad port T1/E1 module
Personality Card Dual port analog module
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Compared to dedicated designs

• Does it cost more than dedicated designs?
• ABSOLUTELY!
• Extra circuit boards
• Expensive inter-PCBconnectors
• Added assembly costs
• Complications related to security and FPGA
  programming

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• WHAT DO WE GET FOR THE MONEY???

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ExperienceReliability
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• So for a start we get a lot better reliability
  for the money!

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Manufacturing and Support cost
Costs on the Production Side
Similar total cost of production
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Total Cost of Ownership
Costs on the Ownership Side
Lower TCO
RMAs, troubleshooting, Field replacements, etc.
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Manufacturing management

• Sangoma sells 30 different card/Telco
  combinations, for example the A101 single T1/E1
  card has four variations
• A101 PCI
• A101 PCI with hardware EC
• A101 PCI Express
• A101 PCI Express with hardware EC
• Total volume of all cards is high, but volumes of
  individual products can be very small
• Inventory control, manufacturing management and
  parts ordering would be a huge job for 35
  designs.

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Manufacturing management (2)

• Because of the modular design there are much
  fewer manufactured circuit boards than products,
  leading to large production volumes.
• Statistically, it is much easier to predict the
  demand for large volumes than small volumes
• Commonality of parts makes for easier ordering
  processes
• The result is that we are much more likely to be
  able to supply from stock, especially for items
  that are less popular

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• We also get better stock and Manufacturing
  Control

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Stocking Benefits
Reseller Stocking levels
Saving in capital investment
Six weeks supply
Two weeks supply
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Stocking Benefits (2)
Out-of-stock Supplier and Customer
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Conclusions

• Modular telephony card construction has higher
  manufacturing costs
• Reduced support costs allow us to sell these
  expensive cards competitively
• Additional hard cost benefits accrue to both the
  supplier and the customer in terms of
• Lower support costs for VARs, OEMs and customers
• Reduced capital expenditure in standing inventory
• Fewer out-of-stock occurrences, leading to lower
  irritation factor and lower shipping costs.

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Questions?