User's Manual

System Overview

DEFINITY ECS Network Connections

DEFINITY Enterprise Communications Server Release 8.2

Overview

555-233-002

Issue 1

April 2000

TCP/IP Networks

DEFINITY ECS can also connect to Ethernet Local Area Networks (LANs) and the

Internet.

■ The optional DEFINITY LAN Gateway feature lets the DEFINITY system exchange

messages with LAN communications software.

■ DEFINITY ECS now supports Internet Protocol (IP) trunks using the TN802B

circuit pack and C-LAN card (TN799B). However, to connect to the network and do

signaling over IP, only the TN799B is required.

IP trunking is a good choice for basic, corporate voice and fax communications,

where cost is a major concern. IP-trunk calls travel over a company’s intranet

rather than the Public Telephone Network. So, for the most common types of

internal, corporate communications, IP trunks offer considerable savings.

IP trunking is usually not a good choice for applications where calls have to be

routed to multiple destinations (as in most conferencing applications) or to a voice

messaging system. IP-trunk calls are compressed to save network bandwidth.

Repeated compression and decompression results in a loss of data at each stage

and degrades the final quality of the signal. This is not a problem in normal,

corporate voice or fax calls. They go through two or three compression cycles at

most. But multipoint conference calls and most voice messaging systems add too

many compression cycles for acceptable quality.

■ DEFINITY ECS now includes the IP Solutions feature, which supports audio and

voice transmissions over a LAN or WAN. For more information about IP Solutions,

see ‘‘IP Solutions’’ on page 56.

ATM Networks

Three kinds of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) connectivity are available with

DEFINITY ECS. Any standards-compliant ATM switch can serve as the switch node

connecting DEFINITY ECS port networks. In this type of configuration, the ATM switch

replaces the Center-Stage Switch.

The three kinds of ATM connectivity DEFINITY ECS supports are as follows:

■ ATM Port Network Connectivity (ATM-PNC) provides an alternative to either the

direct-connect or Center Stage Switch configurations for connecting the Processor

Port Network (PPN) to one or more Expansion Port Networks (EPNs). ATM-PNC

provides reduced infrastructure cost and improved network manageability.

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