Residential Gateways Kenichi Yasuda Residential gateways – service nodes which provide businesses. At present, the networks used are mainly multimedia messaging services to domestic and SOHO telephone networks, such as analogue cordless users – are expected to enjoy enormous demand in the telephone, home telephone and business phone future, and are being approached by various different networks, or the like, and installation of IT using LAN, industry sectors, including communications, household servers and the like, is progressing slowly. appliances, gaming, and broadcasting. This essay looks at the definition of the residential gateway as a service node for a domestic and SOHO network, and looks at Residential gateway services the product strategy and outlook of the SOHO residential gateway based on a communications approach, which is Oki have identified convergence between telephony, the objective targeted by Oki Electric. video images and IT as a key factor in residential gateway services for SOHO workers, and this paper will look at telephone convergence services in particular. The current state of residential gateways Telephony is the basis of communications, and applications are likely to expand by linkage to In recent years, the IT revolution has been communications using Internet and groupware progressing at full steam, with the dramatic spread of the computers, and the like. A typical example of a Internet. In Japan, the spread of the Internet through telephone merger service proposed by Oki is described mobile telephones and broadband has been dramatic, in below. particular, the remarkable spread of ADSL, which exceeded 3 million subscribers as of the end of May (1) IP telephone 2002 1). This indicates that the IT revolution, which has The telephone, which is a basic means of been focused mainly on large-scale companies in the communications, is realized as an integrated Internet past, is now reaching down to the personal level, where service. Examples of this include YAHOO!BB’s BB phone demand for IT provision in fields from domestic to SOHO *1), and NTT-ME’s “WAKWAK call go go” *2). An overview is expected to rise. of the IP telephone is shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1. However, current usage at the personal level is Oki, recognizing that IP telephone is a key broadband centred on Internet and e-mail, and use of systems application and one of the most fundamental broadband based on broadband routers and wireless LANs is only services, is actively developing this technology and in just beginning. April 2002, the company set up an IP Telephony What is more, satellite offices and telecommuting Promotion Centre for this purpose. In the future, we will making use of IT are growing at a considerable rate, be looking to provide not only equipment and systems, much of it centred on traditional retailers and small but also solutions which anticipate market needs. Telephone network Gateway Gateway VoIP network PBX/EKTS ADSL, etc. ADSL, etc. (Communications vi LAN telephone network) Voice Off-net Voice Call manager adapter Toll bypass adapter On-net Fig. 1 Overview of IP telephone service *1) “BB phone” is the name of a service provided by Yahoo Japan Corporation. *2) “WAK WAK Call Go Go” is a registered trademark of NTT-ME Corp. 22 OKI Technical Review October 2002/Issue 192 Vol.69 No.4 Special issue on Multimedia Messaging ● Table 1 Types of IP telephone service Service Call format Details of service Examples Repeater service Toll bypass Cheap, long-distance call service Fusion My Line Consumer-oriented Fixed rate calls as value added feature Yahoo! IP telephone service of broadband services BB phone Voice Provides IP telephone numbers acquired On-net in-house and IP telephone functions to ASP service + access line providers Business-oriented NTT-ME Off-net Flat rate inter-office and inter-group calls WAKWAK Call Go Go IP telephone service Yahoo! BB phone High-functionality extension line service, IP-Centrex as value added feature of wideband service Ethernet & IP-VPN services (2) VPN services these functions to a residential gateway, we believe it is Moves to extend the company computer possible to achieve a more user-friendly service. environment into workers’ own homes, for the purposes of telecommuting, may employ leased lines, IP-VPN, or Internet VPN systems. Whilst Internet and IP networks Oki’s product strategy provide the least expensive solution, they make it difficult to ensure security. For this reason, we see an Oki has started product development in two fields, to important requirement for residential gateways which are coincide with the emergence of IP telephony services as safe and easy to use and incorporate reliable security broadband communications filter through to the functions. Other benefits can also be obtained by the personal subscriber level. At present, Oki is involved in user, for instance, if they employ telephone functions translating the excellent merger of telephone services we based on VoIP, then internal company lines can be used have achieved into a new range of products. at a flat charge. An overview of such a system is shown Below, we look at the product development history to in Fig. 2. date, and the future prospects. (3) CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) Product development history For SOHO workers, skilful use of B to B and B to C electronic commerce is vital. Transactions with large- (1) VoIP gateway for IP telephony scale firms and the user’s own firm or official bodies, as Ahead of its competitors, Oki brought out the first well as Internet purchases, are conducted mainly via the commercial VoIP gateway in 1997 (see Fig. 3 for history Web and e-mail, but by using a Web contact service of Oki’s VoIP products). At the time, public broadband which incorporates telephone and fax functions alongside access was rare and VoIP was introduced with the main Web functions, it is possible to achieve much deeper objective of reducing inter-office telephone charges for understanding between the communicating parties. business. Yet, by 2001, with the spread of public Moreover, using VoIP, computer and telephone broadband access, carriers were beginning to offer IP systems can be handled as a single whole. These functions telephone services. can be realized using computers only, but by appending The VoIP gateway aimed at telecommunications Head Office Server Data communications IP-VPN client VPN IP-SEC communications Satellite office (encrypted) VoIP-TA IP-VPN router IP Printer network ADSL modem Business phone / Residential PBX gateway for SOHO Telephone Fig. 2 Overview of VPN OKI Technical Review 23 October 2002/Issue 192 Vol.69 No.4 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 ~ BS1200 V2 VoIP Gateway BV1250 BV1260 • Expansion of circuit types BV1500 OD,FXS(4ch) • Launch of large-capacity Gateway BS1100 BS1200 • Launch of Gatekeeper • Large capacity digital interface VoIP-TA BV2000 BV5000- Gatekeeper H.323 Gatekeeper • Large-capacity Gatekeeper (max. 20000 subscribers) CTiOX BS1200Gatekeep • Increased capacity CCU192 CCU768 Discovery 01 LU32 IP-PBX IPstage • Launch of IP-PBX for extending IP to internal lines PSW8 MKT-IP (Power supply Praised in specialist US publications SW) IMTC affiliation INOW affiliation • Mobile collaboration data communications for PHS VA11 VA14 Gateway for public IP telephone Fig. 3 Evolution of OKI’s VoIP products operators is based on a structure comprising elements with (2) SOHO communications systems or without built-in ADSL modems, and both analogue and With the co-operation of the Canon Sales Co., Inc., in ISDN telephone interfaces, wherein incoming calls from the 2001, we were able to steal a march on our rivals in existing telephone network and outgoing calls of telephone marketing the canoLink4016ie*3) which merges SOHO numbers not serviced by the IP network are routed to the telephony and data communication via a wireless LAN telephone network. A characteristic feature of the gateway (see Fig. 4 for product overview). Through this, the LANs is that it can be individually customized in order to supply for pushbutton telephone functions and data the carrier’s own particular network services. communication were integrated by a single wireless Current products only provide VoIP gateway LAN, and a “no-wire” network was essentially achieved. functions, but devices incorporating wireless LAN and The wireless LAN is based on IEEE802.11b, and the routers for more convenient SOHO networking, and main unit has built-in access points for the wireless LAN. devices incorporating MPEG video services are In addition to standard telephone functions, wireless expected in the future. multikey telephones also allow simultaneous use of PCs, PST Internet Extensions • Wireless multikey telephones : 8 • Wired multikey telephones : 8 • Analogue extensions : 2 Outside lines • INS 64 lines : 2 Network printer Wireless LAN • IEEE802.11b (11 Mbps) FAX Fig. 4 Overview of information communications system for SOHO environment *3) “canoLink” is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. 24 OKI Technical Review October 2002/Issue 192 Vol.69 No.4 Special issue on Multimedia Messaging ● printers, and data communications over the Internet, via Bluetooth, being based on radio waves, permits the central unit. simultaneous transmission of both audio and data, This device is designed for a SOHO environment, but which is a clear merit in terms of convergence between another product, the medium-capacity IPPBX (product voice and data communications. name: IPstage), has also been developed to merge Furthermore, from a different perspective, telephone and data communications. Merger solutions introduction of IPv6 is necessary in order to truly expand for telephone and data communications allow full and into the mass user market. In the business world, effective use of the CTI service functions illustrated in the conventional IPv4 networks are well established, and service illustration, such as IP telephone, VPN services, this situation may well present a considerable barrier to Web contact linkage services, and the like.