A scalable VoIP platform based on MGCP/H.323 interworking and QoS management capabilities

This paper presents a lightweight VoIP platform based on H.323/MGCP interworking and QoS capabilities. The lightweight feature is accomplished by introducing two new schemes in the platform; the use of the SCTP as a transport protocol to convey H.323 signaling and the use of the Compressed-RTP as a compressed implementation of the RTP. The MGCP/H.323 interworking provides the platform with the essential scalability so that many different VoIP scenarios can be implemented. The whole architecture consists of a Call Agent that provide central management to the whole system and of a Media Gateway that is desponsible for carrying out all the essential media transformation. Finally the VoIP platform uses a QoS management module in order to guarantee certain level of voice quality to the users. This module is able to deal with situations where the network load is significantly affected by the voice packets produced by the proposed platform. The whole architecture bears many innovative characteristics and presents the way for a normal interworking of all these modules. Furthermore, it takes into account that many products in the market are already based in either H.323 or MGCP and tries to propose a way for a smooth co-operation between these two protocols.