Nortel BCM 3.7, Manual

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614 Types of MSC resources
N0008589 3.3
Signaling channels
Signaling channels are the communication channels used to send control signals to and from the
MSC. You must have one signaling channel for each device you have connected and feature port
you have enabled.
The number of signaling channels you have determines how many devices you can have connected
and feature ports you can have enabled on your system. Signaling channels are also known as D
channels.
Media channels
Media channels are the communication channels used to send voice and data information between
the devices and feature ports. Media channels are required only when a device or feature is sending
or receiving voice or data information. For this reason, the devices and feature ports can share
media channels.
The number of media channels you have determines how many devices and feature ports can
exchange voice and data information at the same time. Media channels are also known as B
channels.
DSP resources
Digital Signal Processors (DSP) provide the voice processing functions on Business
Communications Manager. Voice processing is required to convert voice information to and from
digital format for voicemail, call center and IVR. Voice processing is also required to handle
encoding and decoding of IP telephony calls. The DSPs are located on the MS-PEC cards installed
in your MSC.
The number of DSP resources you have determines the number of voicemail ports, call center
ports, Fax mail ports, IVR ports, IVR Fax ports, WAN connections and IP telephony calls that can
be active at the same time.
Voice bus paths
The voice bus paths are the communication channels between the DSPs on the MS-PECs and the
master DSP on the MSC. One voice bus path is required for each voice processing task that is
operating on the DSPs.
There are 62 voice bus paths available on Business Communications Manager.
Media gateways
Media gateways are logical connections that are a combination of DSP resources, media channels
and voice bus paths that provide protocol translation between IP telephones and trunks and analog
and digital telephony devices.
For information about settings that affect IP telephony, refer to the IP Telephony Configuration
Guide, provisioning section.