What is interoperability and what does it mean?

The interoperability between VoIP and FoIP routers is extremely confusing.  Each VoIP vendor has a slightly different intrepretation of the T.38 specification.  This in turn requires that the FoIP vendors such as Cantata and Sagem-Interstar must test their applications with the different router vendors to ensure that the applications work together.  This in general is referred to "interoperability". 

When Cantata releases a new version of the FoIP software stack known as SR140, companies such as Captaris must then integrate the new code into the codebase for products like RightFax.   This creates a lag time between when Cantata supports a new router and when RightFax supports a new router.

The Cantata website contains a constantly updated page of interoperability at:
http://www.cantata.com/interop/fax/index.cfm

Keep in mind that just because Cantata supports the Avaya series of VoIP routers that RightFax didn't support then until several months later when Feature Pack 2 for RightFax 9.3 was released.

Sagem-Interstar writes their own FoIP stack for XmediusFax so they control what versions and when the products support new routers.  Their website also lists the tested and supported VoIP routers.

http://www.faxserver.com/partners/technology/

 

Comments

[Christian Larocque]

Greg,

I would like to contribute to this forum with knowledge. I have some interesting white papers that may add value to what you are doing. Also FYI: FoIP is a registered trademark of Sagem Communications, our parent company.

[Christian Larocque]

Mike Underwood who collaborates on http://www.soft-switch.org/foip.html wrote a very good piece about Faxing over VoIP channels (G.711) VS T.38 and its implementation challenges. His comments illustrate clearly that T.38 works and can work well if the vendor is experienced: "The trick is to work out the smartest implementation, which will not cause trouble with the many buggy implementations of T.30 which exist in commercial FAX products". This comment clearly illustrate why Sagem-Interstar has been successful with Fax-over-IP over the last 5 years in the enterprise fax marketplace. The bleeding edge experience and its smart implementation of T.38. XMediusFAX works well in many certified or tested environments (Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel, etc) with several large scale deployments with Fortune 500 customers, while other vendors are struggling, which only leads them to question the technology itself. Sagem-Interstar has also developped it's own T.38 driver, providing for better control over the "smart" implementation and making it more responsive to "tweak" its code to make it work anywhere, anyhow. It is not a matter if (the technology will find its place in the market) but rather when. The answer is simple... As fast as VoIP adoption, which is skyrocketing right now.