Newsletter: GL Announces Bulk FAX Capture & Analysis for 2-Wire, TDM, and IP Networks

Welcome to another January 2013 issue of GL Communications' Newsletter providing information and insight into our latest Fax Analysis Products - Bulk Fax Demodulator and Decoder (FaxDD™) and T.38 Fax Analysis (FaxDDT38™). 

These products permit unlimited capture, demodulation, and decoding of Fax calls over conventional or IP networks. Simply connect non-intrusively to 2-Wire, TDM (T1 E1), or an IP mirror port and automatically identify, capture, and decode Fax calls as they occur - complete with Fax pages in Tiff format, all signaling that took place during the call, and Fax call quality information.

Overview

Various business entities such as call-centers, brokerages, government agencies, and carriers have a continual need to capture, analyze, and evaluate fax transmissions, over PSTN and IP Networks. GL's FaxDD™ andFaxDDT38™ are two companion programs that can provide this capability easily and with great detail. Fax calls are intelligently filtered from non-Fax calls and subsequently captured and decoded in real time, i.e. multi page fax images, all signaling, and fax call quality information. These are conveniently logged and stored for further handling by other programs.

One way of monitoring fax traffic is to record the traffic as PCM streams from a 2-Wire analog or 4-Wire T1 E1 circuit. Then in near real-time, demodulate and decode to a viewable format. If the fax is traversing an IP network (FoIP), then another way is to capture the data packets from a mirror port in an IP Network. Normally only the data messages and image data are transmitted over IP.  Sometimes the PCM streams are sent in "pass thru" mode, also called G.711 alaw or ulaw.

In either case, the data or PCM streams are captured in near real time, demodulated, and decoded. In cases where a fax call traverses TDM and IP networks, GL's FaxDD™ and FaxDDT38™ captures can be triggered to occur simultaneously, thereby providing important timing of correlated events over TDM and IP. Failed calls can be easily diagnosed.

FaxDD™ (Fax Demodulator and Decoder) is a licensed software application that processes 2-Wire or 4-Wire captures. The application is available as part of Voice Band Analyzer - FaxDD™ (VBA038) and as part of PacketScan™ - FaxDDT38™ (PKV104). The VBA038 has two versions - one, as a stand-alone command-line fax analysis application and other, integrated as a module within GL's Voice Band Analyzer (VBA) application. Enabling the function in GL's VBA adds fields in addition to other voice band fields such as Fax success/failure, data rate, resolution, compression (Modified-Huffman, Modified-Read, Modified-Modified-Read), page size, error-red lines, total lines, total bytes, total pages, image name, and log file name.

GL's FaxDDT38™ (PKV104) is a software product that supports analysis of Fax traffic over IP using the files captured by popular IP capturing tools. It converts a PCAP file, the output of packet captures such as fromPacketScan™ or Wireshark, into TIFF-F files containing the fax image. It also provides analysis of the T.38 packets, T.30 frames, and general call-flow indicators. It is a unique and valuable T.38 debug and test tool, aiding significantly in system development.


Capturing Devices for PSTN, TDM, and IP

DUAL UTA:

The Dual Universal Telephony Adapter (Dual UTA) is a comprehensive hardware device featuring all the circuitry necessary to universally adapt to any telephony instrumentation, POTS, digital hybrid interfaces, Internet Protocol (IP) networks, wireless cellular phones, and mobile radios including devices that utilize Bluetooth®, Broadband 3G/4G, LTE technologies.

When used in conjunction with GL's VQuad™ software application, it simplifies end-to-end testing of voice, fax, and video quality, including echo, and noise in TDM, VoIP, and Wireless networks.

T1 E1 Analyzer:

Regardless of the form-factor you choose (cards or portable units), GL's T1 E1 Analyzers provide a wide range of functionalities and testing capabilities. These hardware platforms can capture, record, and monitor thousands of calls and perform analysis and emulation of various signal types including voice, digits, tones, fax, and raw data.

PacketScan™:

PacketScan™ is a powerful software tool that allows live monitoring of IPv4 and IPv6 (version 4 and version 6) networks, and provides extensive real-time reporting using graphical charts and statistics of live IP, Voice over IP, Fax over IP and IP based Video traffic. The monitoring tool can segregate, capture, and collect statistics and measure QoS (Quality of Service) on voice and video calls (H.323, SIP, MEGACO, MGCP, T.38, and others).


Important Features of FaxDD™ and FaxDDT38™

  • 2-Wire or 4-Wire captures, A-Law, u-Law, 13-bit linear PCM, and 16-bit linear PCM data formats
  • Operates stand-alone from a Batch file or Windows Command screen or as part of the GL's VoiceBand Analysis application to produce decoded fax image TIFF files and call logs
  • Output contains page-by-page packet statistics and Fax image summary
  • Fax image output in TIFF-F format
  • Supports analysis of files captured by popular IP capturing tools. T.38 version 1 is supported
  • Single and multi-page ECM and non-ECM fax sessions are supported
  • Decoding of transmitter-only captures is supported for non-ECM faxes

For comprehensive information on the application, please visit Fax Demodulator and Decoder web page.


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