Application Description

Voice and Music Ring Back Tone Application

for Wireless and Wireline Operators

Powered by AudioCodes Ardito™ Product Line

Version 1.0
February 2004
 Color Ring Back Tone
Application Description

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................4
WHAT IS VOICE & MUSIC / COLOR RING BACK TONE? ...........................................................5
QUICK RETURN ON INVESTMENT ...............................................................................................5
MARKET OVERVIEW AND POTENTIAL........................................................................................5
IMPLEMENTATION WITH SS7 .......................................................................................................6
PERFORMANCES POWERED BY AUDIOCODES ARDITO™ ...................................................11
ADD-ON FEATURES FOR CRBT APPLICATION........................................................................12
CRBT TO WIRELINE SUBSCRIBERS..........................................................................................12
CRBT TO IP-PHONE USERS........................................................................................................12
CRBT FEATURES USING DTMF..................................................................................................12
MIXED RING BACK TONES .........................................................................................................12
DIVERSE CRBT FOR VARIOUS TIMES OF THE DAY................................................................12
CRBT PER CALLER ID .................................................................................................................12
PERSONAL POOL.........................................................................................................................12
GIFT SERVICE...............................................................................................................................12
ABOUT AUDIOCODES .................................................................................................................13

Table of Figures

FIGURE 1: IMPLEMENTATION USING SS7 ..................................................................................6

FIGURE 2: CALL FLOW FOR CALL ESTABLISHMENT WITH CRBT .........................................8
FIGURE 3: CALL ESTABLISHMENT WITH CRBT ......................................................................10

Page 3 of 13
Voice & Music Ring Back Tone
Application for Wireless and
Wireline Operators

Application Description
Attention System Integrators:

The market is ripe. The opportunity is easily accessible. All you need to create
quality and profitable Voice/Music Ring Back Tone applications is to combine your
own know-how with AudioCodes’ expertise, and a little help from Ardito™.

Introduction
The extensive penetration of mobile handsets, particularly among developed countries
in the Far East such as Korea and Japan has increased the demand for a large variety
of handset models and related applications. The need for personal expression
worldwide has filtered into the cellular phone industry. What began as a demand for
sophisticated designs of mobile handsets including unique shape, size and color has
increased dramatically from physical to voice attributes. System integrators providing
products and applications for the cellular industry take into account the evolving new
trends such as ring tones, and the latest trend, voice and music ring back tone, also
known as color ring back tone (CRBT).
Initially, the main target of CRBT was the pre-teen and young adult market, a significant
segment of the total cellular mobile user population. Traditional ring tone services
allowed users to select their own ring tones and download them through a simple call to
a toll-free number. This was only the first step in the new trend, as a ring tone is heard
only among passers-by. The young generation of mobile users needed something
even more personal, which led to the latest trend – the dawn of the Color Ring Back
Tone had arrived. If the popularity of ring tones and CRBT spills over to the older adult
population as well, the demand for such services will even more significantly increase.
Mobile operators need system integrators to supply them with such applications on
their existing networks.
AudioCodes Ardito™ media processing boards can be implemented by System
Integrators needing to develop quality and profitable CRBT applications for the diverse
requirements of the evolving developments in the telecom industry. Enhanced voice
services are available within one single media processing gateway on a board. Ardito
products permit each channel to operate independently while performing full media

Page 4 of 13
 processing functions. In addition, the Ardito boards support a wide range of PSTN
protocols including CAS, ISDN PRI and SS7 MTP3 termination.

What is Voice & Music / Color Ring Back Tone?

Voice and Music Ring Back Tone, also known as “Color Ring Back Tone” allows a user
to select a personal tune, song or clip. This is used to overwrite the traditional “boring”
ring back tone, which is played when a caller tries to reach the mobile handset user.
Users can select their tone/clip from a large pool supplied by a content provider through
a Web or IVR server. (Users pay approximately one US dollar per month for this
service). Some operators enable the users to add their announcement on top of the clip
for an extra charge, but one that is still relatively inexpensive.

Quick Return on Investment

The Color Ring Back Tone is an attractive incentive for mobile phone service providers
seeking a quick return on their capital expenditure. Assume that an operator (wireless
and/or wireline) provides the Color Ring Back Tone service for a fixed rate of one USD
per month – That's an income of 1,000,000 USD per month per each million of users –
by far a guaranteed and quick return on the initial investment of the equipment needed
to operate this service.

Market Overview and Potential

Reports estimate that the market potential of the CRBT as 1.5 Billion USD – yet only
among cellular operators. This number might increase dramatically if the wireline
operators are considered as well. The CRBT attracts and retain today's youth and teen
demographics.
There are several wireless providers that are already supplying this service, like in
Korea, Japan, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Israel. In many other countries in
Europe and in the US the CRBT service is going to be launched by early 2004.
One example of a wireless provider that offers this service is SKTelecom (South
Korea). According to some reports, more than a third of its16 million subscribers have
signed up for this service.

Page 5 of 13
Implementation with SS7
The core of CRBT service is a PSTN server connected to MSCs (Mobile Switching
Centers) with transparent trunks carrying the CRBT clips, while the signaling loop is
closed by SS7 entities. The topology of the Music/Voice Ring Back Tone Server can be
either single or distributed:
Single – one high capacity concentrated server (connected to one main MSC, through
many trunks and providing the service to other MSCs through this main MSC).
Distributed – many low capacity servers, spread over the PLMN (Public Land Mobile
Network), each connected to a single MSC with a few trunks, providing exclusively the
service to the connected MSC (Fig 1).

Figure 1: Implementation using SS7

Page 6 of 13
The role of the Music/Voice Ring Back Tone Server is to:

• Play the voice clips through the transparent trunks toward the
MSCs.

• Act as an SSP (Service Switching Point) proxy, terminating the

necessary SS7 signaling to enable the CRBT prior to the start of
regular conversation.

• Accumulate the most recently used clips (the number of

maximum accumulated clips must be derived according to the
grade of service required for the particular POP which supplies
the service).

• Host the main application as an SSP (Service Switching Point) to

communicate with the SS7 SCP (Service Control Point), which
includes the look-up table (Called number to Clip ID).

The Content Provider might be an ISP data base, or the operator itself. The data base
contains a variety of clips to be offered to the subscribers. Users can access the
content provider at any time by means of the various ways listed below. They can
select a clip, change the existing clip or generate a new clip from a combination of
suggested clips, with or without their own personal message.
There are three main ways by which the subscriber can access the content provider’s
database:
• Through the Web (choosing a clip from a list - each clip has a
Clip ID number).

• Sending an SMS to the operator server (in case the Clip ID is

known in advance).

• Accessing an operator IVR (through mobile or PSTN call),

listening to the list of clips and selecting the required clip, or
dialing the Clip ID (if known in advance).

The CRBT injection concept is performed by modifying the normal call setup. The
Music/Voice Ring Back Tone server replaces the Ring Back Tone (supplied by the
receiving MSC) with the called user’s clip. The CRBT server acts as an edge SSP
(instead of the receiving MSC) for the short time period until the called party answers.
This call flow is described in Figure 2 below:

Page 7 of 13
 The Caller The Receiver

Calling MSC Receiving MSC CRBT Server SCP

IAM
Call setup to ‘A’ (1) Paging the Receiver
ACM
IAM Request CRBT code

ACM (2)
Response CRBT code
(3)
ANM

Ring back Tone

(4)
Answer
REL

(5) RLC

(6) ANM

Voice Communication

(1) Through the BS to verify if Receiver is available

(2) Is the Receiver a CRBT subscriber ? If yes get the index of CRBT to play
(3) CRBT server acts as SSP node !
(4) Receiver answer/”off-hook”
(5) Upon Receiver’s answer, the “call” is terminated by the Receiving-MSC
(6) Continue “Answer Message” regularly.

Figure 2: Call Flow for Call Establishment with CRBT

The Call Establishment with CRBT call flow is conducted in the following manner:

• Caller places a call. Its nearest MSC (the Calling MSC)

communicates with the HLR (Home Location Register) in order
to find the receiving MSC. Then the Calling-MSC sends an IAM
(Initial Address Message) towards the Receiving MSC, which
replies back with an ACM (Address Complete Message) and
pages the called party to verify whether he/she is available – see
note (1).

• The receiving MSC verifies that the called party is entitled to the
CRBT service, and transfers the modified IAM to the
Music/Voice Ring Back Tone Server, which acts as the edge
SSP – see note (3). At this point there is a voice channel
connection between the Receiving MSC and the calling MSC.
By sending an Answer Message (ANM) from the edge SSP (the
Ring Back Tone Server) to the Receiving MSC, the voice
channels are now opened from the Ring Back Tone Server
through the Receiving MSC toward the Calling-MSC. From the
point of view of the Receiving MSC, the situation is like a
conversation that has just begun. At this point, the Ring Back
Tone Server injects the CRBT clip. For the Calling MSC, the
channel is opened only for receiving Call progress tones, since
no Answer Message (ANM) has yet been received from the
Receiving MSC.

Page 8 of 13
• Prior to sending the CRBT clip, the edge SSP (Ring Back Tone
Server) queries the Service Control Point (SCP) as to which Clip
ID is to be played as a function of: (see note (2)).

• The specific CRBT service/feature (see Add-on CRBT

features).

• The time and date (if relevant to the specific service/feature)

• The calling number

• The called number (actually the subscriber of the service)

• The called subscriber answers the call (see note (4)), identified
by the corresponding Base Station and informs the Receiving
MSC.

• The Receiving MSC issues a Release Message (REL) towards

the edge SSP (Ring Back Tone Server) to terminate the "call" –
actually from the point of view of the edge SSP. This is the end
of the conversation between them (see note (5)).

• The Receiving MSC continues the call flow normally by sending

an ANM toward the calling MSC and the actual conversation
starts (see note (6)).

Page 9 of 13
1. Caller requests call connection
2. Path of call defined with HLR
3. Calling MSC requests an ISUP Call Connection
4. Receiving MSC forwarded to CRBT-GW (SS7 SSP)
5. CRBT-GW queries the SCP for CRBT user code
6. Call is connected: CRBT played
7. Receiving MSC requests ISUP call disconnection
8. Receiving MSC regularly establishes voice channel

Figure 3: Call Establishment with CRBT

Page 10 of 13
Performances Powered by AudioCodes Ardito™
The Ardito™ product line is a media processing solution suitable for CTI applications
and optional VoIP enhancements (VoIP ready). The product line includes both cPCI
and PCI form factors boards (including Universal PCI bus support). These boards
include:

• Field-proven PSTN various physical and signaling interfaces

such as many ISDN PRI and MFCR2 variants (over E1/T1) and
also ISDN and SS7 signaling backhauling capabilities (IUA,
M2UA/M3UA over SIGTRAN).

• Variety of Low Bit-Rate vocoders (G.723.1, G.729, GSM, EVRC,

AMR, and other Cellular vocoders) in addition to ADPCM
(including various rates and OKI-ADPCM as well) and PCM
G.711U/A law.

• Real-time multi part conferencing.

• Comprehensive IVR control capabilities.

• Record/Playback from/to TDM or IP interfaces to/from the local

Hard-Disc or a remote storage.

• Large variety of detection capabilities like: DTMF, Voice

Detection, Barge-in and more.

• Programmable AGC (Automatic Gain Control) and MGC

(Manual Gain Control).

• High BHCA (5 call per second per trunk).

• Supported for Windows, Solaris and Linux Operating Systems.

• Optional VoIP enhancement using various control protocols

(MGCP/Megaco/SIP/H.323 and AudioCodes API).

The Ardito board is the engine and the heart of the Voice and Clip streaming in the
CRBT server.
Typical field proven CRBT applications can be implemented using 2 X ATP-1610 cPCI
boards enabling 960 concurrent CRBT subscriber calls!

Page 11 of 13
Add-on Features for CRBT Application
CRBT to Wireline subscribers
Service can be supplied by Wireline operators as well, using the same concept as
described above (MSC’s role is replaced by Central Office switches). Various
worldwide wireline operators have already started the process for implementing this
service.
CRBT to IP-Phone users
The CRBT service can be extended to support IP-Phone users (like H.323/SIP). The
AudioCodes’ gateway board acts, in this case, as an IVR server dedicated for CRBT
tones. IP-Phone users can enjoy the service while the ISP does not have to maintain
extra additional equipment other than minor software changes in its GK/SIP proxy.
CRBT features using DTMF
While listening to the CRBT, users (callers) can dial DTMF combinations known in
advance for various utilities such as:
• Joining the service.
• Copying the CRBT they hear to overwrite their own CRBT.
Mixed Ring Back Tones
Subscribers can mix their own voice with a music selection to be played, or even mix
an attenuated conventional ring back tone with a music selection clip. Mixing of
music/songs/vocal is very popular among youth. AudioCodes With this implementation,
the Ardito ATP-1610 can be used for the voice recording as well.
Diverse CRBT for Various Times of the Day
Subscribers can have an extended service where a different specific clip is played for a
certain time of the day. For example, clip A will be played during morning hours, clip B
will be played during the night etc.
CRBT per Caller ID
Subscribers can select certain clips to be played exclusively when a special person is
calling. For example, if a user’s girlfriend calls, she will hear a love song being played
as the CBRT.
Personal Pool
Subscribers can purchase multiple clips and the application will cycle them or choose a
clip randomly.
Gift Service
Subscribers can pay for a clip and send it using the application via SMS to other people
who can opt to install it as their own Ring Back tone.

Page 12 of 13
About AudioCodes
AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ: AUDC) AudioCodes Ltd. (NASDAQ: AUDC) enables the new voice
infrastructure by providing innovative, reliable and cost-effective Voice over Packet technology
and Voice Network products to OEMs, network equipment providers and system integrators.
AudioCodes provides its customers and partners with a diverse range of flexible, comprehensive
media gateway and media processing technologies, based on VoIPerfect™ – AudioCodes’
underlying, best-of-breed, core media gateway architecture. The company is a market leader in
voice compression technology and is a key originator of the ITU G.723.1 standard for the
emerging Voice over IP market. AudioCodes’ voice network products feature media gateway
and media server platforms for packet-based applications in the wireline, wireless, broadband
access, and enhanced voice services markets. AudioCodes enabling technology products
include VoIP and CTI communication boards, VoIP media gateway processors and modules,
and CPE devices.
International Headquarters
1 Hayarden Street, Airport City
Lod, Israel 70151
Tel: +972-3-976-4000
Fax: +972-3-976-4040

US Headquarters
2890 Zanker Road, Suite 200
San Jose, CA 95134
Tel: +1-408-577-0488
Fax: +1-408-577-0492

AudioCodes Offices Worldwide

Boston, Chicago, Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, London

info@audiocodes.com
www.audiocodes.com

Disclaimer
© 2004 AudioCodes Ltd. All rights reserved. AC, Ardito, AudioCodes, AudioCodes logo, AudioCoded,
IPmedia, Mediant, MediaPack, MP-MLQ, NetCoder, Stretto, TrunkPack, VoicePacketizer and VoIPerfect
are trademarks or registered trademarks of AudioCodes Ltd. All other marks are the property of their
respective owners. The information and specifications in this document and the product(s) are subject to
change without notice. LTRT-00292 Ref. # 02/04 V.1

Notice
The information contained in this document is believed to be accurate and reliable at the time of printing.
However, due to ongoing product improvements and changes in the business environment, AudioCodes
does not assume any obligation to update or correct any information and does not guarantee or assume
liability for the accuracy of the printed material nor can it accept responsibility for errors or omissions.

Original Date Published: Dec-11-2003 Date Printed: Feb-02-2004

Page 13 of 13