Internet Telephony Magazine, from TMC, has just published an article that I wrote on Voice over IP Gateways. The article is entitled: Paving the Way to Next Generation Media and Signaling VoIP Gateways.
The focus of the article is to review the paths that service providers can take in developing a voice infrastructure that builds on existing circuit based investments, but still supports a way forward in developing new services based on protocols such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
The particular thrust of the article is to consider the evolving role of the media gateway. Such gateways typically offer both media translation and some degree of signaling translation. Going forward, customers will have a variety of choices, which will include distribution of gateway functions among many elements and a more consolidated type of product that is known as an Integrated Media Gateway.