In the fast-growing world, many entrepreneurs search for modern technology for the fast growth of their businesses. The switch from the common PSTN to business VoIP is increasing as the days go. An estimation of about 61% of companies globally has made the switch. However, the switch to business VoIP is expensive; therefore, the companies opt to use VoIP gateways (McCraw, 2020). This essay aims to give an explanation of what gateways mean and further explain monolithic and decomposed gateways.
The term gateway in technology refers to networking hardware that allows data transmission from one discrete source to another. Also, gateways are hardware devices that act as a “gate” between two networks (“What is a Gateway,” n.d). However, the word gateway may also be used when referring to a computer or computer program configured to perform the tasks such as a default gateway or router. While gateways work to protect nodes within a network, they are also nodes themselves in that all data must flow through them before going in and out of a network. Common examples of gateways include routers, firewalls, and proxy servers. A firewall, for instance, is an advanced type of gateway that filters inbound and outbound traffic, blocking data from suspicious and unauthorized sources.
Monolithic gateways are hardware systems that have all their components integrated into a single circuit. These systems may consist of architecturally separate components combined to form a monolithic system, giving access to all inter-related activities required of a specific network. Monolithic gateways have call control using H.323 and the Session Initial Protocol, and hardware needed to control the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface (Tiwana, 2014). Decomposed gateways are multimedia gateways used in Media Gateway Control Protocol Architecture to provide telecommunication services by transmitting telephone calls between an Internet Protocol network and traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
The idea of gateway decomposition saw the initial monolithic gateways split into two logical parts. The first part containing the call control logic referred to as the Media Gateway Controller (MGC) or Call Agent (CA), and the other part, known as the Media Gateway (MG), which interfaces with the PSTN (“Gateway decomposition,” 2009). This functional split led to a new interface between the MGC and the MG, which needed a framework for communication between the elements, resulting in the Media Gateway Control Protocol Architecture.
References
Gateway decomposition. (2009). Simple telecom.
McCraw, C. (2020). What is a VoIP Gateway? Get VoIP.
Tiwana, A. (2014). Monolithic system. Science direct.
What is a Gateway, and what it does? (n.d). What is my IP address.com?