Re: InteractiveVoice, Automated Voice? Your interpretation of media modes

Tech Tip: Click here to run a free scan for Windows Errors and optimize PC performance

From: Grant Schenck (schenckg_at_optonline.net)
Date: 04/09/04 

Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 16:55:45 -0400

Sigh... since most of this level of details is poorly or not spelled
out in the specs, group practices tends to be the de-facto standard.

See below for my opinions and understandings for what they are worth. 

--
Grant Schenck
Grant Schenck Software
schenckg@optonline.net
http://grantschenck.tripod.com
"Fred" <fdeckerNOSPAMM@aol.com> wrote in message
news:57baa4d8.0404081218.112fc125@posting.google.com...
> I think I want to get to the bottom of this one this week.  This is
a
> very seldom used feature of TAPI and therefore the gross errors in
> most TSP's in the way it is used don't seem to matter, but I would
> like to see how it SHOULD work.
>
> For some reason every device I have ever tried reports "INTERACTIVE
> VOICE" in it's supported media modes and for the call, despite the
> fact that on a line card like the Dialogic card, it can only be
> Automated.
That is my experience.  For example, Cisco's CallManager TAPI supports
a CTI or Wave device.  This is marked as supporting both
INTERACTIVEVOICE and AUTOMATEDVOICE.  In general, I give preference to
AUTOMATEDVOICE.  Having both set for station devices would make sense
if the station supported the automated voice aspects (support for
media.)  However in Cisco's case, stations are just interactive voice
as they don't support record/playback.
However, a strict reading of the specs says that they should NOT mark
CTI/wave devices as being interactive voice because interactive voice
implies humans at both ends.
> The confusion seems to be around what to report for capabilities,
how
> to open the line with possibly multiple media modes, and how to list
> the call which can only have one media mode.
>
> Shouldn't the device report in it's media modes capabilities not
only
> what it is designed to do for outgoing calls, but what it can
detect?
> In other words, even if the voice is not a FAX board, but it can
> detect a fax call and therefore allow us to route it, shouldn't it
> display G3FAX as one of it's possible media modes?  And if so, how
can
> you avoid confustion between a device that is capable of listening
for
> a FAX and a device actually capable of *processing* a fax?
You're correct in principle.  As TAPI doesn't support any kind of
lineGetID() related support for FAX then by definition, the only fax
mechanism would have to be outside of TAPI.  I've never worked with
TAPI devices which claim to support fax so I'm not sure what the
community does with this regard.
> Then, when opening the line device, we should be able to specify all
> the modes we want to be able to distinguish such as INTERACTIVEVOICE
+
> AUTOMATEDVOICE + G3FAX + DATAMODEM, no?  If we didn't specify G3FAX,
> then the board would ignore the tones and treat it like any other
> call, possibly firing the connected state thinking it reached a
> person.
You can certainly open a line with more then one mode.  TAPI has the
idea of call handoff which is based on passing calls to applications
which requested ownership of certain media modes.
> Technically, a line card making outbound calls, or an IVR system
> taking calls can only be an automated device.  So what does it
report
> and when for the call mediamode? Should all calls from a Line Card
be
> displayed as AUTOMATED?  Or should it change depending on the
progress
> of the call?
In Cisco's case, they present the call with both the automated voice
and interactive voice media modes for calls on their CTI ports.
> Wouldn't it be nice if the device made an outbound call and reported
> UNKNOWN, and then if it had decent answering device detection,
change
> it to AUTOMATED if it thought it got one, or INTERACTIVE if it got a
> person?
Perhaps... ;-)
> The spec says that only Automated voice can handle waves, yet almost
> all devices report Interactive voice and can still play and record
> waves.  How do YOU think this should work?
Are you saying you have TAPI devices which support playing/recording
wave but don't say they support AUTOMATED VOICE?  I'd view that as a
bug.
>
> Fred
> www.exceletel.com

Relevant Pages