Features:

Tunnel Failover with No Packet Loss

Tunnel Load Balancing

"Voice Over VPN" Optimization

Steer Voice and Data Over Separate Tunnels

Fast Failover without Breaking Call

Bandwidth Controls for Non-VPN Internet Traffic

Transparent Drop-In Compatibility

Compatible with Most VPN Security Gateways

Premises Based IP PBX

IP PBX and IP phones are increasingly being deployed by small and mid-size businesses to improve productivity and realize cost-savings. A common topology is to connect the branch offices together using IPSEC VPN "tunnels" and IPSEC VPN hardware, as in the diagram above. Inter-office dialing, inbound direct dialing or call transfers based on 4-digit extension numbers - so essential to productivity - are therefore transported over these IPSEC VPN tunnels. The VPN hardware typically acts as both security firewall and router for the branch office, and very often is configured to allow the branch office to send and receive traffic directly to the Internet (Web, email etc). It is a common misconception that the advanced routing protocols (such as BGP, OSPF) run between the VPN routers are sufficient to deal with unpredictable failure modes in Internet traffic flows. In reality, various BGP related instabilities on the Internet cause short term packet loss and re-ordering, that are undetected by the enterprise or ISP router equipment.

Aspen's solution: Transparent "voice over VPN" optimization gateway, that inserts between any existing VPN tunnel firewalls and the Internet routers. All VPN security gateways that adhere to the IPSEC standards are supported (e.g. Cisco PIX, Cisco ASA, Juniper/Netscreen, SonicWall, Netgear, DLink etc). Encrypted VoIP traffic can be configured to use specific ISP paths when placed on a VPN tunnel; all other data traffic can be controlled in such a way as to not interfere with the VoIP traffic and degrade it.