"Our customers are asking for solutions that integrate seamlessly with their existing communications infrastructure to deliver end-to-end voice services over an IP network," said Scott Whittle, Director of Product Management at Patton. "With SmartNode and FXO, network administrators can preserve their existing legacy telephone equipment and services while leveraging VoIP to lower operating costs and achieve voice-data convergence.”

Any enterprise with a legacy analog PBX can connect SmartNode FXO ports to their PBX and the local PSTN, thus reaping the benefits of VoIP without costly PBX replacement or upgrades. The PBX can then securely route calls through the Internet or corporate IP network to any analog phone or fax. Routing voice and data through a single network enables companies to consolidate communications infrastructures, thereby reducing equipment, cabling, and network administration costs. Meanwhile, employees working at remote IP endpoints (for instance, those teleworking from home) can take advantage of all the PBX features (voice-mail, 3-digit dialing, conference calls, etc.) provided at the corporate headquarters.

FXO, FXS, and FXS/FXO interface combinations are now available on a wide range of models within the SmartNode™ 4520 Series. All SmartNode™ ToIP Gateway Routers support SIP and H.323 VoIP signaling, T.38 Fax-over-IP, a full set of codecs, IP routing with NAT, Firewall, PPP, PPPoE, VLAN, Frame-Relay, DHCP and DynDNS, plus a full suite of upstream and downstream QoS (Quality of Service) features to prioritize traffic for enhanced voice quality. Available software options offer IPSec DES/3DES/AES) VPN and Q.SIG support.

The following SmartNode™ models are now available with analog telephony interfaces and include dual-Ethernet ports with an integrated QoS IP router:

• FXS models with 2, 4, 6, 8 FXS ports.
• FXO models with 2 or 4 FXO ports.
• FXS/FXO combinations with:
  - 2 FXS/2 FXO ports
  - 4 FXS/2 FXO ports
  - 4 FXS /4 FXO ports