Pitney Bowes: IoT Infrastructure for Dial-Up Postage Meter Connectivity

When AT&T announced the end of their dial-up modem access services, Pitney Bowes needed to figure out how to maintain connectivity to thousands of postage meters with embedded dial-up modems.

Synopsis
Pitney Bowes has tens of thousands of postage meters installed in companies all over the world. Many of these meters download postage through a telephone line using a dial-up modem connected to postal services via Pitney Bowes. When AT&T announced end of its dial-up access service, Pitney Bowes needed an alternative to terminate these calls handing off the traffic to its data center.

The only alternative was to build a dial-up Remote Access Service of their own since they had to support installed meters in North America, Europe and Asia traversing an array of national telephone companies.

The Picture
Local Postage Meters connect to local PSTN services. Calls are routed to SIP Trunks across an MPLS network. Voice Gateways are used to connect SIP trunks to T1/E1/PRI for digital modem call termination.
The Success
  • Patton provided consulting, network engineering, planning and deploying services to Pitney Bowes.
  • We built a global dial-up IoT access network with 5 points of presence with call termination centers in North America, Europe and Asia.
  • The Patton dial-up RAS Server model 3120 was leveraged to connect to SIP Trunk and PRI circuits for answering in bound meter dial-up call traffic across and array of international providers.
  • Key system elements included Patton's High-Density 120 Port dial-up access server with dynamic digital modem support-V.110, V.92, V.44, V.90, K56Flex, V.34+ or digital ISDN connections.
  • The solution network was deployed and Patton performed acceptance tests, established performance reporting regimes and delivered maintenance and ongoing support services.
  • In the end Patton and Pitney Bowes succeeded in delivering a robust, reliable global dial-up infrastructure and fully integrated IoT, MTM network.
The Story
Pitney Bowes has been in the mail services business for decades. They make postage meters which can weigh and print postage for outgoing mail. This service saves business money and time. With this service, organizations don't make trips to the post office, keep piles of stamps and they can gain access to metered mail discounts.

Postage is downloaded to these meters electronically traditionally through a telephone line using a dial-up modem connected to postal services via Pitney Bowes. This connectivity enables the purchase of postage and there are tens of thousands of meters installed in companies all over the world.

As dial-up technology for internet access has been replaced by broadband, the service providers delivering modem call termination and network/internet connectivity are going away. Such was the case with AT&T who provided global connectivity for Pitney.

Pitney Bowes had a short notice period to replace dial-up access services when AT&T announced end of service. The only alternative was to build a RAS service of their own since they had to support installed in North America, Europe and Asia.

Pitney Bowes reached out to Patton for help. We were able to provide network engineering services, planning and deploying of a global remote access network. We used our RAS Server model 3120 connected to PRI circuits answering dial-up call traffic across and array of international providers. We consulted with Pitney Bowes and national network operators. We developed the solution, performed acceptance tests, provided deployment services, and established performance reporting regimes and delivered maintenance and ongoing support services.

In the end Patton delivered robust, reliable global dial-up infrastructure and fully integrated IoT, MTM network that will satisfy Pitney Bowes needs for the coming decades.