Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), commonly known as H.248, is a standard protocol for handling the signaling and session management needed during a multimedia conference. This happens when call-control devices use a plain-text protocol, MGCP, to manage IP Telephony gateways. The advantage of this is that it creates a centralized gateway administration and provides for largely scale-able IP Telephony solutions. The state of each individual port on the gateway is known and controlled with the protocol by the call controller. This allows complete control of the dial plan and gives per-port control of connections to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), legacy PBX, voice mail systems, plain old telephone service (POTS) phones, and so forth.

IMS Solution Brief

Support for Media Gateway Control Protocol in a Ribbon Network

G9 Converged Media Gateway - Its open H.248 interface and extensive feature set support all major wireless and wireline IP, ATM and TDM network protocols.

G6 Packet Line Gateway - Functionality with H.248 combined with Nortel’s call control; we can empower service providers to leverage their existing access plant as they take the next steps in network migration.