What is the MediaTone™ Network?
The MediaTone™ Network is a dedicated, private global network, created with a carrier-class information-switching architecture. All collaboration data flows through our ultra-secure, high-performance network with the lowest delay possible. During an online meeting, the WebEx service in use, for example Meeting Center, manages the session data the MediaTone Network carries. The Internet provides only the ‘first mile / last mile’ connection to a WebEx online meeting. Once the connection is made, the MediaTone Network manages the synchronous real-time interaction that makes up a WebEx online meeting. Take the MediaTone tour (3.5M Flash™) to learn more right now.
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The MediaTone Network Architecture
The WebEx MediaTone network is a hierarchical topology on top of a global, over-provisioned fibre IP infrastructure.
- The dedicated global network connects data centres around the world
- Tier-1 level data centres with two-factor entry physically house the WAN and Intranet switching fabric
- At the collaboration level, the MediaTone switches, database and meeting core-switching reside within the data centres
- The application level includes the web-facing servers, which house the customer-branded portals and API interfaces
Why not just use the Internet?
The Internet is designed to be many things but it cannot offer a guaranteed path between host and presenter. Instead, public routers look for "a path" to route data, often fragmenting the data and sending different packets along different routes, then reassembling it. This is perfectly acceptable for many online uses but not for real-time collaborative services. There are both performance issues and security issues to this "best effort" level of service.
In contrast, the WebEx MediaTone Network was designed specifically for large-scale, real-time web collaboration. This robust private network gives you superior performance, enterprise-grade security and always-available ‘dial-tone’ reliability as it delivers your global multimedia web communications.
A series of secure data centres are located strategically around the world near major Internet access points. Meeting data is routed between the data centres on dedicated high-bandwidth fibre. Latency and interruptions are eliminated, even when meeting participants are scattered around the globe.
Don't leave your meeting data lying all over the Internet
Our real-time switched network gives you the performance you need and eliminates data security issues. Meeting data does not stop anywhere between host and attendees, where traces of it might be left behind. Images and documents are compressed and encrypted prior to leaving the host computer and then sent out through the MediaTone network. Nothing is stored on intermediate servers. This reduces latency, minimises transport time and removes the threat of data theft. In addition, this distributed architecture prevents any single point of failure and gives you seamless and transparent fail-over so your meetings have enterprise-grade reliability.
Share and edit large project files and graphics
When you share a document during a meeting, the WebEx Universal Communications Format (UCF), utilised by all WebEx services, analyses the document and intelligently compresses it before sending it to your meeting attendees. When you make a change to that document, only the affected data is sent to your meeting attendees, optimising session response time and therefore user experience.
It's only ‘real-time’ if you're seeing and hearing the same thing at the same time
Voice and data synchronisation is crucial to delivering real-time collaboration. You don't need to stop talking and wait for everyone's monitor to "catch up" with yours. Carry on your conversation and your updates as if you were all in the same room, talking across the table and looking at the same screen. WebEx preserves interactivity so your participants see what you are presenting at the same time they hear you explain. This is essential for demonstrating software applications or showing a complex animation. Our distributed architecture is instantly scalable, letting us efficiently manage the heavy traffic during business hours around the world so your meetings will run smoothly even during peak usage times. We typically operate at 50 per cent capacity to easily accommodate any seasonal peaks in customer usage.
Sign up for a free trial today
Sign up for a free 14-day trial or read some of our white papers to see how it all works. You'll soon see why WebEx is the premier online meeting provider.
