"Gatekeeper" is a telecommunication term.
The following paragraphs are from a technical book.
My question is quite simple: is "Gatekeeper" a software or a hardware?
H,323 is one of those ITU(International Telecommunications Union) recommendations that specifies an overall architecture and methodology, and that incorporates several other recommendations.
An H.323 terminal is an endpoint that offers real-time communications with other H.323 endpoints. Typically, a terminal is an end-user communications device that supports at least one audio coder/decoder(codec) and may optionally support other audio codecs and/or video codecs.
A gateway is an H.323 endpoint that provides translation services between the H.323 network and another type of network, such as an Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN) or the regular phone network, which in ITU parlance is known as the General Switched Telephone Network(GSTN).....
A gatekeeper is an optional entity within an H.323 network. When present, a gatekeeper controls a number of H.323 terminals, gateways, and multipoint controllers(MCs). But control, we mean that the gatekeeper authorizes network access from one or more endpoints and may choose to permit or deny any given call from one or more endpoints and may choose to permit or deny any given call from an endpoint within its control. A gatekeeper may offer bandwidth control services, which can help to ensure high quality of service(QoS) if used in conjunction with bandwidth and/or resource management techniques. A gatekeeper also offers address translation services, enabling the use of aliases within the network.
