<s>
Host	B-Protocol
Media	I-Protocol
Processing	I-Protocol
or	O
HMP	O
is	O
a	O
design	O
model	O
in	O
telecommunications	O
systems	O
that	O
involves	O
the	O
use	O
of	O
software	O
solutions	O
to	O
perform	O
voice	O
processing	O
functions	O
where	O
dedicated	O
Digital	B-Architecture
Signal	I-Architecture
Processors	I-Architecture
(	O
DSP	O
)	O
were	O
previously	O
required	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
age	O
of	O
Voice	B-Application
over	I-Application
IP	I-Application
(	O
VoIP	B-Application
)	O
,	O
components	O
are	O
connected	O
via	O
Ethernet	O
or	O
broadband	O
links	O
and	O
use	O
TCP/IP	B-Protocol
as	O
the	O
transport	O
for	O
voice	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
for	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
software	O
,	O
or	O
protocol	O
driver	O
functionality	O
is	O
often	O
referred	O
to	O
as	O
Host	B-Protocol
Media	I-Protocol
Processing	I-Protocol
,	O
since	O
it	O
is	O
using	O
the	O
processor	O
in	O
the	O
host	O
PC	O
(	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
HMP	O
can	O
be	O
just	O
software	O
that	O
you	O
load	O
into	O
a	O
PC	O
,	O
though	O
in	O
some	O
situations	O
HMP	O
products	O
work	O
in	O
conjunction	O
with	O
hardware	O
(	O
such	O
as	O
a	O
board	O
equipped	O
with	O
DSP	O
processors	O
)	O
in	O
order	O
to	O
offload	O
computationally	O
expensive	O
operations	O
such	O
as	O
echo	O
cancellation	O
and	O
transcoding	B-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
allows	O
speech	O
applications	O
to	O
scale	B-Architecture
to	O
large	O
numbers	O
of	O
concurrent	O
calls	O
,	O
without	O
bogging	O
down	O
the	O
host	O
CPU	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
often	O
means	O
that	O
backward-compatibility	O
is	O
a	O
big	O
issue	O
,	O
since	O
if	O
possible	O
users	O
want	O
the	O
applications	O
to	O
migrate	O
seamlessly	O
to	O
the	O
VoIP	B-Application
environment	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
usually	O
means	O
that	O
HMP	O
products	O
expose	O
one	O
or	O
more	O
standard	O
APIs	B-General_Concept
that	O
historically	O
has	O
been	O
used	O
to	O
write	O
telecom	O
apps	O
in	O
the	O
past	O
.	O
</s>
