Say goodbye to Ma Bell

The University of North Carolina's Center for Advanced Video Network Engineering and Research (CAVNER) serves as the development hub of the school's IP communications. In addition, the center is at the heart of ViDeNET, a far-reaching network that links 61 universities and colleges, as well as four other organizations, with IP video and voice across the country, and around the world, at speeds of up to 2.4G bit/sec.

ViDeNET is a multivendor research network that connects its members with IP video and voice via the H.323 protocol. Gatekeeper devices based on H.323 at each member institution are registered in a central directory maintained at CAVNER, which lets H.323 sessions be established as easily as a phone call, but without long-distance charges.

"A few years ago, there were a limited number of people doing video and voice over IP in advanced networks in the U.S. and internationally," says Tyler Johnson, director of CAVNER. "They were creating a few little islands of systems. . . . If I wanted to talk to Yale, I would have to configure my H.323 gateway to point to Yale specifically."

Considering what ViDeNET has become, Johnson says, "it's more of a movement than just a technology." The movement is about finding a way for scholars and researchers to communicate easily across long distances. Another driver, he adds, "was a complete and utter dissatisfaction with the [public switched telephone network (PSTN)]" for voice and videoconferencing. ViDeNET developers were looking not only to expand on the PSTN's limited teleconferencing, but also to avoid expensive telecommunications costs. Whereas long-distance charges were once involved with teleconferencing sessions, and of course voice connections, ViDeNET communication is toll-free.

Johnson is working with ViDeNET members to integrate support for the Session Initiation Protocol into the network, to let users of the emerging IP telecom protocol chat and meet over ViDeNET. Also in the works for ViDeNET is a networkwide quality-of-service system and support for end-to-end IP voice with IP phones from vendors such as Siemens.

Eventually Johnson hopes the network will grow to where the project's informal motto will truly be reflected - "Say goodbye to Ma Bell."