VoIP

Service providers name Cisco as a top VoIP vendor

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:06:19 -0400

Cisco emerged as the most familiar manufacturer cited by service providers who were questioned about their perceptions of the main VoIP vendors. Cisco, Acme Packets, Alcatel-Lucent and Sonus, were identified as the "top VoIP equipment manufacturers," by service providers interviewed by Infonetics Research. However Cisco lost to Sonus in scoring the highest rating for technology, product roadmap, security, management, and price-to-performance ratio. The survey was conducted for Infonetics' Service Provider Plans for VoIP report.

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Convergence Improves Airport Communications

Matthew Nickasch — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:27:19 -0400

With the US economy in a constant state of 'flux', organizations, companies, and even entire industries are obviously looking for opportunities to save money and increase innovation. Those who follow the news are no stranger to the current state of the air travel industry. With constantly shifting demand and load factors, decreased routes, and constant variation in fuel prices, the industry is looking to squeeze the last ounce out of every dollar. I recently spent quite a bit of last week at various airports while traveling on vacation. As a true telecom geek, I'm always curious about how organizations and entities are utilizing technology to aid in their daily operations. At a specific regional airport in the southeast US, the use of converged telephony was in full force.

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iPhone and freedom of (VoIP) speech

John Cox — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:42:39 -0400

As the 3G iPhone Saga continues to unfold, I find myself wondering less "who's in charge" and more "is anyone in charge?" With 3rd party iPhone applications now all the rage, one group that's emerging are offerings from VoIP providers. Those would be the guys who want you to make a VoIP call instead of a call over AT&T's 3G cell network, which is the only US network where iPhone currently works. AT&T isn't too worried though, according to Dan Frommer at "Silicon Valley Insider." One reason, he says, is that Apple will only approve iPhone apps that make VoIP calls over a Wi-Fi connection, not over the cell network. (Frommer may not be correct, though: more on this in a moment.)

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Will "Mobile VoIP" Become A Market Motivator?

Matthew Nickasch — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:21:19 -0400

When I think of enterprise-wide deployments of VoIP, especially IP-PBX systems, I think of lots and lots of wired IP endpoints, with a small variety of wireless handsets deployed over the organization's wireless network. Still, it seems as though the major "endpoint focus" of organizations is towards wired terminals. Sure, we have SpectraLink (now Polycom), Cisco's wireless 802.11-compliant phones, etc. But, what the market has yet to see is a true "dual-mode" cellphone + VoIP endpoint combination.

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Are CLID & ANI Running Out of Time?

Matthew Nickasch — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:54:50 -0400

Continuing with yesterday's theme of VoIP spam, and the previous posts on telecom security, it's time to analyze ANI, or Automatic Number Identification. ANI, CLID (Calling Line ID, or Caller ID) and CPN (Calling Party Number) all have similar meanings. With the advent of VoIP, especially IP trunking, I feel that a major re-work of the PSTN is needed to more or less "authenticate" calls to ensure identity. As I mentioned yesterday in my post about VoIP spam, the time has come for technical advances to be made in how our PSTN validates and identifies calls on the network.

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VoIP Spam – An Impending Doom?

Matthew Nickasch — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:27:24 -0400

As you well know, spam infiltrates, clogs, and slows down email servers worldwide. In my organization, spam accounts for nearly 89% of all inbound and outbound messages. Yet, we’ve been accustomed to the use of filters, quarantines, and junk email folders. Spam detection is not a perfect science, and has taken years to develop effective strategies for combating email spam.

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Compliance Concerns: SOX

Matthew Nickasch — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:36:59 -0400

As if managing the day-to-day operations of your telecommunications infrastructure isn't difficult enough, then consider compliance. SOX, HIPAA... you know the drill. Modern-day regulations designed to improve security, confidentiality, and authenticity can mean major headaches for IT managers, especially telecom managers! Today, we'll focus on how SOX can impact your day-to-day telecommunications operations, and what to expect. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created and enacted into law to minimize corporate and accounting scandals, similar to Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom. Within SOX, there are 11 compliance "titles" that effectively act as an oversight mechanism. So, how does SOX affect telecom managers? Simple answer: in many ways.

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5 Tips For Better Telecom Security

Matthew Nickasch — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:40:09 -0400

Telecom security often goes unnoticed. It's not that security isn't important in PBXes, media gateways, access servers, and other equipment, but security in the Convergence field can be forgotten. Here are 5 Tips For Better Telecom Security:

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CCIE Voice / CCVP Exam Objectives #7: RTP and cRTP

Mark_Lewis — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:47:16 -0400

While protocols like MGCP, SIP, H.323 (H.225/H.225 RAS/H.245), and SCCP provide signalling in VoIP/IP telephony/unified communications networks, the Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) is used to transport the voice and video media packets.

RTP has a number of important characteristics, including the following:

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Security: From Then To Now

Matthew Nickasch — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:13:10 -0400

Security, in any sense, is an ever-evolving subject. At any "piece" of the puzzle, security standards, practices, and strategies rarely stay the same. When it comes to Unified Communications, Convergence, and VoIP, the same is true. In the last few years, much has obviously evolved. When introducing voice applications and services, those of which are obviously critical, moved to an IP environment, a Pandora's Box of sorts was opened. Telecom managers that were used to operating "closed" TDM and analog voice infrastructures were forced to change, and fast. In the midst of feature deployment, massive endpoint rollouts, and new system management functions, security can easily be forgotten.

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From VoIP to UC, what's the next step?

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:46:25 -0400

Many enterprises who have implemented VoIP are now at the "what's next?" stage. They are thinking: "So, we can now safely and reliably send voice packets over the network and voice is just another application -- what else can we do?" This is the message from Steve Bergstrom, Enterprise Voice and UC Architect at Caterpillar, in this quickie video from the Cisco Live! conference. He doesn't offer any answers, but if you too are wandering on the convergence road, this short video might make you feel less alone.

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IT Skills Gap in Unified Communications

Alex Lewis — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:29:33 -0400

There's a great discussion going on over at BroadDev around the various skills gaps when deploying a unified communications solution. John Furrier jumped in to outline the technical challenges in deploying UC "in the trenches". I countered with what I think it a more pervasive issue, the IT/business alignment around UC.

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Residental Telephony Revolutionized

Matthew Nickasch — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:58:27 -0400

It's not uncommon to find most articles and features about the entire convergence market to be focused on the business environment. However, there has been a slow but steady revolution as convergence-like technologies such as VoIP, IP-PBXs, IP trunking, etc. are introduced into the residential markets. Vonage was probably defined as the market pioneer in bringing carrier-grade VoIP service to the masses. Since then, technologies have been pushed to the residential market more and more. This trend will likely continue, and for good reason. Yes, I still have a landline. What purpose does it serve? It's simply ready for me to dial 911 as a guaranteed route to my local PSAP. For all of my other calls, I personally utilize three different providers that are purely IP based.

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Mobility, not Unified Communications, top priority for businesses

Chris Cameron — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:12:16 -0400

This post originally found at http://accentservices.blogspot.com Unified Communications (UC) is getting a lot of publicity in the tech media these days. But the big push by manufacturers to integrate chat and presence with existing communication systems may not drive sales as much as initially expected.

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Cisco: the IP PBX of choice?

Cisco Subnet — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:50:41 -0400

Almost two thirds of the 2,187 North American and European companies surveyed choose a Cisco IP PBX in their VoIP deployments, Forrester Research found. These results and more are from a study on SMB and enterprise networking plans for 2008. Forrester conducted the research in the first quarter. Forrester found that over half of its respondents will roll out or evaluate IP PBX and site-to-site WAN VoIP options in 2008. Out of those rolling out or evaluating IP PBX, 65% are interested in procuring VoIP as a managed service.

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CCIE Voice / CCVP Exam Objectives #6: SCCP

Mark_Lewis — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:44:52 -0400

Last time in this series of posts on telephony protocols, I looked at H.323, a complex framework of standards and protocols that are used to enable multimedia communication over packet networks. This time I'll be taking a look at a comparatively simple protocol, the Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP). In contrast to some of the other telephony protocols, you'll be glad to know that there comparatively little that you need to remember about it for the exams!

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How VoIP Has Influenced the Hotel Industry: Part 1

Matthew Nickasch — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:05:09 -0400

Throughout the last few months, we've discussed quite a bit about convergence, VoIP, IP-PBXes, and the like. What's been increasingly interesting, however, is to chart the "spread" of convergence technologies from industry to industry. Today, let's focus on the hotel/hospitality market, and their shift away from traditional telephony. As with any new technology, some examples in the "market" are quicker to adopt new technology earlier than others. What drives this interest and migration to new technology? It's usually competition.

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Will iPhone spark convergence of fixed-mobile phones in the enterprise?

John Cox — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:02:09 -0400

I was talking with David Bucciero, director of technical services for Dartmouth College. He’s an iPhone fan though he doesn’t own one himself, yet.

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Digium|Switchvox Breaks the Appliance Barrier

Matthew Nickasch — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:26:22 -0400

There are many reasons to get excited about the future of IP telephony. For me, it's the development and release of new products that will revolutionize the industry. After a recent blog post (Appliances Run Amok) on the emerging market of VoIP & IP-PBX appliances, it appears that Digium, "The Asterisk Company", is pulling ahead of the competition with their recently updated Switchvox appliance line.

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Increased Travel Costs Driving Demand for Video Conferencing

Chris Cameron — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:50:32 -0400

Originally posted on http://accentservices.blogspot.com It's no shocker that higher oil and energy prices are putting pressure on business travel. CNBC.com is reporting that these increased travel costs are beginning to reflect on the bottom line of technology companies that can provide video conferencing and collaboration products. The article reports that "Manpower has ramped up use of its video conference equipment in the last couple of months" and "office furniture maker Herman Miller has encouraged employees to use video conferencing in addition to conference calls and car-pooling to cut operating costs".

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