* Making IP video a reality
Vendors target IP video hurdles
By Jason Meserve
February 2005 may go down as the beginning of the end for the last technical hurdle blocking widespread adoption of corporate IP videoconferencing – the issue of firewall and network address translation traversal.
With calls over IP networks (as opposed to using ISDN) hitting the 50% mark this year, according to Wainhouse Research, the issue of firewalls and NATs, which provide private IP addresses for a domain but are a wrench in the works when trying to make a successful IP video call, is coming to a head. The biggest names in the videoconferencing arena – Polycom and Tandberg – are among a handful of vendors releasing products that help transition H.323-based video calls through a firewall or private IP address (NAT) system to an outside party without having to make drastic changes to security policies.
H.323, the umbrella protocol that is the standard for IP conferencing, is inherently flawed when it comes to dealing with secured network perimeters and private IP addresses, which are used in the majority of corporate networks.
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https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/030705-ip-videoconferencing.html?nlt
