* A look at the growing world of IP video services
Our Special Focus this week takes a look at the growing world of IP video services.
Specifically, the cost savings of IP video conferencing – along with better resolution and easier call set-up – are encouraging more companies to switch from ISDN to IP. ISPs say that pricing for IP video services can be anywhere from 30% to 50% less than for ISDN, depending on network configurations and locations of sites.
In most countries, IP is anywhere from 30% to 50% less expensive and more reliable than ISDN. Users agree that IP video conferences are easier to set up and troubleshoot than their ISDN counterparts. Additionally, IP video quality is better than ISDN, offering as much as double the resolution.
And the services are generally easy to find. All top-tier ISPs offer IP-based video conferencing services. Most are built upon Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS), a traffic engineering protocol that allows network managers to create a dedicated class of service for video applications.
The trend it seems is that companies that migrate from ISDN to IP for video conferencing tend to do so gradually, our author (cmarsan@nww.com) says.
They choose IP video when they move to IP-wired buildings, open new locations or need to replace aging ISDN equipment. Companies that already have IP VPNs find it relatively inexpensive to add video traffic across the same backbone.
There’s a lot more to this story. See: https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/1011specialfocus.html
