One mother of a network revolution

Manufacturers need to consider the advantages of integrating telecoms with data networks, of making everything move over Internet protocol (IP). Voice over IP (IP telephony) is unlike the conventional circuit-switched phone network system. VoIP sends calls over a packet-switched network. VoIP converts voice traffic into data packets which are then routed over the IP network in the same way as other data, reassembled at the point of arrival and re-converted to voice. Great theory. Pity about the reality. But it is changing. VoIP is intended to offer new applications capable of boosting productivity, such as integrated voice, e-mail and fax messaging plus computer-telephone integration (CTI) for call centre representatives and enhanced network collaboration. It's claimed IP telephony can be offered at prices much below those offered by conventional circuit-switched networks, especially on long-distance and international calls as traffic pricing on IP-based networks is distance-independent. Pundits in the US, however, view VoIP as more about making money than saving it, urging customers to look beyond a way to slash long-distance costs. Instead they're urged to consider a new generation of VoIP-based CTI applications intended to produce increased turnover and boost productivity. Less than 6% take-up Given such statements many would imagine VoIP swamping international circuits. However, Tim Kelly, head of the Strategic Planning Unit at the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, says, “Currently VoIP accounts for about 6% of total international voice/fax traffic.” More details at www.itu.int/wtpf/. It's not all plain sailing. In some countries IP telephony has stalled and contracted (as in Colombia). Legal, institutional, technical and economic factors all influence development. The size of the market is simply unknown, although London-based analyst Ovum does estimate services growing from 2000's $25 million to a staggering $6.6 billion in 2006. Straw polling selected UK manufacturers of their plans mainly met with official “no comments” and off-the-record “we're waiting for corporate policy from head office” statements. However, Keith Saunt, head of manufacturing at Benneton Formula One, says: “Our industry works at speed and it's imperative the decision-making process is as efficient as can be. The design-to-manufacture-to-race timeline needs to be streamlined at every opportunity, and challenges experienced trackside often drive design and manufacturing changes with the minimum of lead time.” The result: “Communication is key,” he says. “Engineers access race-specific information remotely and there's constant dialogue between manufacturing and race engineering. We need up-to-date, live, accurate management information and it's this need that drives our communication strategy forward. The speed of technological development holds little fear: change is our business.” Mmmm. On a positive note, BP has embarked on a considerable business digitisation programme in partnership with Cisco Systems and others. One fact learned early on is “digital business is not something you can simply layer on top of existing business processes”. John Leggate, group vice president, Digital Business, says, “Our old network was not designed to be 'always on' - web applications are bandwidth hungry and also demand an 'always on' global network environment.” Guess what BP, Cisco et al are working towards! Some 20 BP/Cisco collaborative projects are underway across BP's business – with Cisco participating as Internet advisor. Cisco's regional manager for the chemicals industry Steve Bossom says the company is also working across industry – citing Compaq, HJ Heinz and Tiny Computers and Maunsell, part of AE Com, the second largest civil engineering consultancy globally. And he insists, “The key to successfully converged networks lies in ensuring that services such as data, voice and video are overlaid onto intelligent, scaleable and highly resilient networks made available to all users.” Clearly it is happening, albeit somewhat behind closed doors and not without some technical issues. But this is the future; by 2005 broadband problems should be yesterday's issue and indeed bandwidth for individual Internet users could be as much as 100Gbps, according to Endwave. Today of course it isn't: and between then and now there's a lot of planning, stock market movement and legislation to go through. Alcatel for one is one investing in its Consultancy & Services Group (CSG) this year by installing networking equipment plus NetIQ testing systems to enable large-scale quantitative and qualitative tests on VoIP and PABX systems, and relevant switches. High expectations CSG engineering manager Frederic Jabet says, “We've created a platform to prove the performance and coherence of our voice/data convergence solutions to customers. The NetIQ Chariot system emulates any type of application traffic flow – it's a solution supported by leading US independent test lab, the Tolly Group. Customers increasingly ask us to prove the ability of our equipment to carry their VoIP/PABX applications.” Clearly, the firm sees it coming. NetIQ's director of network development John Walker comments, “There are fundamental problems in the non-take-up of VoIP: people expect to get a dial tone immediately they pick up - and call quality. With telephony networks, the dial tone is there. People talk of 'five nines' reliability for data networks - truth is data networks are not at peak reliability level yet. To get VoIP you've got to raise the quality of data networks.” And he adds, with vested interest: “We hope people will evaluate their data networks before adding voice. Ask administrators of the best-managed data networks about response times, throughput, etc. They'll talk. Ask about jitter and they won't. We can run a simulator to check delay – the one-way transmission, the amount of jitter, or variation in delay, and how many packets are lost. TCP takes care of these, so you worry about the throughput. You have to ask, ‘can the data network lines support calls at peak periods?’.” Remember the 'always on' network philosophy. Now, watch out for SIP – session initiation protocol – which enables the creation and control of multimedia sessions between two or more participants. Key to the future here is the IP-based SIP services link to the end user. Traditional PBXs have user identity linked to a device (ie the phone) but SIP end-users can access enterprise applications from any device wherever they are. Guess which company is launching a SIP-enabled version of its operating system in October? Microsoft. Windows XP could cause big pain to long distance and IP telephony service providers. Naturally some say Microsoft will never play in the VoIP provider playground. But will Microsoft move into providing voice services? Microsoft's Windows product marketing manager Neil Laver says, “That's not our business. We're focused on software. We've no intention to enter telephony service provision.” But with a partner? “Won't rule that out,” he says. “Our customers constantly ask us to include certain protocols within our operating systems. We listen and act according to changes in the industry, eg the recent upsurges in communications.” Things are moving out there. Companies are converging data and telecom, plumbing in IP networks, and implementing VoIP. Believe me. In this writer’s humble opinion, expect 2007 to be one mother of a year.