Voxpath's end-to-end platform for service providers having SMB customers. The PSTN is on the right, with its traditional Class 5 CO switch. To the left is the service provider's POP, where the Voxpath "core" sits, containing all of the intelligence, telephony and applications, the self-management portals for the end-customer, and the service management functions for the actual SP operations. Farther left is the aggregation facility that allows for Internet access. Though the voice service itself does not travel over the Internet per se, it is a pure IP service and so it can run over any physical transport, whether it's cable, T1 or Metro-Ethernet. Finally, at the customer's premise is the service gateway, part of the overall service that allows the SP to have a WAN demarcation point from which it can deliver and manage the service, as well as other plug-and-play capabilities. On the customer side of the gateway is the customer LAN connection.
In a similar vein, Veraz Networks (www.veraznetworks.com) offers toll-quality packet telephony solutions for traditional and next-gen communications networks (in particular established and greenfield carriers and enhanced service providers) based on its softswitch, media gateway, and digital compression products. Veraz' has a solution for just about every call processing application imaginable, including IP Centrex and new voice-data services.
Apples or Oranges?
Because of the tremendous flexibility afforded by IP-based systems, some innovative companies blur the distinction between CPE and service provider categories. Take, for example, Advoco (www.advoco. se) and their NetPBX, an IP-based soft PBX for business. The Advoco NetPBX can either be installed as an IP-Centrex like network- based service from a telephony/broadband operator or else as a CPE on the users' network. Fixed, portable or computer-based phones directly connect to the customer LAN. The Advoco NetPBX can co-exist with legacy PBXs. Moreover, a friendly interface allows users to perform their own moves-adds-changes.
It's About Services
For a network operator or service provider to distinguish itself from its competitors, merely offering cheap VoIP and easy management isn't enough. Unified messaging, speech recognition, text-to-speech, follow-me services, and services that deliver sophisticated forms of multimedia are needed to stay in business.
For example, Infonet Services (www.infonet.com), an ISP in El Segundo, Calif., now offers IP Video VPN, a service enabling multinational companies (MNCs) to connect their videoconferencing systems across Infonet's private IP backbone. Quality of Service (QoS) is always important with real-time communications services such as videoconferencing, which is why IP Video VPN relies on MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching), used in conjunction with a unique prioritized class of service formulated by Infonet specifi- cally for video.
On a more intimate scale, SightSpeed's (www.sightspeed.com) Video Messenger is client videophone software (and a $4.95 a month service) for a Webcam-equipped PC or Mac (a Linux version should be available soon). Originally developed for broadband, SightSpeed now works passably on 56 Kbps dialup connections. It's based on a video compression algorithm developed over an eight-year period by Cornell University information theory Prof. Toby Berger. SightSpeed normally runs at an impressive 30 frames per second.
Berger and his partner Aron Rosenberg decided that a low cost video phone service was needed for older, less technically-oriented people to communicate with their younger family members. Indeed, 41% of SightSpeed subscribers are over 50 years old. Even deaf people using sign language are employing SightSpeed as a sort of video instant messaging service.
Both founders have ties to Cornell University, so SightSpeed offers free subscriptions to anyone with a cornell.edu email account.
Something for Everybody.
Service providers are making more and more sense. Why should a business own, administer and keep in repair a ton of aging equipment when one can pick and choose from among various exciting, flat-rate, monthly IP-based services?
Richard Grigonis is Editor-in-Chief of VON Magazine.
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