It's a VoIP, VoIP World

Eighty-nine different exhibitors are showing some form of voice-over-IP software, system or application, and it is a measure of the market's maturity that much of what is being shown is pragmatic in nature.

Applications, reliability and ease of deployment are key themes.

Emergent Network Solutions is showing a VoIP-in-a-box product, which is finding appeal among some of the newest players in the market, including smaller ISPs and independent telephone companies, said Derrek Schartz, director of sales and marketing for Emergent.

“We have gone to ISPs and to Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers who want to offer voice-over-broadband to their customers,” he said. “This is a turnkey solution, that includes a VoIP softswitch, a session controller, enhanced services like voice mail and conferencing, local service features and the back-end customer interface so that customers can do self-provisioning and account maintenance.”

Service providers, especially smaller companies, like the opportunity to “get everything they need so that they can get up and running quickly,” Schartz said.

“One thing I never thought about was that ILECs in small towns, who have been in business for 100 years, now are competing with Vonage,” he said. “They want to be able to offer their customers voice-over-broadband: To them, it is a defensive position to be able to offer this.”

Emergent will demonstrate the E-REV for ENTICE Residential/Enterprise VoIP system at Supercomm, showing, among other things, how easy it is for customers to sign up through Web interfaces.

“We're going to demo it through an Internet connection just as if you were an end user,” he said. “We've had a soft release of the product, and so far, the reaction is that customers are excited about how quickly they can get up and running.”

As more service providers get into the VoIP market, additional attention is being paid to session border controllers (SBCs), and Acme Packet, Netrake and Kagoor — now part of Juniper Networks — are all exhibiting in the SCB space here in Chicago.

“Session border controllers have been around for two to three years, but their functionality has expanded greatly since the early days,” said Scott Heinlein, senior manager of voice solutions for Juniper. “The functionality they perform is critical now and will become more critical as carrier-to-carrier peering starts to happen.”

One key role that SCBs will play is as security for a VoIP network that can be as vulnerable to attacks, such as a denial of service (DOS) attack, as data networks are today.

“From our perspective, securing voice and the ability to protect voice assets in a service provider network or an enterprise network becomes more critical,” Heinlein said. “As voice becomes more prevalent, we expect to see more hacker-type activity to disrupt voice.”

An SCB plays an important role in VoIP security because it has the ability to hide the IP address of key voice assets so that hackers can't find them, he added.

“You can imagine that if someone is able to do a DOS on a softswitch that is supporting thousands and thousands of users and can take the softswitch down or media gateway down, that has a huge impact on a service provider's customers and on their network,” he said.

Because VoIP represents not just the coming together of telephony and data service and technology but also the combination of voice and data expertise within a service provider or enterprise organization, there are certain complications.

Because VoIP is neither fish nor fowl, both IT and telecom departments have much to learn, said Gerard Goubert, a manager at the University of New Hampshire's InterOperability Lab, which is using Supercomm to replicate a recent plugfest at which it demonstrated a multi-vendor voice, data and video network.

“VoIP is very viable and easy to do,” he said. “The thing you have to watch out for is how things interact with each other. There are now two different sets of protocols on the same wires. There's a whole spectrum of things that can go wrong — there are some gotchas you wouldn't expect and some things that are obvious if you know the protocols.”

Because of its longstanding role in working through interoperability issues concerning public network data services, UNH IOL understands both sides of things and works within its demos to clarify issues all around, he said.

Applications are another key area for VoIP, and there will be no dearth of things to see at Supercomm. All the major industry players — Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies, NEC, Nortel Networks, Siemens and others will be demonstrating a wide range of applications, including presence-based communications, wireline/wireless integration, integrated messaging and self-provisioning and change management.

“These are really blended lifestyle services,” said Stef Van Arle, vice president of marketing and strategy for Lucent Worldwide Services. “There are applications where you can tie your voice mail into your [instant messaging]. There is also a lot of presence-based services such as being able to get the three nearest pizza places on your smart phone.”

Many of the early applications are also aimed at road warriors, including using a laptop PC as a softphone to not only avoid hotel phone charges but also to create an office away from home that is as efficient as the one you left.

In the office, presence-based services, displayed on a PC dashboard, enable office workers to see if colleagues are on the phone and thus avoid voice mail by sending an IM.

SUPERCOMM daily news

Grow your knowledge of the hottest technologies at SUPERCOMM. Click on our library of exclusive technology features. Only online!
www.supercommnews.com

Give it up

What prompts wireless telephone users to completely cut the cord and cancel their wireline service? Capgemini's consumer research survey shows cost is the predominant concern. A decrease in service costs, an increase in bundle minutes and the prospect of not paying for incoming calls would all serve to boost wireless minutes and encourage roughly one-quarter of those surveyed to cancel a traditional phone service.

Consumer interest in substituting wireless for wireline

Call family/friends at lower cost	36%	26%
More minutes in bundle	36%	22%
Family/friends pay same as landline for calling user	33%	24%
Pay lower tariff when calling from home	33%	23%
Landline/wireless number converged	24%	23%