evolution of isdn videoconferencing to ip videoconferencing

Improving the View with IP Videoconferencing The accelerating pace of business is transforming our global economy and changing the way business people all over the world Evolution of ISDN Videoconferencing to IP Videoconferencing There is a transition underway in videoconferencing technologies communicate and collaborate. We’re automating business processes. They’re outsourcing departments. That other company is merging and the networking services to support them. High performance converged networks, lower cost IP-based videoconferencing while this particular division is being divested. Concentrating on becoming world-class manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers or services equipment and high quality flat screen technologies are emerging at a time when the users’ expectations for video quality are driven by the companies never seemed so hard before. Clearly, to continue to be successful more people need to be working smarter with more people marketing and availability of High Definition TVs as part of the analog to digital and spectrum changes the U.S. broadcast industry is now in more diverse locations than ever before. undergoing. For many organizations this is a ‘perfect storm’ bringing user expectations, network services and equipment technologies into These are the forces that impact the way people do business today and in the future. Yet, at the heart of these unrelenting forces to alignment and sharp focus. improve competitiveness lies the simple truth that “business depends on people.” People working with other people; sharing ideas, making A Strategic Resource decisions, committing resources and collaborating in real-time, in real places. IP Videoconferencing services can ease the transition while lowering cost and enabling a high quality user That’s why videoconferencing has a growing role to play in the business communications and collaboration landscape – as the experience. Some of the services include support for: closest alternative to actually being there. Richer in non-verbal communications than the phone call or audio conferencing session, •Multipoint and point-to-point videoconferences •Streaming video for live and archived broadcasts and less time-consuming than actually traveling, the videoconference option has become a very effective face-to-face equivalent for leading •Any mix of ISDN H.320 and IP H.323 video systems on the same conference global, regional and national organizations. •Both reserved and reservation-less conferences For these reasons and in light of the heightened inconvenience and security risk of travel and the high cost of fuel, corporate •Automatic conference launch telecom engineers and managers need to revisit the enterprise videoconferencing service and system. They need to assure that •Real-time phone assistance •Event management assistance their firm’s capabilities are positioned at the lowest possible cost and organized to flexibly accommodate the growing demand caused by the rapidly changing dynamics of the business. Current Environment Classic videoconferencing implementations involved the construction or designation of specific conference rooms for video. Each of these As enterprises migrate their frame relay and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) Wide Area Networks (WAN) to the higher speed and more advanced MPLS-based network, the convergence of videoconferencing services is a simple, and inexpensive incremental rooms typically sports a codec, camera, video monitor various room microphones, a document camera, an infrared remote for controlling cost. Enterprises can also allocate two or more times the bandwidth limit to the videoconference for the duration of the conference to the electronics in the room, a conference table immediately in front of the monitors and in many cases special lighting that would light up the faces of meeting participants. generate a much-improved experience with the same or lower cost of network service. For network connectivity, videoconferencing managers historically chose circuit-switched Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) MPLS users are less vulnerable to outages since the network automatically reroutes around outages or congestion in the network. The network manager can configure the enterprise service in such a services to form the connections necessary for a point-to-point or multipoint conference. ISDN delivers multiple 64 kilobit/s circuits for way as to dynamically adjust the converged bandwidth to account for business priorities. So, migrating to the high performance MPLS- the duration of the conference. Most often six circuits are dialed up at the time of the videoconferencing, providing 384 kilobit/s of network bandwidth for the duration of the call. based IP network offers a higher quality user experience, higher reliability, at a lower cost. As well, the service can be further enhanced with strong encryption using the Advanced Encryption Standard ISDN has served videoconferencing users for many years as the primary network connection for several reasons. Firstly, ISDN is a algorithm between videoconference endpoints to help assure privacy. Features such as conference streaming over the Internet for remote global standard and is available in virtually every market. International interoperability has been assured for decades. Secondly, since ISDN is desktop viewing or recording to VHS, CD or DVD are also practical. The MPLS deployment can also enable new classes of a switched service, the network can establish direct point-to-point connections with just about any videoconference system on any videoconferencing users such as video-at-the-desktop and remote users or teleworkers, greatly expanding the number of beneficiaries of ISDN network. the productivity benefits of this method. In those circumstances where three or more videoconferencing rooms are to participate in a multipoint conference, all of the rooms connect with a central site service such as the Video Operations Center. Here, capacity on the Multimedia Conferencing Unit(s) (MCU) mixes the Services Ease Migration to IP Videoconferencing Part of the challenge in managing new networking technology is that the cost and difficulty of the transition process can be greater than the video and audio streams from the many locations and rebroadcasts the mixed conference back to the participating rooms. benefits of making the change. Much of these transition costs occur because the legacy and the new infrastructures can be incompatible, Benefits of IP Videoconferencing Migrating the service design to IP videoconferencing over the MPLS-based IP network service offers many user advantages. Since postponing the complete network benefit until the transition is complete. In the case of IP videoconferencing, this transition cost can be mitigated through the use of ’s IP-ISDN gateway services. MPLS is compatible with Ethernet and IP connectivity, the location of video room equipment is no longer limited to the endpoint of the ISDN ’s IP-ISDN gateways inject a high degree of agility by allowing IP videoconferencing rooms to conference with rooms using ISDN and/or circuit. Instead, it is readily available at the end of any ubiquitous Ethernet port. This greatly increases the range of conference rooms IP videoconferencing. Furthermore, multipoint conferences in any mix of ISDN and IP users can be supported as well. This allows for a available for videoconferencing throughout the enterprise, and reduces the cost of expanding the number of videoconferencing service smooth migration over time, at the convenience and budget of the enterprise without losing functionality, nor losing connectivity. endpoints on a permanent or temporary basis. Providing unprecedented control, the Video Control Panel is an optional web portal for enterprise users to schedule their MPLS utilities packet technology in contrast with the circuit-style ISDN, which makes MPLS particularly well suited for data networking, videoconference services, rooms and special features. Supporting both ad hoc and scheduled meetings, even goes so far as to reduce including voice and video sessions over IP. MPLS supports a prioritization technique called Class of Service so that some packets, such as voice and video can be assigned a higher priority to deliver a the complexity of launching a videoconference. Most business people can easily follow the instructions of the Auto Launch service to higher quality experience for users. automatically establish the appropriate video and network connections. Users can also call the help desk for any troubleshooting or problem reporting or to be talked through the call establishment sequence. In fact, Equipment Monitoring Service Consider a Meeting 40 Miles Away can remotely monitor room equipment and if necessary coordinate repair and maintenance of videoconferencing equipment almost Drive Videoconference Travel time 90 minutes No anywhere in the world. Parking Yes No The engagement of IP videoconferencing transition specialists also works to mitigate the enterprise switching costs and helps assure Tolls Yes No Miles driven 80 miles No the operations team that the transition is smooth, maximizing service availability and improving the user experience. Gasoline used 3.6 US gallons1 None Expense report required Yes No Growth in Applications of Videoconferencing The prevailing business conditions will increase the demand for videoconferencing as a method to avoid the time-consuming aspects Incremental network fee No Yes of travel for many types of collaborations and meetings. Specific service features are better suited to enabling certain kinds of video Consider a Meeting 400 Miles Away conferencing applications. For example, the recording options in video conferencing make it well suited for legal professionals to take Fly Videoconference Travel time 7 hours No depositions of litigants without leaving the office. Other frequent and routine tasks such as job interviews with candidates in another city, Drive to airport Yes No Airport parking Yes No some physician consultations or professional certification training sessions can be economically and easily delivered through a point-to- Tolls at home Yes No point videoconference. Miles driven Yes No Support for web conferencing, which combines the audio and videoconferencing information with PC screen sharing capabilities, is well suited to product engineering and marketing collaborations and Rental car Yes No Miles driven Yes No Tolls in destination city Yes No even employee or customer training sessions. Gasoline used at home Yes None As shown in the table, the avoidance of travel cost – particularly in terms of participant travel time – is a major benefit of Gasoline used in rental car Yes None Parking in destination city Yes No videoconferences over face-to-face meetings. Avoiding the penalties of travel frees up participants to do more of other work that can’t be Jet fuel consumed 16.3 US gallons1 None Expense report required Yes No done while in transit, for example. Incremental network fee No Yes Comparing Meetings With Videoconferences Yet there is more to videoconferencing than the economics. The ‘cabinet meeting’ for department heads or multi-site workgroups can foster not only effective communications including verbal and It is the flexibility of ’s service capabilities that can easily accommodate the ‘all hands’ style videoconference between major non-verbal forms for peers, but the use of videoconferencing encourages the undivided attention of participants. This can help locations, where employees might assemble for the periodic management update meetings. For users not in the major locations such as teleworkers or branch office employees, videostreaming and assure shorter and more functional meetings since the participants are fully engaged in the content and not distracted by the arrival of or audiostreaming service options can securely enable the inclusive goals of these meetings, working to close the socialization gap of remote response to email or instant messaging, for example. employees and increasing the actual communications that occur. Conclusion IP Videoconferencing and ’s global MPLS-based IP network is a strong combination for both the organization very familiar with Combining the performance, agility, control and security advantages of ’s IP network benefits organizations of all sizes in the process of navigating through the videoconferencing ‘perfect storm.’ also enables the smooth evolution of videoconferencing to telepresence videoconferencing and the organization now considering IP videoconferencing as a productivity-boosting alternative to business travel. Both classes of users will experience the benefit of the high and high definition videoconferencing capabilities. The breadth, reach and quality of the IP Videoconferencing service and MPLS-based performance network service. Both will appreciate the business agility that comes from being able to connect with Internet users, IP network are assets that can deliver a smooth service transition regardless of the ongoing enterprise plan for introducing these legacy sites and other IP videoconferencing users collaborating through the seamless network integration. next generation room equipment capabilities. IP Videoconferencing and the MPLS-based network deliver a picture so much clearer and more reliable than with ISDN or the public ’s services complement enterprise deployments by smoothing the transition to IP videoconferencing. can assist customers in Internet. Doing more, faster, never looked so clear before now. managing that transition, minimizing cost and maximizing the user experience. Users get a higher degree of control, online visibility to References network issues and even workflow automation that facilitates higher productivity and greater responsiveness of network resources to 1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_efficiency_in_transportation business demands.
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