Canadian governments and other public sector agencies have identified VoIP as one of the most useful technologies to help them meet the high expectation for citizen service. Improved access to services, real-time metrics-related capabilities and simple network management are among the benefits cited by IDC Canada Ltd.
The Gartner Group predicts that by next year Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP-enabled) systems will account for 97 per cent of all telephony systems sold. VoIP is hot. But all that heat can raise some issues. We resolve to answer some of the more pressing questions you might be facing.
1. Can I trust Microsoft with VoIP?
There is plenty of uncertainty in the corporate VoIP arena, as reflected in a recent rash of consolidations and private-equity buyouts in the market. One thing users can be sure of is Microsoft's intent to become a large player in corporate IP telephony and messaging.
However, some users and industry observers question whether Microsoft server technology has the mettle for handling the real-time load and reliability requirements of corporate telephony traffic and applications. Others say the move will help accelerate the use of converged messaging and productivity applications such as presence, Web conferencing and chat.
Well known by now, the centerpiece to Microsoft's VoIP bid is Office Communications Server 2007, a real-time collaboration server which has elicited much buzz and controversy in the industry, for a product not even available for purchase yet. (The server, which is the successor to Live Communication Server 2005, is in a public beta, and is expected for general release later this year.)
"We believe, over time, [enterprise voice networks] can be totally based on Office Communications Server," said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice-president of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group, in an interview earlier this year at the VoiceCon show, where Microsoft launched the OCS 2007 public beta. "For now, we also want to help customers...who are saying, 'can I trust my voice [network] entirely to Microsoft?'"
As with any commercial VoIP systems, such as Avaya, Cisco, Nortel or Siemens, customers will be buying into proprietary Microsoft protocols and technologies if plans are made to rely heavily on OCS 2007. Microsoft is deviating from the industry standard practice of using ITU codecs for voice traffic compression and transmission (mainly G.711, G.722 and G.729).
"We've made several investments in our own audio and video codecs," says Paul Duffy, a group product manager. Microsoft says part of the value in its own codecs is the ability to compensate for congested or low-bandwidth connections, such as teleworkers' dial-up lines, or broadband links without Quality of Service (QoS). Duffy says the OCS VoIP codecs include technology that can repair poor-quality VoIP transmissions. Microsoft also uses extensions to standard SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), which allows for more flexibility in the types of connections.
OCS will require a separate layer of server infrastructure, called Mediation Servers, to communicate with VoIP endpoints. These servers act as translators between an OCS 2007 server and the endpoints, as well as a gateway between an OCS server and other VoIP or PSTN (public-switched telephone network) hardware.
Users considering a centralized deployment of OCS to support remote sites would have to install a Mediation Server in each location to support standard endpoints and for making PSTN calls.
Continued: Microsoft and the fifth 9
Skip to: What really happens when I dial 911?
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