September 1998

BY BRIAN HINMAN

While the Internet protocol (IP) was not conceived as a vehicle for carrying real-time communications such as voice and video, it certainly has been a focus for much industry discussion and development over the past two years. The interest in using IP for real-time traffic is two-fold: It can potentially save money and consolidate all communications over a single "super highway." For the teleconferencing industry, the transition to ubiquitous H.323 IP multimedia communications has been slower than originally anticipated when the standard was ratified in May 1996.

While the benefits of IP conferencing are understood by most major corporations and institutions, fears of network congestion or network failure have delayed many IT professionals from deploying this technology. For some, the fears are well-founded, as legacy 10 Mbps networks and first-generation routers continue to serve the primary data needs within many organizations. Given the gradual rate of network improvements and lingering concerns over network congestion, it is realistic to view the next few years as the "hybrid network" era. In this transition era, conferencing applications will use both circuit-switched and IP networking during a period of increasing comfort and increasing improvement toward a new world order of pure IP communications. We can look at the transition to pure IP in three phases.

PHASE I: TODAY’S NETWORKS
We are in the first stage of using IP for conferencing applications. Without question, two parts of the conferencing experience can be handled better over IP today than over circuit-switched networks: Data conferencing and system administration. Unlike voice and video traffic, data conferencing is not particularly sensitive to network latency. Delays on the order of hundreds of milliseconds go unnoticed in most cases of data conferencing, while such delays can seriously impair the interactivity of voice and video communications. Furthermore, while periodic packet loss causes annoying transmission interruptions for voice and video, such losses may not affect the quality of a data conference.

Advantages of IP networks versus circuit-switched networks for data conferencing are numerous. IP provides a way to join calls through the browser model, which simplifies addressing and creates familiarity for most users. IP also allows the end-points to establish virtual connections to multiple end-points, creating multipoint conferences, for small numbers of users, without a separate network MCU (Multipoint Control Unit).

IP connectivity holds advantages for system administration, too. From problem reporting and problem diagnosis, to address book upgrades and software upgrades, IP is the preferred way for

IT professionals to access equipment that they must manage. In the past, most teleconferencing systems were "islands" of specialized equipment that could not be managed as part of a larger network of information technology. Those days are gone. Teleconferencing has become part of the mainstream information infrastructure.

PHASE II: ENGINEERED NETWORKS
As H.323 success stories become publicized and 100 Mbps switched Ethernet becomes the norm, we will begin to see some major corporations and institutions using packet video conferencing on an intranet basis. The term "engineered network," referring to the careful selection of intranet components to guarantee a specific application, in this case deals with real-time H.323 traffic. Within the intranet, users will theoretically experience minimal delay (on the order of 150 milliseconds or less) and virtually no packet loss, even when other non-real-time applications may be requesting network bandwidth. Moving beyond the intranet, the public Internet will not offer the quality of service necessary for H.323 in the intermediate term. Consequently, gateways will be installed at the boundary of each H.323 IP island, providing connectivity to the WAN through circuit-switched networks and the H.320 protocol.

The Effect Of ADSL
One of the most interesting developments within the communications industry this year is the growing likelihood of widespread ADSL deployment. The emergence of "splitterless" technology that eliminates the need for technician installation, the introduction of low-cost ADSL modem chip sets, and the major deployment announcements by most RBOCs and several CLECs all point to low-cost, high-speed network access for homes and businesses within the next eighteen months. One of the most compelling H.323 islands may turn out to be within the carriers that deploy ADSL. With bi-directional communications at rates of 384 Kbps or higher, excellent quality video conferencing can occur within a carrier’s regions at little or no usage cost per minute. Several of the carriers envision such applications and are employing router technology that will provide quality of service. They are also exploring the availability of gateways for connectivity outside their regions of service. While the notion of network consolidation is certainly the long-term objective behind a transition to IP conferencing, better video quality and lower cost may be near-term catalysts for H.323 deployment over ADSL.

PHASE III: PUBLIC INTERNET
In the final phase of the hybrid network era, we will see the problems of the public Internet resolved, allowing real-time traffic to flow smoothly and quickly from point A to point B. How the Internet quality of service problem is resolved is open to debate. One view is that we need to build a whole new information super highway called "Internet2," and ditch the existing Internet, as we abandoned dirt roads for quicker, more reliable paved thoroughfares. Another view is that we will continue to enhance the backbone of the existing Internet, and ISPs will begin charging customers based on the type of service they require. For example, when we send a book via a ground-based mail service, we are charged a small fraction of what it costs to send an important single-page document by overnight mail. Similarly, we may find that charging more for real-time H.323 traffic relative to bulk file transfers, for example, could address the issue of how to fairly segregate the network traffic. This type of service differentiation creates a methodology for service providers to make money in the long term. Once the public Internet allows for low-latency delivery of data, and there is confidence that the packets will not be frequently dropped, we will see the gradual decline of the circuit-switched network for real-time conferencing. This will mark the end of the "hybrid network" era and the beginning of the "pure IP" era.

CONCLUSIONS
For those considering the purchase of end-point video conferencing equipment, the hybrid network era has particular relevance. Current systems, particularly those used for group applications, utilize circuit-switched network connections, especially ISDN. The circuit-switched connection guarantees compatibility with an installed base of thousands of video conferencing systems. However, the IP connection today can provide immediate value for Web-based system management and Web-based data conferencing.

Longer term, the IP connection will serve as a means of delivering H.323 video over the corporate intranet, and ultimately, over the public Internet. Purchasing a system that supports both a circuit-switched and a LAN IP connection makes sense from the perspective of investment protection. With the world moving toward IP communications, end points should provide a painless bridge between the past and a very exciting future.

Brian L. Hinman is chairman and CEO of Polycom, Inc. Polycom develops, manufactures, and markets a full range of high-quality group audio, data, and video conferencing products. Polycom’s award-winning teleconferencing products provide customers with high performance and ease of use at an affordable price. For more information, contact the company at 800-POLYCOM or 408-526-9000, or visit their Web site at www.polycom.com.

The rapid growth of voice conferencing and the deployment of Microsoft NetMeeting have created the need for companies to formulate a more comprehensive strategy around conferencing. The core of this strategy should focus on data-enabled voice conferencing as a workhorse collaborative application at every employee’s desktop.

With the increasingly rapid rate of change in business and the flattening of organizations, the knowledge and experience needed to make decisions is more distributed than ever before. The challenge for today’s business and IT managers is to improve the sharing of knowledge and experience across locations.

A CORE ENTERPRISE APP
A practice called "knowledge management" has emerged to address the challenges of the distributed enterprise. Improving knowledge management centers around three activities: Gathering and storing data, accessing and analyzing data, and discussing and sharing data. Yet, most practitioners of knowledge management ignore that third key component — collaboration.

Organizations have deployed a number of multi-user database applications allowing different departments to gather the data. Groupware platforms also provide a foundation for gathering data from multiple locations. Significant investment is made in data warehousing, data mining, and other business intelligence tools to access data. Plus, Web browsers and corporate intranets enable knowledge workers to increasingly access more information.

Many knowledge management practices stop at just the gathering and accessing of information — they don’t collaborate on the data in order to reach decisions. While some simple decisions are easily made via exchange of voice mail or e-mail messages, most complex business decisions are made by people in collaboration with one another. And when people are physically dispersed, there are only two technologies that can help them conduct those meetings: Transportation and conferencing.

READINESS FOR DATA CONFERENCING
While knowledge management emerges at the top levels of many organizations today, the practice of conferencing has gone largely unnoticed. In most cases, companies do not provide conferencing as a centrally managed tool for every knowledge worker. Instead, conferencing has been deployed and financed at a user or departmental level. Three factors have contributed to the need for companies to re-evaluate their conferencing strategies: an increase in conferencing expenditures, the increasing mobility of knowledge workers, and the ability to "data-enable" voice conferences with applications such as Microsoft NetMeeting.

Several technology-driven factors have come together to support data conferencing as a mainstream application. The adoption of the ITU T.120 data conferencing standard by leading vendors has been key to data conferencing acceptance. The Internet and corporate intranets continue to be a popular and effective means of transport for data conferencing. Microsoft NetMeeting has provided the first ubiquitous software end point for data conferencing by bundling Microsoft NetMeeting, Internet Explorer 3.0/4.0, and Windows 95 OEM Release 2 and Windows 98. Integrated voice and data conference servers are also application enablers. The availability of user interfaces that simplify scheduling and eliminate the need to know an individual’s IP address dramatically improves the user experience and speed user adoption. Standards, transports, and ubiquitous end points have come together to create the ideal environment for combined voice and data conferencing.

STRATEGY FOR THE FUTURE
The practice of knowledge management and the growing sophistication of collaboration tools have created a richer exchange of information. The need to scale up both the volume and richness of conferences forces companies to consider several factors when developing a conferencing strategy for the future. First, companies continue to spend increasing dollars with service bureaus for everyday conferences, rather than building equity in their own equipment and applications. Second, video conferencing is not always appropriate for mobile workers, and that segment of the workforce continues to grow. Third, data conferencing has come of age — the old excuses about inadequate technology no longer apply.

In the proposed strategy, companies should treat voice and data conferencing as their workhorse conferencing platform. Data conferencing will become a requirement for voice conference calls the same way attachments have become a requirement of e-mail systems.

Stephen Pao is a product manager at Latitude Communications, and has more than seven years’ experience in the front-end client/server industry. Latitude develops enterprise conferencing solutions that enable organizations to conduct more productive meetings among people in different locations. The company’s flagship product, MeetingPlace, is one of the industry’s first conference servers — a customer premises system that allows users to schedule, attend, and manage voice and data conferences from touchtone telephones, PCs, and the Internet. For more information, contact the company at 800-999-7440, via e-mail at [email protected], or visit their Web site at www.latitude.com.