October 1998

Looking For Aladdin's Lamp

CTI is the ultimate enabler, a genie of sorts that grants enhanced functionality to communications. Wireless telephony, paging systems, database screen pops, unified messaging, and caller ID are just a few of CTI's workhorse technologies that are a reality - they're improving our work and personal lives today. Yet, a solid grounding in reality is always the best jumping off point for fantasy - and seeing the CTI technologies available now only makes me wish for more. Some of the products I'd wish for are already in the works in many telecom laboratories, but others are years or decades away from realization (giving me plenty of time to look for that magical lamp). We've seen some strange things in TMC Labs, so I'm prepared with my three wishes, just in case we stumble across Aladdin's lamp.

WISH 1: SHARED WIRELESS PHONES

Spectralink introduced the concept of wireless in-building systems just a few years back. The systems feature wireless phones that act similarly to cordless phones, but connect to the corporate PBX for advanced functionality. For all the great things that wireless in-building systems have done, I still wish my concept of "shared" wireless phones would take off. The basic premise is this: Employees would sign out a shared wireless phone when they are going to be away from their desks, and then return it to its recharging station until the next employee needs it. Having employees share the wireless handsets would cut costs, but would also require some sort of logon or password process on the handset so that the appropriate inbound calls to a particular extension are directed to the correct handset. I'm not aware of such a product, so consider this my first wish.

We need shared wireless handsets. Most of us (fortunately) are not chained to our desks; we are continually roaming about the office - from the conference room, to co-workers' stations, file cabinets, fax machines, and printers - away from our desks a good portion of the day. A wireless phone would solve this problem of inaccessibility. However, many corporations are unwilling to provide a wireless phone to every corporate user's desk. For one, it's cost-prohibitive, since wireless phones are much more expensive than their traditional "wired" phoneset counterparts. Second, the office PBX or switch usually requires some sort of server adjunct to receive the wireless transmissions, and communicate the wireless signals with the PBX. This adds more costs. Though some solutions are using compression to increase the number of available ports, scalability is still a limitation of wireless telephony solutions.

Today's Wireless Apps

Some interesting wireless telephony applications exist today that make me think my wish of shared wireless phones isn't too far off. Currently, wireless in-building systems have been divided into three camps: unlicensed frequencies (900 MHz or 1.9 GHz), licensed frequencies (the cellular bands), and a third which uses a combination of unlicensed and licensed frequencies. This third option includes supporters such as Lucent, Nortel, and Tadiran who have announced dual-mode personal phones that would operate at the 1.9 GHz (PCS unlicensed) frequency when in-building, and then over cellular (or licensed PCS) frequencies when outside the company's wireless network range. Thus, a corporate user could eliminate the need for dual handsets - having one wired and one wireless phone.

One benefit of the licensed system is that corporate users could use their own personal cellular phone, and register with the corporate's wireless network, thus saving the company money (they don't have to buy the actual phones). The licensed type or wireless systems, represented predominately by Astronet, Panasonic, and Nortel, are a minority, since customers are hesitant to pay the licensing and service fees. Plus, carriers are reluctant to push these systems.

The second solution utilizes unlicensed frequency phones, which operate at 900 MHz or 1.9 GHz and do not incur licensing fees. These solutions work very well, however, often require two handsets - one wireless handset and one regular "wired" handset. These are the most common solutions, but they are not very "integrated" with the PBX. Each user of a wireless handset will often be assigned two extensions on the switch and then require setting the COS (Class of Service) on the switch to either forward calls from one extension to the other, or set the other extension to ring simultaneously on an incoming call. On the PBX side, each phone device is considered separate, which requires setting the COS on each device. From a user perspective and a MIS perspective, this is a pain to manage, since it's not one "unified" class of service, thus, the user's custom settings often need to be done twice.

This brings up my next point. Traditionally, these wireless handsets do not have the complete functionality of their desktop phoneset counterparts, such as caller ID display or advanced calling features. Though I should mention that the wireless phone manufacturers are starting addressing this issue.

The real advantage of wireless handsets isn't just the freedom from your desktop phone. Manufacturers have found wireless handsets with data capabilities (one or two-way messaging) to be invaluable. For instance, an interesting application might allow you to punch in a product's SKU into a wireless set to determine the inventory or price of a particular item. Another application might collect caller ID information, and then have the wireless set tie into GoldMine or another contact manager to display the caller's information on the wireless phone's LCD display. Some of these types of applications exist today, but there's no widespread usage.

WISH 2: INTERNET TELEPHONY WITH CTI CALL CONTROL

All of us are aware of VoIP (voice over IP or IP telephony) and its cost savings. While Internet telephony certainly covers IP telephony, it also covers voice over frame relay and voice over ATM. But Internet telephony also covers a particular niche which many not be aware of: Performing call control using computer telephony integration (CTI) over the Internet, in addition to transmitting the voice using VoIP.

Imagine you are an auctioneer on a quest for Aladdin's lamp. While traveling, you want to access your corporate to make calls, and receive in inbound calls dialed to your personal extension. In addition, you want the ability to browse the Internet and access your corporate e-mail and Internet e-mail. One method of achieving this level of access is combining four technologies:

• VPN: Use a Virtual Private Network for a secure connection to the corporate network, to access corporate e-mail and files.
• Internet: A low-cost analog dial-up connection from a hotel would be a good for the company's budget, as opposed to a long-distance RAS connection.
• VoIP: Transmit your voice over the Internet using IP packets.
• CTI application: Use TAPI, JTAPI, proprietary PC-based phone software, or even a browser application to control your calls.

Lucent As Genie?

All of these technologies are in use today separately, but until recently, I hadn't seen a single vendor or VAR who bundled or integrated all four of these technologies into a single product solution. Lucent Technologies changed that recently with the release of their Virtual Telephone product, which allows for users to make real-time voice and fax calls over the Internet as well as access the corporate LAN to receive e-mail and voice mail using one Internet connection.

Initially, Virtual Telephone will support Lucent's Internet Telephony Server-E (ITS-E), an H.323-compatible standards-based gateway. Users load Virtual Telephone on a turnkey ITS-E server or a standalone Microsoft Windows NT server. Both configurations are compatible with Lucent DEFINITY Enterprise Communications Server, Merlin LEGEND, Nortel Meridian PBXs or other popular PBXs, plus Lucent's Octel Messaging Division Unified Messenger and Intuity AUDIX voice messaging systems.

I'm a bit disappointed that just one vendor is providing this type of solution, since every corporate user who travels should have this capability. Having many vendors providing this type of Internet telephony solution, which falls under the CTI umbrella, is my second wish. The biggest obstacle to this wish coming true is converting the voice channels to and from the PBX over the Internet connection, and multiplexing the compressed voice with the rest of the data, while giving voice priority over data.

Even thought the Internet is flaky when it comes to voice, it's worth using as a network if I can receive my calls while on the road. Whoever makes this "remote voice/remote data" solution will have a real killer app on their hands. Perhaps a better name for this type of product would be a "virtual office" solution. Whatever you call it, I cannot wait for the day when I can attend a trade show such CTI™ EXPO, logon to the Internet, and "tunnel" into our corporate LAN. Then, I can use a TAPI application to control the office's PBX, and make and receive calls as well as retrieve e-mail and voice mail.

WISH 3: UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATORS

We all know of the productivity benefits of unifying voice mail, fax, and e-mail into one inbox. Wouldn't it be nice if your cellular phone number, pager, e-mail, voice mail, one-number follow me, fax, and Internet capabilities were all possible in a single device? This "universal communicator" is my final wish, and the one for which I most need that genie.

Such a device would certainly need something better than today's LCD displays if a fax image is to be displayed with clarity. Utilizing plasma displays, higher resolutions on small devices is now possible. In the near future, we can expect cellular phones with plasma displays, which will allow you to zoom in on faxes in high detail, as well as browse the Internet, or hold a video conference. Of course, having to hold the phone away from your ear to view the video display could pose a problem - the video conferencing feature would require a separate earpiece or an amplified speaker, as well as a good echo-cancellation microphone.

You could take this universal communicator wherever you go, even to the office. The handset will automatically "roam" and logon to the company's wireless network, allowing you to take inbound business calls and make outgoing business calls billed on the corporate PBX. Roam outside the corporate network, and the phone will automatically switch to the cellular network, which charges calls to your personal phone bill.

Choosing a security standard could pose some problems. Should this system require DES, Triple-DES, or some other encryption and authentication variant? Moreover, will the government allow us to use this technology for our phone conversations, or will they force us to use the not-so-secure 40-bit encryption scheme? If we use 128-bit encryption, will we be allowed to take our universal communicators wherever we go? I'd hate to have the government think I was "exporting" greater than 40-bit encryption every time I traveled outside the U.S. with my universal communicator.

If we look ahead to the point when our government realizes the shortsightedness of its export security-grade policy, I can this universal communicator as your personal information or contact manager, capable of storing notes, documents, appointments, and other information. Forget about the impending Palm Pilot versus Windows CE battle - the universal communicator will have a superior feature set that would kill the Palm Pilot or WinCE. (Hypothetically speaking, of course - I do believe the Palm Pilot and WinCE devices have at least five years of healthy market growth ahead of them.)

Then again, 3Com is trying to enter the telecom market, and Microsoft is breaking into telephony with TAPI, so perhaps these universal communicators won't be made by Ericsson, AT&T, or Nortel, but rather by 3Com or Microsoft. The battle lines between the computer guys (Microsoft, 3Com) and the telephone guys (Ericsson, AT&T, Nortel) over the universal communicator have been drawn, and the winner will wind up the granter of my wishes, at least.

Of course, all of these technology applications are just wishes - unless I find Aladdin's lamp kicking around the lab, they may very well not come true. If I do find that lamp, though (you never know what you'll find under a year's worth of Diet Coke cans), what technology solution would you wish for? And don't forget the rules: No wishing for an unlimited supply of wishes.

Tom Keating is the Executive Technology Editor for TMC Labs. He welcomes your comments and suggestions. You can e-mail him at Tom Keating .