“The data switch industry created the paradigm of layering real-time voice onto a distributed data LAN built for near-time delivery, underestimating the complexities and challenges for both partners and customers.”  So say officials of Phybridge (News - Alert), which sells IP telephony products and services, charging that the existing data switch industry players have “no interest” in changing this state of affairs, since as they put it, “in many cases they have a significant advantage when selling their IP telephony offering given the dependency on LAN changes required.”

So is there another option available? Phybridge officials say if you look at the issue from the customer’s perspective, “not from our technology out,” you see that technology needs to ultimately serve the customer, and those who serve the customer.Sounds like common sense, but as company officials point out, it doesn’t always work that way.“The customer, prior to moving to IP telephony and unified communications, has two cables at every desk,” company officials say, a data cable (CAT 3 or CAT 5) and a voice cable (twisted pair, CAT 3): “The actual physical wiring in each is typically the same -- 24 gauge wire with the only difference being the number of twists per inch (more twists = handle higher bandwidths).

Given this, company officials say, there are two approaches possible: “voice with data,” having VoIP use a voice infrastructure, or “voice on data,” using a data infrastructure for VoIP.With voice on data, you’re using a system designed for near-time delivery of data. There’s a distributed topology and closets, many devices sharing the bandwidth and packets disassemble and reassemble, meaning you’ll most likely have some performance, voice quality issues, “jitter” and sometimes garbled transmissions.Voice with data, on the other hand, is designed specifically for real-time voice requirements. As Phybridge officials say it’s designed to use point-to-point topology, which means a dedicated path from the central closet to the end point with no other device sharing the bandwidth. Under such a system voice packets travel in order, on time, without loss or contention -- in other words, pretty much like a real voice would travel from a mouth to your ear.Phybridge officials describe such as setup as IP-enabling point-to-point topology supporting the existing digital phones, which the company accomplishes with their UniPhyer offering. It results, they say, is a deployment of IP phones with “guaranteed quality of service, no disruption... compromise because you centrally converge with the data LAN.”

Most recently, the company announced their UniPhyer achieved certification with Siemens (News - Alert) Enterprise Communications' comprehensive OpenScape portfolio. Siemens UC solution users can now complete a simple, cost-effective and non-disruptive transition to IP without having to confront the challenges associated with network readiness.