INTERNET TELEPHONY — August 2011

Adapt or Die: 8x8 is Living Proof that Change is Good

Compression Labs was among the graphics chip company's first customers, and it provided the algorithm used by AT&T for its Picturephone. So Integrated Information Technology, with its four-person staff and in business less than a year, already had AT&T using its technology, notes Martin....

Feature Articles

IPv6: A Necessity in a Global Economy
Although it's been talked about for nearly a decade, the buzz about IPv6 is heating up, especially after the success of World IPv6 Day on June 8. Everyone who's paying attention knows that IPv4 addresses will soon be exhausted, so the adoption of IPv6 is inevitable.

Transcoding Cuts through Codec Complexity
There are now hundreds of codecs to meet the needs of new service models delivered by all network types, including wireless, wireline, enterprise and satellite. For instance, in certain pockets of the evolving network where end-to-end IP broadband connectivity is available, the industry is seeing increased adoption of high-definition audio codecs, which deliver a high fidelity audio experience. At the same time, a huge installed base of subscribers continue to use the PSTN or 2G mobile services, where legacy narrowband codecs designed for 64kbps circuit-switched networks are the norm. Without a transcoding function somewhere in the call path, these endpoints would not be able to connect.

Departments

Getting Vertical
(Focus: Hospitality)

Hotels Turn to Fixed Wireless Connections for HSIA, Business Continuity
Unless you've been distracted playing Angry Birds, it should come as no surprise that wireless technology is the new communications cornerstone of our highly mobile society. It has also grown to be the bane of IT's existence. Nowhere is that fact more pronounced than in the hospitality industry where guests' bandwidth-hungry devices can cripple network capacity quicker than you can say trouble ticket.

The Channel
On RAD's Radar

The Next Frontier
The MSOs are interconnecting their networks. This will allow for out-of-region multi-location deals. Cablecos are like baby bells in that they don't compete in a franchise region, so there isn't any overlapping network. The NNI allows for a larger footprint.

Open Source

Varnish Extends Web Acceleration Solution
Varnish Software's latest web accelerator, Varnish Cache 3.0, has module support, which allows business and application logic - which can determine such things as what content to serve to what user, for example - to reside in the caching layer of the network.