IP-based communications technology can integrate a variety of applications. It can meet data, voice and video communication requirements at far less capital costs and operational expenses than traditional solutions, giving a very attractive RoI.

The data traffic on communication networks is currently estimated to be almost same as the voice traffic but by the year 2010 the data traffic is expected to be much greater than voice traffic. People are using telephone lines more and more for data transfer rather than pure voice calls.

In today's competitive marketplace, businesses need to use their network infrastructure very efficiently. It's time to get ready for a unified experience with converged IP solutions that increase profitability, improve productivity and bring competitive advantages to Indian businesses by deploying data, voice and video applications on a single platform.

IP telephony v/s PSTN
In India, it is still a case of IP telephony v/s Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) due to the current regulations. Though, in reality IP telephony and PSTN can go hand in hand. This is bound to happen soon enough as the policies open up and regulations ease out. The growing number of WANs and broadband networks used by the SMBs and SMEs in India are already leveraging the widely available PSTN infrastructure.
The primary technical difference between the IP telephony and PSTN is their switching architectures. IP uses non-geographic addressing while the PSTN uses static switching based on geographic telephone numbering. Also, it dedicates a fixed amount of bandwidth for each conversation unnecessarily blocking a lot of available bandwidth. When the Indian government opens up the policy, it will enable SMEs to not only think big but act big as well.

Users should be least bothered with the underlying technology but it is an important point from investment protection perspective. The industry has reached an understanding, after a long debate, that Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), an IETF standard is the best suited one to replace today's PSTN telephony infrastructure.

Carriers and ISPs are investing heavily in the next generation infrastructure based on SIP. The IETF's philosophy is one of simplicity, allowing SIP to be scaleable, extensible and fitting comfortably in different architectures and deployment scenarios. SIP is fast becoming the catalytic force shaping the future of the telecom industry, ensuring investment protection and avoiding technology obsolescence.

Most vendors earlier preferred to go for H.323-based technology, but with the growing acceptance of SIP as the standard of choice, SMBs and SMEs going in for the IP solutions must look at open standards like SIP to get long term investment protection for their newly acquired infrastructure.

Many SMBs and SMEs are either replacing their outdated PBX systems entirely with an IP telephony system, or are choosing to upgrade at a
slower pace by strategically implementing PSTN gateways, soft phones, and analog telephone adapters (ATA) as they grow, or need to replace failed equipment. Acquisition, support and maintenance costs of a converged IP solution are much less than that of a traditional set up.

Mobile and always connected
Converged IP solutions provide multiple options for calling, messaging and forwarding, giving users the freedom of mobility without missing a single business call or opportunity. VoIP technology enables voice calls to be made over data networks such as LAN, wireless LAN, wide area network or the Internet. This means sending and receiving digitized voice rather than in the traditional methods deployed on the PSTN based voice circuits.
The VoIP technology compresses voice data and transmits over an IP network, using substantially less bandwidth for each call than in a traditional telephone network and consequently much less cost per call as more than one calls can be initiated within the same bandwidth. This is a critical component as businesses move towards a service economy.

Wireless LAN technology is now being used pervasively for data networking, but with the availability of Wi-Fi phones, it also allows you to use your telephones with convenience and security, with seamless roaming. Seamless roaming is very important for users of Wi-Fi phones, since they want to treat their Wi-Fi phones like cordless/ cellular phones, where they can move around the premises while making a call without concern for the technology that enables the service.

The use of Wi-Fi phones can dramatically reduce cellular phone expenses by providing employees with a phone that acts, looks, and feels like a cell phone, but has the cost structure of an intercom in the office.

Wi-Fi phones can be used throughout the office, as well as outside the office, where wireless LAN is accessible. Currently, many employees use their cell phones extensively even within the office or factory premises so that they are always mobile but reachable, even though this means they are billed for every minute of talk-time they use. With the Wi-Fi phones, all calls within the IP network of the company are free.

Simultaneous delivery to multiple devices
One of the important benefits of converged solutions using IP telephony is that both voice and data can be delivered in real-time to many wired and wireless devices. IP telephony treats voice as digitized data, so users can attach documents to voice messages or participate in virtual meetings using shared data and video conferencing; allowing the businesses to run more efficiently and productively.

IP telephony enables new methods of communication that are not possible with standard PSTN services, empowering the user with a new business continuity tool. For example, the office phone can be a 'hard' phone and the home phone can be a 'soft' phone which has the same extension, allowing the user to log-on to the voice-network just as he logs-on to the data network either from office or from home! If users are not able to reach office due to bad weather or a disaster, the business can still go on. The customers from other cities can reach you as you are logged on to your office voice-network from home.

Web-based services
There are many ways IP telephony can increase productivity. Integration with e-mail tools enables employees to dial from their mail client, to send and retrieve text e-mail, voice mail, and faxes-all from the same application. Incoming calls can automatically pop-up the caller's information that is in e-mail or any other business application, bringing information at the employees fingertips enabling them to make faster decisions and avoid errors. Thus empowering the customer-facing employees to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction.

The new 'Find Me - Follow Me' service feature can enable an employee to have an IP phone call be forwarded to the phone at hand anywhere, to the office phone, cell phone or home phone. An employee will never miss a call, wherever she may be. Thus increasing the employee productivity.

Lastly, looking at the promise of the converged IP solutions with data, voice and video – one cannot but be tempted to conclude that an explosive growth in demand for converged IP services is just round the corner and end-to-end seamless data, voice and video solutions are the way of the future to realize the tremendous business benefits of convergence.

By: KVSSS Gunneswara Rao
The author is the Director-VoIP, D-Link India

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