Article at
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2695803,00.html
Doing Corporate Telephony Peer-To-Peer
By Brian Ploskina, Interactive Week
March 13, 2001
IQ Netsolutions this week plans to roll out service that brings the
properties of peer-to-peer networking to corporate telephony.
Imagine, if you will, a corporate telephone system with no private branch
exchange or central switch. Technologically, it seems as plausible as
Napster did before it rode peer-to-peer networking technology to worldwide
notoriety. But by distributing little boxes, each about the size of an
audiocassette, and connecting them to the local area network (LAN), iQ
NetSolutions says enterprises can get the benefits of Internet Protocol
(IP) telephony without purchasing a big PBX or figuring out how to operate
it.
"There really isn't anything that is as distributed as the iQ NetSolutions
system," says TeleChoice analyst Tom Jenkins. "We have the IP Centrex
model and IP PBXs, and there will be IP phones that are
application-enabled, but this is a very unique and new architecture in the
industry."
To make it work, users plug their analog telephones into the iQ MediaPhone
using a standard interface and into their PCs using an Ethernet interface.
Then they can choose, update and modify the voice services they use over
the phone. The devices automatically discover each other across the
network, and then automatically configure.
The information technology manager can be set up as the administrator and,
using a graphical interface screen on a Web site, can choose extension
numbers and directory services. Then, each client on the network uses the
Web to configure his or her individual profile and voice services.
Phone calls can go from the LAN to the outside world via high-speed
Internet connection or the standard public switched telephone network.
Using virtual private networking technologies, corporations can connect
users from numerous branch offices into one wide area network telephony
community. The system can scale from two to 256 users and costs $27,000
for 60 stations.
In terms of bandwidth allocation, the iQ MediaPhone only uses that portion
of the bandwidth not otherwise engaged in, say, the transmission of data.
Communications providers can operate and manage the system remotely
without ever even having to visit the customer's premises.
Leading next-gen, or IP PBX vendors, which this new product looks to
compete with, include telecom giants such as 3Com, Cisco Systems and
Siemens, as well as many smaller companies focusing squarely on this
space.
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Ana Preston Office of Research and Information Technology
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
v. 865.974.9600
f. 865.974.8655
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