Gatekeepers - part 4. SUPPORTING THE STANDARDS
> The maturity of international standards and their evolution toward
>service-oriented views continues to be one of the most important factors
>driving growth in the Internet telephony market. Standards-based
>technologies make wide-scale deployment possible, giving customers the
>freedom to choose the best solution from a field of competitors. Without
>open standards, networks are no more than "islands" of communication,
>dependent on a single vendor and inhospitable to new solutions.
>
>The Gatekeeper is defined by the International Telecommunications Union
>(ITU) H.323 standard. H.323 is the leading industry standard for shipping
>products, and VocalTec pushed the H.323 recommendation in its second
>version toward greater scalability, network intelligence, and security,
>known as H.323 Registration, Administration, and Status (RAS) Version 2.
>
> As an H.323-compliant system, VEA supports Simple Network Management
>Protocol (SNMP). By doing so, network administrators can manage and
monitor
>all nodes on their IP network including Internet telephony gateways and
>gatekeepers. VEA is manageable from any SNMP-compliant platform such as HP
>OpenView.
>
> In order to enable carriers and corporations to build multivendor
Internet
>telephony networks whilestandards are still in development, VocalTec has
>been developing interoperability based on H.323 between its Internet
>telephony product suites and those of Lucent, Ascend, and Cisco.
>
> Internet telephony is no longer about cheap phone-to-phone services -
it's
>about the advanced services that can be supported. In order to realize
this
>value, Internet telephony networks must have the intelligence and
>management functions that gatekeepers deliver. Providing standards-based
>end-to-end solutions is critical. Complete solutions that support global
>enhanced services, and interoperate with other leading Internet telephony
>vendors, will enable corporations and carriers to use Internet telephony
to
>communicate and compete more effectively today and in the future.
>
> Lior Haramaty is vice president of technical marketing and a co-founder
of
>VocalTec Communications |
