Vendor roll-outs aim to improve voice, multimedia delivery [FORE Voice over ATM]
By David Rohde
Network World, 5/4/98
Las Vegas - Several vendors at NetWorld +
Interop 98 will announce products that should
boost scalability, reduce latency and add
real-time features for voice and multimedia
application users.
For example, Sphere Communications Inc. - a
voice-networking partner of ATM vendor Fore
Systems Inc. - will demonstrate a Version 2.0
beta of its PBX replacement product called
Sphericall.
Sphericall 2.0 uses wide-area ATM switched
virtual circuits to let Sphericall telephony servers communicate with each other over an ATM
WAN, reducing long-distance tolls. Sphericall
1.0 provides telephony call control features on a
Windows NT server linked to a local ATM
switch.
Sphericall supports a variety of network interface
cards and gateways between the public switched
telephony network (PSTN) and IP networks to
bring phone calls back to the end user's analog
phone or a multimedia PC.
Because the new version works over an ATM
WAN, the product will potentially be able to
support more than 1,000 users, as opposed to
the typical small-office configuration of around 24
users.
With Sphericall, the company is also heavily
promoting the advantages of voice over ATM vs.
voice over IP. For example, ATM conversion
takes 10 milliseconds - or 1/100 of a second -
and due to the speed of the line, propagation
delay could add another 40 milliseconds on a call
from New York to London, said Kurt Jacobs, a
product manager at Sphere. Most voice-over-IP
products add several hundred milliseconds of
delay.
Fore, a key distributor of Sphericall, earlier this
year raised its equity stake in Sphere to 8.5
percent. Version 2.0 is expected to ship in July.
While Sphere looks for a foothold in enterprise
networks, long-time No. 3 PBX vendor Siemens
Business Communication Systems Inc. will unveil
a system that will let users of multimedia
collaboration software, such as Microsoft
NetMeeting, enhance their sessions.
The new HiNet RC 3000 system consists of
several hardware and software components. The
heart of the system is a rack-mountable gateway
device the size of a pizza box. The gateway
converts traffic from the PSTN to IP and vice
versa.
Users must also install signaling software from
Siemens on a Windows NT server. The server
software provides the real-time features to
multimedia IP sessions. Each client PC also gets
a specialized screen interface and requires at
least a sound board, plus potentially a camera for
video applications.
Siemens officials concede user demand for
real-time telephony features for multimedia
collaboration is minimal. But they note the
call-transfer feature is needed to turn the HiNet
RC 3000 into a virtual automatic call distributor
(ACD) for certain types of call centers, such as
technical help desks. As a result, company
officials claim the system could be an economical
alternative to proprietary ACDs, which can cost
thousands of dollars per agent.
The HiNet RC 3000 is scheduled for general
availability in the fourth quarter. The system is
expected to be sold by both Siemens and its
internetworking partner, 3Com Corp. Since
HiNet is designed to work best over switched
Ethernets, Siemens officials are hoping 3Com
sells the HiNet alongside 3Com's SuperStack II
and CoreBuilder switching products.
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