Joe W., We will have to follow this story unfold........
zdnet.com
Cisco's Corporate Spin On Internet Video
By Fred Dawson, Inter@ctive Week
November 15, 1999 12:00 AM ET
Internet video may not be ready for prime time in the mass market, but Cisco Systems believes it has a way to knock down the remaining barriers to widescale use of Internet Protocol video streaming and videoconferencing in the business world.
Cisco (www.cisco.com) now has two initiatives in the works with various partners to develop some of the missing technology pieces needed to deliver high-quality Internet Protocol-based video over enterprise networks, as well as private IP networks run by application service providers (ASPs).
"Unlike public networks, corporate networks are fully managed with sufficient bandwidth to support delivery of high-quality video to every desktop," notes Heather Rose, group manager for product marketing at Cisco's video Internet services unit. "At the same time, streaming and conferencing technology has matured to the point where companies see they can derive real benefits from use of video."
In coming weeks, Cisco will bring out two products aimed at delivering IP-based streaming video and videoconferencing over enterprise networks. For streaming video, Cisco will release a new version of its IP/TV server software. For videoconferencing, the company is set to come out with a new IP/VC line, based on videoconferencing technology developed by RADVision.
"We are driving business adoption of IP-based video by investing in products and technologies that make it as sharp and reliable as a TV image," says Jack Bradley, general manager at Cisco's video Internet services unit.
For video streaming, Cisco is releasing Version 3.0 of its IP/TV server software, which is built on the Windows Media Technologies platform from Microsoft. Cisco also is introducing a line of broadcast servers under the IP/TV 3400 banner.
The streaming software, which supports the Motion Picture Experts Group 1, 2 and 4 standards and multicasting, makes use of the high bandwidth capacities of private enterprise networks, where video can be delivered at speeds well above 500 kilobits per second, Rose says.
Although streaming based on Windows Media Technologies is built to navigate less robust public networks, IP/TV taps into the latest Internet Engineering Task Force standards such as IP Multicast, Real-Time Streaming Protocol and Real-Time Transport Protocol to add a higher level of quality-of-service management.
"The IP/TV protocols tend to work best with managed routers and switches, whereas the protocols Microsoft uses assume that the routers and switches across the public Internet aren't going to be cooperating with each other in a particular streaming session," Rose explains. "By building on Windows Media we're able to control both the Microsoft server and our server, allowing the user to pull up whichever server and client options are most appropriate for the media being streamed."
The broadcast server hardware allows the corporate network operator or an ASP to create a distributed network for video streaming, thereby avoiding the potential congestion that comes with handling video from a single point in the network, Rose says. "The system automatically locates the server that's the best access point for any given user," she adds.
Cisco demonstrated its IP/TV technology as part of last month's United Nations NetAid event. The company worked with the University of Oregon to multicast the 14-hour event, carried to more than 150 universities around the world via Internet2. Students at the University of Oregon watched broadcast-quality concert images from their dormitory rooms or campus cybercaf‚s using Cisco IP/TV client software.
Call for conferences
Cisco's move into the IP videoconferencing realm stems from customer demand for help at the network system level to ensure reliable performance in IP-based videoconferences, Rose says. "We got into this because customers really want to use this technology if the performance quality they're looking for is there," she says.
Cisco is using technology developed by RADVision to establish a gateway interface between the IP-based H.323 standard from International Telecommunication Union and the ITU's older H.320 standard for non-IP videoconferencing systems. The IP/VC product group also includes gatekeeper and proxy software for managing sessions and quality of service, and a multipoint control unit that allows participants in multiple locations to join a videoconference with full, real-time interactivity as well as data collaboration under the T.120 standard. |
