Structured cabling: Can new IP gateway services finally drive fiber-to-the-desk?
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12/20/2000 Voice communications over the Internet. It's a concept the data communication industry and business managers have been anticipating for years—the former because of the potentially wide market for the technology, the later because of the cost savings in communication expenses it could ultimately offer companies and organizations that use VoIP.
by Nathan Mallett
Contents:
VoIP services still rare
Less optimistic forecasts
Fiber-based IP gateway system
Enterprise networks are ready for IP gateway traffic, so where are the services?
The emergence of fiber-to-the-desktop (FTTD) more than two years ago promised future-minded designers of structured cabling systems unprecedented bandwidth potential (better than a gigabit, some said). It was hoped that FTTD, and high-performance copper for that matter, could handily shoulder the burden of the anticipated converged Internet and communications solutions, things like DVD quality video and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).
These technologies, after all, were supposedly just around the corner, and new wiring solutions were the IT manager's best bet for equipping the desktop users for the world of video, VoIP, et al. But despite the capability of the new wired workplace and all of the excitement surrounding VoIP, and even other converged Internet technologies, there are few carriers in the IP gateway market who can offer reliable and affordable converged Internet/communications solutions now or in the near future.
Not until IP gateways begin offering these types of services will cutting edge structured cabling systems be able to truly live up to the demands they were designed for. VoIP a potentially cheaper alternative to conventional telephone service, is currently largely limited to corporate intranets or virtual private networks (VPNs) at this point. That's because of the larger Internet's current reliability issues and the fact that few service providers have the IP gateway technology enabling true VoIP or video-on-demand deployed yet, much less offering converged communications solutions.
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VoIP services still rare
However, despite the excitement surrounding VoIP, and even other converged Internet technologies, like video-on-demand, there are few carriers in the IP gateway market who can offer reliable and affordable converged Internet/communications solutions in the near future. Still, the consensus among experts says VoIP is coming—likely within the next five years.
According to Cahners In-Stat, a Scottsdale AZ-based high-tech market research firm, Internet service providers (ISPs) are on the cusp of an evolution that may very well transform them into Internet telephony service providers (ITSP).
"Voice over Internet protocol is driving the convergence of voice and data networks and promises to deliver significant cost-savings to service providers," says a recent report by Cahners In-Stat. "Equipment vendors and service providers will benefit most from VoIP. Fueled by improvements in quality, interoperability and applications, VoIP gateway sales will increase 280 percent during the next 5 years, reaching $3.8 billion in 2003."
According to Brian Strachman, industry analyst for In-Stat Group, enterprises will be eager to adopt the technology once it becomes available. "LAN Telephony is the ultimate convergence of voice and data and it will become the network of the future, integrating all data applications with the telephone," said Strachman. "This will be a whole new way to get phone calls in the office and it will all be done using the same system with which the data network functions. This will allow for lower overall costs and amazing new applications that integrate data applications with the telephone."
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Less optimistic forecasts
Some analysts however offer less optimistic forecasts. According to Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research, a Parsippany, NJ's industry think-tank, the North American packet telephony industry, which includes IP telephony, will likely reach $33.9 billion in 2004. Yet despite this, it will still only represent a mere tenth of North America's total voice market.
"Over the next few years, digital packet-switched technology will displace circuit-switched technology because of the lower cost of transporting and managing packetized traffic," says a recent Insight report. "However, incumbent carriers cannot totally abandon the billions of dollars already invested in circuit-switched technology."
Real movement towards new IP gateway services, like VoIP and video-on-demand, still eludes the market however, and this is expected to continue until more vendors and equipment manufacturers offer the products enabling service providers to deliver the goods. Despite the slow progress towards VoIP or video-on-demand, vendors are already anticipating the market however and are even now beginning to trot out product lines for ISPs eager to exploit the opportunity and the demands of converged data solutions.
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Fiber-based IP gateway system
For example, 3M recently announced a new fiber-based IP gateway system. The new variant of 3M's two-year old Volition fiber-to-the-desktop system is designed for IP service providers looking to move into video-on-demand, high-speed Internet service and telephony. With the potential to deliver 100 Mbps, this new IP gateway technology, and other systems like it, are expected to help ISPs deliver high-speed Internet service, local and long distance phone service, DVD-quality video-on-demand and even HDTV/CATV simultaneously to subscribers.
Juan Pulido, marketing manager at 3M sees the emergence of IP gateway equipment coinciding with numerous multiple service providers, cable TV operators and telephone companies tests of high speed Internet and video services thereby strengthening the demand for video gateway products.
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About the author…
Formerly the editor of a Canadian wire and cable magazine called Structured Cabling, Nathan Mallet is a technology writer based in Ontario, Canada. |
