Thursday August 18, 2005
The future according to Sonus
star-techcentral.com
IN FOUR years time, users of cellphones and other mobile communications gadgets will be able to enjoy Voice-over -Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Voice-over-Broadband (VoBB) services, said Sonus Networks.
“This is due to the number of wireless subscribers overtaking their fixed-line counterparts about that time,” said Dr Hassan M. Ahmed, chairman and chief executive officer of the US-based company that provides voice infrastructure for new public networks.
“Two years ago, wireline operators were deploying VoIP in core network infrastructure, mainly due to its lower costs since the technology can carry voice and data traffic over a single infrastructure, and cellular operators are doing the same thing right now,” he said.
Sonus’ largest customer is Cingular Wireless in the United States, which uses VoIP in its core to carry long distance calls and its gateway message-switching centre capabilities allow for efficient call routing between users and the network core.
“Like with Cingular Wireless, we believe VoBB adopters will see a payback on their investment within a few months,” Hassan claimed.
However, VoIP is more than just about inexpensive phone calls. “It’s an enabling technology which lets telcos roll out Internet Protocol last-mile services to consumers which is central to VoIP converged services,” said Hassan.
The significance of this is that VOBB users could begin with an instant messaging session and then seamlessly switch to a conference call. During their instant messaging session, they would be able to see the buddy list on their PC or desk phone and which of them are online at the time – i.e. a feature called “presence” in the industry.
“This way, I can configure my system to not bother me with calls from say telemarketers, while it alerts me if I get a call from my daughter’s school,” Hassan said.
Sonus (www.sonusnet.com) expects this “wireless revolution” to happen when mobile operators ungrade to high-speed IP pipes that allow the transfer of data at speeds approaching 20 megabits per second (Mbps). Currently, data transfer speeds are in the region of 2.4Mbps.
It also expects its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to help enable rich multimedia services to cellphones.
IMS is an open, standards-based, next-generation network, multimedia architecture for mobile and fixed IP services. It's VoIP function is based on a 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s variant of Session Initiation Protocol and also runs over the standard Internet Protocol.
“Being IP-based, IMS works over different radio bearers, including WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and we’re currently conducting VoIP over WiMAX trials with Motorola and expect to conduct VoBB over WiMAX trials with an operator in South Asia,” said Hassan. – CHARLES F. MOREIRA |
