Thread, you may recall that Voice Telephony over ATM, or VTOA, has been something I've cited in the past as a likely head-on threat, or future technology that may be co-mingled with, or otherwise integrated with, VoIP, as the two technologies evolve.
VoIP has had a very shaky, but quick, ascent to popular awareness and sentiment, while VTOA, not surprisingly, has taken it's time to get out of the gate.
It's still taking its time, but its shape is now beginning to take form, and when it does make its debut, it portends to be a more stable and reliable form of transport, with similar economies (maybe nominally higher over time with spreads dwindling) than what we've experienced thus far by its sometimes floundering and seemingly held-by-a-hair cousin. Not to be misunderstood, though, I do believe that VoIP will improve immensely over time as well.
VoIP has taken the try-it-and-fix-it-if-it's-broke approach, while VTOA, on the other hand, is taking the more traditional form of develpment path. But VTOA has had the benefits of observing what the reactions to VoIP have been... giving it somewhat of a marketing insight edge into the future where its own deployment is concerned. This is something the VoIP pioneers had nothing quite the same to fall back on, for historical perspective.
Network World sent me the following message this a.m. concerning a White Paper by consultancy Telechoice at the NW site nwfusion.com , which is still a free web subscription.
The brief message (which is copied below) spells out the important issues surrounding VTOA in a nutshell, and if you visit the white paper site, you will not be disappointed with what awaits you: A very thorough and well-done assemblage of information on the topic of VTOA. Note: If you go there, be sure to use the right hand side of the page to access relevant information links.
The brief message that was sent to me, and I'm sure to many of you as well, follows:
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"Understanding Voice over ATM"
Voice over ATM is rapidly gaining in popularity among network managers."
Early implementations of voice over ATM used circuit emulation or
Constant Bit Rate (CBR) class of service to carry voice. Newer
implementations include one or more of the following features to
optimize the bandwidth required and reduce the cost of carrying voice
over an ATM network: Variable Bit Rate (VBR), silence suppression and various sophisticated compression techniques. These new technologies will likely fuel the growth and more rapid implementation of voice over ATM.
For more information on other advanced capabilities of ATM, check out the white paper "Evaluating ATM Equipment and Services" by Liza Henderson of TeleChoice, Inc. www3.nwfusion.com
Hope you enjoy it and find it helpful,
Frank Coluccio |
