Making The LAN Connection -- New wave of voice, data wares on tap
January 5, 1999
COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS: In the year
ahead, VARs should get at a look a new
wave of voice and data products from
top equipment manufacturers-products
that allow voice and data to flow
simultaneously over a LAN.
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill,
N.J., plans to start shipping two solutions
in this area: IP ExchangeComm and
ExchangeLink.
IP ExchangeComm includes call manager
software for call routing and telephony
functions and IP Exchange Adapter to
convert phones and faxes into IP clients.
IP ExchangeLink combines the call
manager software, a 7-port Ethernet LAN
hub, an IP router and an 8-port Lucent
Exchange Adapter in an embedded
PowerPC platform.
3Com Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., and
Siemens AG, Munich, Germany, recently
said they plan to launch a new company
dedicated to developing these LAN
telephony products (CRN, Dec. 14).
Next quarter 3Com said it expects to ship
the SuperStack II PBX 1000, a digital
phone and the SuperStack II LAN
Telephony Gateway. The SuperStack II
PBX 1000 will be based on Siemens' Hicom
150E telephony communications server.
A multimedia exchange for the
SuperStack II LAN switch and Siemens'
RC3000 SW switch, an enhanced LAN
Telephony Gateway and Ethernet phones
are due in the second half of 1999.
Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., and
Northern Telecom Ltd., Brampton,
Ontario, provided a few details about
their LAN telephony products.
Cisco said it should begin shipping an
Ethernet LAN phone and a Windows
NT-based PBX in the first half of 1999. A
Unix-based server is expected to follow.
Nortel said it plans to ship a server
dedicated to performing telephony
functions sometime in 1999.
Voice-over-IP LAN products are not ready
for widespread acceptance in the
enterprise, said Jeff Wilson, director of
access programs at Infonetics Research
Inc., San Jose. "There's going to have to
be some serious evolution in price,
standards and interoperability [before
these products can take off]," he said.
Because the technology lacks those
things and most enterprises'
voice-over-IP attention is being paid to
the WAN, LAN solutions are not "on the
short list of 'to-do' items," Wilson said.
Joe Greenhouse, vice president of sales
and marketing at Norcom Inc., a VAR
based in Manalapan, N.J., agreed. His
company's midsize and large customers
are focusing on installing
voice-over-Frame Relay and
voice-over-ATM products.
Voice-over-IP LAN products are
"something they won't even get close to "
for at least a year or two, he said.
Copyright c 1999 CMP Media Inc. |
