RocketMan, surely, I'll give it a try. I addressed part of this in my last message
here.
The Excel or others like it that have been properly modified with IP Routing
on the back end, along with the necessary gateway and other VoIP
software, will be used as a transition platform. The SP will thus be able to
address both the old PSTN world, and the new packet world of VoIP.
Certain ports on the switch will point to the SS7 controlled network (the
legacy way), others will point to an private IP backbone (the bypass way),
and still others will point to IP links that have been substituted for intermachine
trunks on the public PSTN (in lieu of the legacy way trunks). This last
group will be governable under SS7 call set up and tear down procedures,
but it will still enjoy the economies associated with IP.
CISCO has done this with the Summa Four. I believe Excel has partnered
with at least one of the VoIPs to this end. If I'm not mistaken, it was with
VocalTec, most recently, but I'm not so sure how far they've taken it.
It might be interesting to note that in the winter of '97-'98 I interviewed
both SUMA and XLSW on this matter, and neither could address my questions
with anything substantive, since neither at that time had taken this approach
seriously yet. Internet Time is for real.
techweb.com
This would be a classical means of doing traditional telephony over an IP
backbone. It does not, however, address Internet Telephony from a purist's
perspective. That is, it does not deal with pure IP constructs, rather it
mimics the PSTN as we now know it. This is the way that most VoIP
ITSPs are headed, since "pure" Internet Telephony is still in its very early
stages of conceptualization (at least with respect to where it would be of
any use on a global scale).
What the ITSPs are doing now, for the most part, is emulating most of the
features that are now available through the PSTN, only they are using the
more efficient transport characteristics of the Internet protocol and compression,
as opposed to switched links and pulse code modulation at the 64 kb/s level
on the intermediate routes between switching entities. And most continue
to use the existing LEC POTS facilities for origination and termination
of calls.
Regards, Frank_C.
|
