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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (5658)	10/24/1999 2:47:00 PM
From: MikeM54321	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Frank, Here's my simple take on Internet telephony from an investors perspective. I believe it only partly answers your questions that of course Denver would be much better suited to answer in technical detail. I'm under the opinion that VoIP routed over the public Internet is many years out. So in this respect, no one will be doing VoIP for at least, 3 to 5 years. Maybe longer. Toll quality voice is just not going to happen over the current Internet infrastructure not matter what Cisco says. It will take lots of billion dollar spending before it becomes reliable enough for toll quality IP voice. But IP voice over a VPN is a totally different situation. That I see happening in a much closer time frame. As to how this relates to Antec's Cornerstone CMTS, I don't quite know? That is what I'm hoping Denver can shed some light on. In other words, I don't know quite know where Denver believes the IP voice traffic will go in his current thinking after it leaves the CMTS. I'm very curious about this too. Especially since the end target for AT&T's HFC plans is the consumer (who won't have a need for a VPN?), not business. MikeM(From Florida)

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (5658)	10/26/1999 3:45:00 PM
From: DenverTechie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

Regarding the role of CMTS in IP Telephony over HFC cable networks. Let's start with the assumption that the architecture for IP based telephony will evolve over time and the roles of different elements in the network will change. What I'm talking about here is a first generation topology that could actually be deployed in our lifetime (grin). Now that we have that out of the way, on with the description. To understand where the CMTS comes into the picture (and this sure would be a lot easier to describe with pictures), let's look at the origin of the phone (and data) signals in IP telephony. Let's assume there is a device, we'll call it the Broadband Home Interface (BHI for short)that interfaces with the HFC network, the in-home telephone wiring, and the in-home data device (via 10 or 100BaseT -- whatever you like) to provide IP voice and data services. The BHI digitally encodes the analog telephony signals from your phone, encapsulates them in IP packets and delivers them to the network via the DOCSIS standard interface. Packets received from the data interface are handled in a similar fashion. The CMTS terminates the IP packets as in a cable modem system. Typically a CMTS supports 1 downstream and multiple upstream connections and also complies to the DOCSIS standard. Interface to an IP network is typically 100BaseT using carrier grade routers. The CMTS hands the packets to the routers on a MANAGED IP backbone network (not the public Internet as we've stated before). Here's where it gets tricky. Without going into too much detail (hardly any since my boss would get really really mad if I did), you need call servers, signaling servers, audio servers, etc. to essentially emulate call processing in the public switched network (PSTN). You also need IP gateways to connect the VoIP IP network traffic to the PSTN and to transfer SS7 signaling messages from the IP network to the PSTN. As you can see, this is not merely stripping the packets at the CMTS, decoding, and handing off to the PSTN. That gets you nowhere in the larger scheme of things -- that would be merely an "island" of IP. We're actually talking about a carrier grade end to end IP telephony solution. This is what the big boys, the AT&Ts, Time Warners and Cox Communications of the world are demanding as a viable solution. The key item to focus on of course is the role and interplay between the BHI and CMTS. To make this system work, and compatible with existing data services sharing the same HFC bandwidth, we use DOCSIS standard BHI and CMTS equipment. To come full circle, since "data" over HFC cable is standardizing on DOCSIS platforms, then having CMTS in place for IP telephony on cable is essential. It's not just for cable modems anymore. The CMTS becomes a key enabler of IP telephony on a cable system and so the demand and market for DOCSIS compliant CMTS will continue to grow and prosper for years to come. That is, if you believe that VoIP on cable is a viable platform for the future. And I think we do.