ARTICLE >> There has been a great deal of conversation on the Internet about the issue of Net Neutrality and how it impacts the evolution of the Internet. What we now call Network Neutrality began as something called the End-to-End Principle. The nature of the Net Neutrality debate is driven by unified communications subjects, including the broad unified communications efforts including VoIP, IM Multimedia Subsystems (IMS), video collaboration, and fixed mobile convergence.

This article will introduce the concept of Network Neutrality for business and technical managers. It will survey some of the published viewpoints on Net Neutrality, both for and against, and will begin delving into the potential impact on enterprise business. Let’s begin with background information and published opinions from the Web on the subject. Although not quoted in their entirety, the articles are extensively hyperlinked to ease further research into the discussion.

Continue reading Network Neutrality and Enterprise Business...

ARTICLE >> Bringing new technologies such as VoIP into service presents a wide range of technical challenges. Given the highly regulated environment of telecommunications, VoIP presents a set of regulatory challenges. For the most part, these challenges present hurdles to VoIP service providers who want to deliver commercial services to consumers and businesses and don't directly impact business VoIP deployment. The intent of this article is to provide a brief glimpse into VoIP regulations and considerations for business users. Businesses that embrace managed VoIP services might want to review some of these regulatory issues, such as E-911 services, with the managed VoIP service provider.

Continue reading Telephony, Regulation, and VoIP...

ARTICLE >> Firewalls are a critical element in protecting business networks. They provide protection against malicious traffic and are crucial monitoring points in the daily operation of many networks. Firewalls also present a potential performance bottleneck. Given the sensitivity of VoIP services to performance impairments, especially delay and jitter, it’s important to incorporate thoughtful design methodology into VoIP services. How firewalls are used in the network will absolutely have an impact on voice services. Good design minimizes this impact, providing added security while allowing acceptable call quality.

Although firewalls have been around for many years, the creator of the firewall remains a topic of open debate. Marcus Ranum has been widely recognized for his work on the TIS Firewall Toolkit and Trusted Information Systems’ Gauntlet product. Shlomo Kramer and other Checkpoint colleagues also made significant contributions to firewall technology. Regardless of who was there first, firewalls have become a crucial component in networking technology.

Continue reading VoIP and Firewalls...

ARTICLE >> This article begins an exploration of common VoIP protocols. This first installment of an ongoing exploration of the technical workings of VoIP protocols will explore Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). As this is the first paper in the series, it will begin with an overview of how the open standards widely used in the Internet are developed.

Standards used in the worldwide Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) are products of the International Telecommunications Union-Telephony (ITU-T) sector, formerly known as the CCITT. This group operates under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), which is important to note because this body acts in many ways as an administrative unit focused more on international interoperability than other areas. Although this group has responsibility for telephony standards, they have not historically been known for being quick or nimble at responding to technology needs. ISDN standards took 10 years to get through this group. There are many different international political agendas that come into play when dealing with the UN, and change takes time.

Continue reading A Look at Session Initiation Protocol...

ARTICLE >> In 1995, the ITU-T began work on a series of standardized signaling protocols. One outgrowth of this work was a product called The Internet Phone from VocalTec. Initially, this was a proprietary solution and did not focus on interworking between the PSTN and Internet. Transmission of audio signals and the idea of video conferencing over the Internet were key issues. These standards fell within the H.323 family of protocols for multimedia transmission over packet networks and were to some extent an outgrowth and extension of H.320 ISDN videoconferencing standards.

Interworking with the PSTN quickly became a major focal point of this technological development work. Designers recognized the need to incorporate some method for calls to cross over from the IP network to the PSTN. This led to efforts in gateway protocols and connectivity to the SS7 network, which provides extensive signaling (command and control) functionality in the PSTN. H.323 products began to appear from vendors in 1996.

Continue reading A Look at H.323...

ARTICLE >> In order to understand and appreciate some of the business and technical issues driving the popularity of carrying voice over the Internet Protocol (IP), you need a basic framework of how telephony works. This article provides a brief overview of the basics so that you can explore why Voice over IP (VoIP) is a smart solution in today's network environment.

As communications has evolved over time, we've reach the point at which we can pick up the phone and call someone on the other side of the world. The delivery of information, or an idea, is nearly instantaneous. Our culture has shaped us to expect things to happen very quickly, and we have become impatient about delays in delivering information in any form.

Continue reading VoIP Primer: Introduction to Voice over IP...

ARTICLE >> With the dramatic increase in VoIP deployments during 2005, there have been numerous surveys about security concerns. A few major threats to VoIP appear consistently in every survey. Falling prey to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack is most often the greatest fear. Worms and viruses are another major concern. Eavesdropping on calls raises anxieties for many companies deploying VoIP. In addition, VoIP spam gets a lot of mention in the press, but so far hasn’t become a real problem.

VoIP security is a large topic, and the subject of many books and papers. This article provides a simple overview into the primary areas of focus and concern when addressing VoIP security. To keep things focused, we’ll explore threats and dangers in the context of three fundamental security concerns—confidentiality, integrity, and availability. We’ll cover VoIP network threats from the outside and the inside. In addressing how to deal with the threats, we’ll stick to three fundamental precepts—prevention, detection, and reaction.

Continue reading VoIP Security...

ARTICLE >> Over the past hundred years, the public switched telephone network (PSTN) has evolved into a finely tuned mechanism for delivering voice traffic. In business, for years the phrase "toll quality voice" has been used to describe a service level suitable for business—good enough to hear a pin drop. This network has been built and conditioned to do one thing really well—deliver voice conversations.

Data networks use Internet Protocol (IP) for delivery. IP is described as being unreliable and having no guarantees. It is a "best efforts" protocol. It was designed to carry sporadic, unpredictable traffic loads that burst to peak volumes at times. At that transport layer, above IP, there is also Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). TCP offers the ability to guarantee delivery through a process of synchronization and acknowledgement messages, but this delivery guarantee also adds overhead to the data flow.

Continue reading Delivering Call Quality with VoIP...

ARTICLE >> When companies explore VoIP solutions, they focus on key business areas. Generally, the cost savings of a converged network is a business driver. When considering business needs, it’s crucial to the success of a VoIP deployment that you do not set unreasonable expectations, and it’s important to understand the business drivers behind the VoIP implementation. If reducing costs is the primary driver, there will be different factors to consider than if the primary driver is deploying new, converged applications. Understanding the impetus for the project helps maintain focus on factors that can ensure success. Communicating the objectives clearly with everyone involved helps maintain a clear view of the expected results.

Continue reading Needs Assessment and Network Readiness...

ARTICLE >> A Network Management System (NMS) is a combination of hardware and software used to monitor and administer the addressable and manageable elements of the network. In IP networks, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services introduce a new set of manageable network elements that perform telecommunications service functions. These elements typically include gateways, call management servers, emergency responders, voice mail servers, and so on.

General network management involves functions such as network planning, traffic routing, user authorization, configuration management, fault management, security management, performance management, and accounting management. Many protocols exist to support network and network device monitoring and management. Common protocols include Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), Common Information Model (CIM), Transaction Language 1 (TL1), and Java Management Extensions (JMX).

Continue reading VoIP Management...