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Future of IP: IT's IP Connect

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

Indian telecom industry is experiencing a revolution in the

field of converged communication networks. Changes in the regulatory environment

have led to opening up of the market and allowing new forms of converged

communications applications to flourish. Among them the most notable is IP

telephony.

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India has immense potential to be benefited by the latest

in the voice technology. The enterprises have truly started to understand the

concept of an intelligent network organization. With the rapid increase in

Internet adoption across the country, we now see companies actively looking for

virtual private network (VPN) solutions.

The Need of the Hour



Unlike today's traditional networks, the shift to IP architecture means

that the enterprise will adopt a standard that the world at large is investing

in. Enterprises are investing significantly in building data highways, but still

they have continued to invest in separate traditional voice infrastructure.

Investments in data communication equipment are increasing as more networked

applications that facilitate enterprise-wide integration, workforce automation

etc. are being implemented.

Companies are now recognizing the need to rationalize these

investments and get more for less. The next step in this evolution is to merge

the two highways and put voice and data on a common IP network. With one network

having the capability of fulfilling all the communication needs, IP is becoming

the need of the hour for the industry.

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IP is no longer seen as a strange technology. The Indian

enterprises have reached the optimum comfort level and customers across a wide

spectrum of verticals have adopted this technology. According to Frost &

Sullivan, the IPT applications are expected to grow strongly at a CAGR of 52.3%

between 2004 and 2011. This market is forecast to grow to $38.8 mn by 2011.

According to some analysts, India is expected to show the fastest adoption of IP

applications for the next seven years, having a CAGR of 52.3%. The Indian market

is expected to grow slowly and steadily and is expected to shoot up by 2007.

What Drives IP?



Major business drivers behind IP-PBX and current IP telephony deployments by

enterprises and businesses today included lower cost of ownership and

predictable expenses; flexible and central management of a growing distributed

organization; improved administration; ownership and control; scalability; and

access to new business applications.

Availability of bandwidth is expected to play a critical

role in the development of IP applications market in India. Applications enabled

through the convergence of voice and data on a single IP infrastructure are fast

gaining popularity in the country. IP technology has been extremely successful

in building a very powerful industry centered on contact centers, IT-enabled

services (ITES), and business process outsourcing (BPO).

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Drivers

of IP
  • Reduced

    communication costs due to fall in bandwidth prices and ability to

    provide remote access to local call numbers

  • Reduced TCO due to

    unification of voice, video and data networks. Recource optimization

    due to centralized operations and integrated systems

  • Emergence of

    Managed Service Providers makes IP a logical option for enterprise

  • Applications, on

    platforms such as VoiceXML (VXML) and SIP are the  long-term

    drivers as they can be easily integrated with other applications

An IP telephony system can offer a payback time of about a

year to two, and that is taking into account the substantial drop in the long

distance prices, India has witnessed in the past few years. Lawrence Byrd,

director, IP Telephony and Mobility, Avaya added, “Reduced costs of long

distance calls in India will help people focus on the real benefits of IP which

is simplified and easy management.”

IP telephony enables unification of communications platform

across all locations, irrespective of the access methods. Voice, email, and

video technologies are all compatible and viable options with IP telephony. It

can connect employees across the span of an organization, while flattening and

consolidating the network architecture. This helps companies to deliver improved

functionality across a distributed enterprise and drive down costs by

eliminating unnecessary equipment, administration and maintenance. “IP network

on which data applications and IP based video is carried, organizations see

increased RoI. Thus, there is a shift from deploying multiple networks for

voice, video, and data to a converged IP network, which transports IP based

data, voice and video traffic,” said Ranajoy Punja, VP, Marketing, Cisco

Systems-India and SAARC

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Lower cost of communication has an instant appeal for many

enterprises, but the real benefit lies in the applications are deployed on the

IP telephony platform. “The real future of IP lies much more in applications

than the network”, said Byrd.

Evidence suggests that enterprises, which have targeted

revenue enhancement through IP convergence, have gained higher return on income

compared to the communication cost-saving aspect of IP convergence. This has

been possible due to the applications that have been developed over the IP

networks. Byrd stated, “Cost savings from a single network is not that

important, what an enterprise wants at the end of the day, is the applications

that it can run on a network.”

Standards such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) create

a baseline for inter-operability for IP telephony applications. This has paved

way for enterprise-scale deployment in a heterogeneous environment that exists

in most enterprises.

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Another key development in the self-service application has

been the VoiceXML (VXML) platform. The key advantages of developing VoiceXML

applications are that the technology provides Internet access to telephone

users, follow an open standard, provides an XML-based markup language, and leads

to speedy development.

Applictaions

of IP

Improved voice

applications

  • Audio directory

    enquiries and other audio-based services,

  • Call handling (such

    as call waiting),

  • Calling cards, CTI,

    IVR, Softphones, voice input

  • Control of business

    applications, voice recognition, VXML-based services.

Messaging

applications

  • Voice mail and

    email

  • Instant messaging

  • Unified messaging

Multimedia

conferencing

  • Voice/Multimedia

    VPNs

  • Media content and

    distribution

  • Wireless

    applications

SIP and VXML have led to the development of applications

that are able to manage voice just like any other application on the desktop,

and that can be easily integrated with any other applications.

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Another factor that has made IP a logical option for many

enterprises is emergence of managed services. MSPs enable earlier deployment of

new applications and services, and leverage the specialized expertise of the

vendor/channel/service provider to manage complex networks. Punja stated,” We

do believe that managed IP Telephony will be a key revenue driver for SPs as it

allows enterprises to save on communications and administrative costs.” IP

telephony is all set to become the base for future application development.

The Challenges



Despite the possibility of a great future, IP faces certain challenges that

pose as an impediment to its growth. One of the biggest challenges is the

regulatory restriction imposed by the Indian government on the usage of IP

telephony. VoIP remains restricted to closed user groups (CUG).

Relatively high prices of IP phones is another big

challenge. Due to this, the organizations have limited high-end phones to their

top management, snubbing full-scale growth of IP.

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Another issue, which needs to be resolved, is

interoperability. All phones, soft phones, gateways, and call managers are not

interoperable as they support some proprietary variant of a standard protocol.

This limits enterprises from free mix and match of components. The usage of open

standards can tackle this issue.

Presently, the management of IP telephony also presents

unique challenges since voice is transported over a data network, which is

shared with many other applications.

What is required is that different components must work

together in this dynamic environment to achieve optimum performance.

IP-based technology has become more stable in recent years,

and issues surrounding reliability, scalability, and quality no longer exist.

The idea of convergence is slowly gaining ground as companies see the economic

and productivity advantages of running their voice, video, and data over one

network.

It is clear that this technology is moving from an

experimental stage to mainstream business, as IP enables effective

communication, which is a concern for an enterprise than saving money.

Sonia Sharma



sonias@cybermedia.co.in

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