Cisco to offer convergence blueprint

By Jim Duffy
Network World, 09/13/99

ATLANTA - Cisco this week will outline a broad voice/data convergence architecture that may have an advantage over competitors' plans: It's backed up by products that are shipping now.

Cisco's Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data - AVVID - is the company's wide-ranging plan for integrating a hodgepodge of packet telephony and other technologies Cisco has obtained through acquisitions over the past five years. Ultimately, AVVID is designed to assist customers that want to build integrated voice and data networks

Cisco has been playing the voice/ data convergence game for a while, but AVVID is the first clear strategy for melding the firm's disparate packet-telephony products into a cohesive whole, observers say. Indeed, Cisco is expected to play up the fact that AVVID products are available and deployable now, while multiproduct convergence suites from Lucent and Nortel won't be fully available for another year. Nortel announced its 11-product Internet Communication Architecture in June; Lucent announced a nine-product roadmap in May.

Among the products on which AVVID will be based are:

Amteva's IP-based Unified Communications middleware, which consolidates voice mail, e-mail and fax on a single IP network.

Calista's offerings, which let legacy digital phones interoperate with voice-enabled switches and routers.

GeoTel's software, which integrates enterprise data applications with PBXs to deliver integrated data and voice to call centers over the Internet or public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Selsius' network PBX systems for IP-based telephony.

Cisco will also roll out at least four new products under the AVVID umbrella - a call processing server, two packet/ PSTN gateways and a new version of the Selsius Call Manager software, according to sources.

Cisco declined to comment on AVVID.

A key component of AVVID is the Media Convergence Server (MCS) 7830. The MCS 7830 is a fault-tolerant, rack-mountable server for Cisco's Selsius Call Manager software. The MCS 7830 is designed to ensure high availability, reliability and scalability of converged voice/data networks.

The MCS 7830 is based on a 500-MHz Intel Pentium III processor and features 256M bytes of static RAM and up to 109.2G bytes of internal storage through six SCSI hard drives.

The gateways are called the DT-24+ and the DE-30+. Both are PCI bus-based cards for PCs that connect the AVVID packet telephony network to the PSTN or a PBX through ISDN Primary Rate Interface trunks.

The DT-24+ is a T-1 version of the gateway and supports 23 simultaneous voice-over-IP calls. The DE-30+ is an E-1 version that supports 30 simultaneous voice-over-IP channels.

The new Call Manager software, Version 2.4, features a so-called "Single Button Collaboration" capability. This feature lets users on AVVID IP phones collaborate on a single project or document by pushing a button on the handset.

Call Manager 2.4, which appears to be the glue that bonds the AVVID framework together, will also feature tighter integration with the Amteva and GeoTel products, sources say. Ostensibly, this will let users manage the functions of Amteva and GeoTel products from a Call Manager system.

Still missing from Cisco's convergence architecture are port modules for the Catalyst LAN switches that would let users connect the switches to analog phones, fax machines, key systems, PBXs and off-premise sites, such as telephone company central offices. Analysts also note that Cisco needs to spin a compelling story on why users should give up the security of their tried-and-true, feature-rich PBXs for what Cisco calls the "New World" of packet telephony.

"For the guy who wants to retain the comfort and safety of circuit-switched voice services, Cisco needs to be able to say 'We can accommodate you,'" says one analyst who requested anonymity. "They're not quite there yet."

Pricing for the new products was not available at press time.