VoIP advances

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Enterprise voice over IP will gain momentum this week at the VoiceCon show, where vendors from the old and new worlds of telecom will introduce products that could help IT professionals scale IP PBX systems to new heights and improve voice-over-IP network management.

Avaya will make a splash with seven new products in its Enterprise Class IP Systems (ECLIPS) line, launched in 2000 when the company spun off from Lucent. The most significant of the new wares are Linux-based Media Servers that can support up to 12,000 IP phones, 20 times the number on Avaya's previous top-line IP PBX, the IP 600.

Avaya also will unveil a voice-over-IP gateway designed to keep phone lines up in the event of an IP WAN failure at remote offices; client/server software for turning 802.11b-based handhelds into IP phones; and an application for measuring IP voice bandwidth.

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3Com and Mitel will also show new voice-over-IP wares that promise easier quality-of-service (QoS) deployment, and a multitude of new IP phones and conferencing stations for corporations.

This bevy of IP voice gear comes as IT managers have become less skeptical of IP telephony's reliability and more aware of the potential cost savings and application benefits of a converged network, observers say.

A survey of 335 enterprise telecom professionals in the fall showed that 44% of U.S. businesses with more than 500 employees have started implementing IP telephone systems in some area of their corporations. The study, produced by market research firm Infotech, says these implementations are mostly in branch offices or new facilities rather than central PBX replacements.

Infotech analyst Frank Stinson says the adoption of voice over IP will increase in the next few years as businesses that purchased new PBXs or PBX upgrades in 1999 - in preparation for Y2K - will look to replace those systems, with 87% of companies expected to implement some voice over IP by 2004 (see chart).

"Telecom will definitely become more servercentric and IPcentric," as opposed to centralized, circuit-switched PBX systems, says Mark Katsouros, a communications automation specialist at the University of Maryland in College Park. IP telephony products from Avaya and Cisco are deployed in several areas on campus, Katsouros says, but the school's main system is still an Avaya Definity PBX.

"It will be a while until everything becomes voice over IP," he adds. "We have a huge investment in traditional telephone equipment, and we have to integrate [voice over IP] slowly."

In new buildings on campus where voice over IP will be deployed, Katsouros says the school anticipates saving thousands of dollars on wiring and management costs by deploying a single network for voice and data.

"Anyone not considering deploying [voice over IP] is foolish because it will be here eventually," he says.

Avaya gears up IP PBXs

Avaya's new IP PBXs include the S8700 and S8300 Media Servers, Avaya's first Linux-based IP phone servers targeted at the enterprise core and remote offices, respectively.

The S8700 will become Avaya's flagship IP PBX, with support for up to 12,000 users per server, an increase from 600 on the Windows NT/2000-based IP600. The server offers hardware redundancy, with two CPUs attached with Fibre Channel connections, providing instant failover for uninterrupted phone service in the event of a hardware or software crash.

The S8300 is a blade-server version of the S8700 that fits into Avaya's new G700 Media Gateway, a new box for remote offices that can connect to an enterprisewide network of distributed Media Servers. In this setup, distributed Media Servers and Gateways could back up each other in case of node failures at a central site or branch office, but act as a single system - or "virtual PBX" - in terms of management, features and dial plan.

The G700 also can be fitted with T-1 WAN blades, as well as digital and analog modules for connecting to the public switched telephone network in the event of an IP WAN failure, with the S8300 blade providing full IP PBX functions and features.

While Avaya says it will continue to market the IP600 and the Remote Office 300 IP PBXs, the company indicates that the new Media Servers will be the company's premier IP PBX platform going forward.

Avaya says a key technical change in its ECLIPS products is the introduction of Linux as the core operating system on the new Media Servers. The company says Linux makes the servers more stable and scalable than its previous Windows-based ECLIPS products. Competing IP PBXs such as Cisco's CallManager and Nortel's Business Communication Server use Windows-based operating systems that run the companies' IP call control software.

One user of Cisco's CallManager says that he'd like to see more Linux in IP telephony equipment in general.

"The reason [Cisco] goes with a Windows-based operating system on its [voice-over-IP product] is to be first to market," says Patrick Olson, CIO at Menlo College in Atherton, Calif. Olson has used Cisco's voice-over-IP gear for several years with few complaints, but says he would like a more stable operating system, such as Linux, on his IP PBXs.

The S8700 will start at around $870 per user for a 1,000-user system. The G700 gateway and S8300 IP PBX blade will cost around $1,000 per user. Both products will be targeted at branch-office users.

Avaya has also adapted its Definity PBX call-processing software, renaming it MultiVantage and porting it to its new Linux-based platform. MultiVantage also runs on the IP600 and Avaya's proprietary Unix system that runs on Avaya's PBX.

On the client side, Avaya is introducing software that can be installed on any wireless-enabled Pocket PC-based handheld - with support for a microphone and headphones - allowing it to become an ECLIPS IP phone.

The server software, which can run on the MultiVantage PBX or IP PBX platforms and registers the handheld with a phone extension, provides all call-control features to the handheld as well as access to a voice mail system.

Other scheduled announcements from Avaya and other vendors at VoiceCon include:

VisAbility Management Suite from Avaya, which for the first time will let users see what percentage of their IP traffic is voice packets vs. other applications. This could be helpful for identifying network bottlenecks that could affect voice quality, the company says.

Avaya's G600 media gateway, for connecting a central site ECLIPS IP PBX or Definity PBX to a WAN.

Seven new IP endstation products from Mitel, which can be used to connect to an IP-enabled Mitel PBX over a network connection. New handsets include the 5010 and 5020 IP Phones for enterprise desktops and the lower-cost 5001 and 5005 IP Phones (which cost less than $200) for high-volume phone deployments where minimal phone features are required.

Mitel will also introduce its 5140 IP Appliance, which adds a screen for Web browsing to its IP phone. The company will also showcase its 5300 series IP conference devices, which could be used by a company with remote offices to conduct teleconferences free of long-distance charges or teleconference service fees.

New QoS features on 3Com's SuperStack 4400 policy switches and its NBX IP PBX will allow the Layer 4 switch to autodetect an NBX on a network and configure itself to prioritize NBX voice packets over other traffic. Users also can tweak the QoS settings on the switch through a management application if more or less QoS configuration is required.

3Com's SoundStation IP 3000 - 3Com NBX, an IP conferencing station based on SoundStation IP hardware from PolyCom, is also available for companies that want to conduct conference calls over the Internet or a corporate WAN.