Computers Today, May 1-15, 1999, Master File; pg 2

.. Computers Today

May 1-15, 1999 MASTER FILE

CONVERGENCE
The Unified Network

Convergence at the corporate world: the scenario, services, and architecture of next-generation integrated data/voice/video networks.

In the corporate world, the same tenets of media convergence are pronounced in different terms: to allow different media-including voice, fax, video, and modem data-to be transported as packets in the network.

Voice over ATM. Voice over frame relay. Voice over IP. IP telephony. These terms are being used to describe a paradigm shift in the telecom industry-from circuit-switching and time division multiplexing to packet-based networks designed for data but optimised for voice. "This technology convergence will release customers from the barriers imposed by proprietary solutions, allowing organisations to develop integrated voice and data applications," says Anil Batra, country manager, India & SAARC Region, Cisco Systems Inc.

The Net in Your Pocket

Two of this century's greatest networking events are just about to collide. The first involves the relentless growth in demand for wireless voice services around the world. The number of subscribers is expected to increase from about 275 million in 1998 to more than 500 million by the end of this decade- and to a staggering one billion-plus subscribers by 2010.

The second trend involves, of course, the Internet, where the number of users-now some 70 million-is expected to reach 320 million by 2002, according to the International Data Corporation.

Till now, these two worlds were a world apart, a situation that's about to change. "We're about to experience explosive growth in wireless data," says Peter MacLaren, vice-president of strategic market relations for Nortel's Wireless Networks.

"Indeed, in 1996, voice accounted for 98 percent of all wireless traffic, while data had 2 percent. By 2005, our projections show that data could account for 70 percent of all wireless traffic, compared to 30 percent for voice." Bandwidth will range from 144 kilobits per second (kbps) if you're travelling in a car, to 384 kbps if you're walking, to 2 megabits per second if your mobile device is fixed at your desk.

"Based on what's happened over the past five years, it seems reasonable to assume that about two-thirds of the Internet services and applications that will be available to you in 2003 don't even exist today," MacLaren says.

Many of them will be directed at the business community. That's not surprising, considering that about 25 percent of mobile wireless subscribers can be classified as professionals who spend 25-40 percent of their time away from their primary office. Almost 75 percent of these mobile professionals carry laptop computers. Mobile professionals and business people represent a potentially huge market for wireless Internet services-if compelling value can be demonstrated.

Mobile on the IP

The allure of the Internet draws us all in, but most of us know this fact to be true: current IP networks simply do not incorporate the system-level requirements needed to deliver real-time, peer-to-peer service in mobile networks.

The challenge is to enhance current IP mobility-related technologies to deliver a seamless mobility service that's as good or better than our current wireless networks-without losing the cost effectiveness, future proofing, application flexibility and transparency of IP technologies. This integration goes beyond IP itself, affecting a number of other technologies, such as Web servers, DNS or directory servers, and accounting systems.

Today's IP technologies enable nomadic users just about anywhere to connect to the Internet for service, but they do not provide such functions as real-time location tracking, authentication, and distributed management as a seamless, integrated service found in a cellular network today.

In fact, from a mobility perspective, IP networks are roughly equivalent to telephony network architectures of 20 years ago. If we're going to make IP-centric networks as mobile as today's cellular networks, we need to move to a new architectural plane but we need to do so without destroying the simplicity of IP technologies.

As most communications giants predict, IP-based services will surpass what the PSTN can do, with services like unified messaging, multiple virtual lines delivered over high-speed residential lines, multimedia conferencing, intelligent agents and information services. The question is no longer why and how, but how fast.

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