Abstract
Heterogeneous telecommunication networks across the world are converging today. Till the late twentieth century the convergence was mostly sustained by introducing protocol gateways. However these solutions were not perceived sufficient to sustain the growth in the network and were not cost effective. These required a paradigm shift towards a low-cost homogeneous carrier network which could carry heterogeneous telecom applications, signaling and services. The need has been reinforced by invent of a technology that carries multimedia data, telephony services and call signaling over the Internet Protocol. This technology is collectively and popularly known as Voice over IP (VOIP) or Internet Telephony.
Today VOIP has become a proven and tested alternative for traditional switched telephony system. It does not mean the end of existing telephony infrastructure as it seamlessly interfaces with traditional telephony (PSTN). VOIP is extremely scalable, flexible and cost effective. VOIP is powered by the reach and scalability of the constantly growing global Internet infrastructure. Underlying packet network technology and a very enterprising Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) continue to expand the VOIP domain with value added services, extensibility and flexibility to carry various types of services and media. The technology is proven both in the Enterprise as well as the Carrier networks and is accepted by the Industry bigwigs as the technology for the future. To complement the possibility and growth, the inter-working between the VOIP and the Mobile Communication, which is extremely user friendly but has been choked by wireless bandwidth crunch, are being standardized by the IP-Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) forum. This will bring in true convergence where the traditional landline telephony, Wireless Telephony and Internet Telephony amicably co-exist. However, VOIP has its own challenges. With more advanced media and services, it demands a better quality of services and security. The Internet fraternity is gearing up well to take up these challenges.
[Keywords: VOIP, Internet, PSTN, Next-generation, Convergence, SIP, Wireless, IMS]
The following topics will be covered in the tutorial:
- Convergence, Market, Business, Technology Trends
- Internet: The driver for Convergence
- Voice Over IP Technologies: Basic Concepts
- Protocols for VoIP technologies: H.323, SIP, RTP
- SIP Network Architecture: Proxy, Location Server, Redirect Server
- Deployment of VoIP based Networks
- IP-Multimedia Subsystem
- Conclusion and Future Directions
About the Speakers:
C V Rajasri: C V Rajasri received her B.E degree from Manipal Institue of Technology, Mangalore Univeristy in 1995. She has been associated with Flextronics Software Systems since March 2000. She has been involved in development of VoIP based products in Flextronics Software Systems (formerly known as Hughes Software Systems) and is currently playing the role of an architect for the SIP based products from Flextronics Software Systems.
Dipanjan Dutta: He received his BTech degree from University of Calicut in 1996 and MS degree from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 2003. He has worked for C-DOT and Flextronics Software Systems (formerly known as Hughes Software Systems). For past nine years, he has been involved in developing technology solutions in the domains of ISDN, GSM and VOIP. His research interests include Real-Time Systems, IP Networks and Core Telecommunication Software.
Ravi Mittal: Ravi Mittal is presently leading New Generation Networks group at Flextronics Software Systems. Prior to joining Flextronics Software Systems, he has worked with IBM, DSQ Software, Hughes Software Systems, and IIT Madras. Ravi has published over 30 papers in International conferences and Journals. He has chaired many International conference including; First Conference on Fault Tolerant Systems (1995), ADCOM (1996), ADCOM (1997), ATM Interact Conference (2001), Int Conference on Communication and Broadband Networking (2003), and Asia and South Pacific Int Conf on Embedded SOC (2005). He is a recipient of Indo-US science and Technology fellowship award. Ravi has obtained M.Tech (Computer) from Univ of Roorkee in 1985 and Ph.D from IIT Delhi in 1990. |
