Before the Dawn of IP Telephony - Part 25Success in the acceleration of VoIP gateway development (October 2001 ~ March 2002)
These contents translated a serialization article carried by ITPro IP telephony ONLINE published by Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. Jump to the original (Japanese).
Shinji Usuba
General Manager
eSound Venture Unit
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd
We succeeded in developing the first VoIP gateway for broadband providers in just three months. Low price and short delivery were achieved using common parts.
I believe there were good reasons for the success in the development of VA14, VoIP gateway for providers, in such a short period. These reasons include our ability to control the development with our numerous experiences in VoIP development, and the motivation of development members. We would never have accomplished this task if there were the slightest signs of confusion or concern during the development.
The period between 2001 and 2002 can be said to be the time when VoIP was spreading quickly. I believe one of the models contributing to this standardization was our VA14. The design to lower the price seemed to have little technical challenges. In reality, however, this was not true. It was the repetition of steady designs that allowed products to spread in the world for use by many users.
I later had the opportunity to introduce the development of VA14 within the company. Some showed disbelief that the product was developed with such exceptional speed. The development period was just too short when considering that in normal development of devices provided to telecommunication carriers, the design specifications were determined, and development was made in steps from part design, to prototype and to product design. All this usually meant years of development, not months. It is a pity that some did not believe the short development period since the product obviously passed the quality judgment and was commercialized with confidence.
Development of BV1260
Photo 1 BV1260, a corporate, 4-channel VoIP gateway
At the time of the shipment judgment of VA14, the development of BV1260, an enterprise-use, 4-channel VoIP gateway, that we had been working on gained momentum (photo 1). Beginning with the first-generation BS1100, this was the fourth-generation model. Although the functions required were different from that of VA14, being an enterprise product, we followed the same development style. In other words, we used many common materials and accelerated the conversion from hardware to software.
In the case of enterprise-use VoIP gateways, there is the need to incorporate functions to provide stable voice quality in a narrowband environment. In addition, there is very little effect of cutting back cost due to the difference in functions demanded by network providers as well as the difference in the manufacturing volume. However, the design using common materials allowed us to create a product that was smaller, lighter and had less power consumption. When comparing BV1260 to BV1250, the previous model, the capacity is less than one-third.
The shipment volume grew. We also received a variety of feedback from customers using the product for various applications. Customers used the BV1260 in many different applications. In terms of voice quality, VoIP elemental technologies in narrowband were nearly complete at the time of BV1250 and the same technologies were used.
Summary of development in fiscal year 2001
During this year, four VoIP models were released into the market in addition to VA14 for the development projects I was involved with. Three of these models were enterprise models and one was a model for network providers.
When generalizing our developments for the year, the progress can be summarized into the two points below:
- VoIP gateway product for broadband service providers was born
- Many VoIP technologies were converted to software
When looking at the whole picture, it can be said to be the year when narrowband VoIP shifted to broadband VoIP. And such changes for those involved in VoIP from the early days showed possibilities for new types of communication rather than mere widespread use of VoIP. I was certain of the new possibilities of VoIP under full broadband environments.
In April 2002, market environment and developed models take on a drastic change.
... To be continued
