Before the Dawn of IP Telephony - Final EpisodeAiming for the true dawn of IP telephony
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
IP telephony will bring forth new value. The beliefs of the author will lead IP telephony product into the ideal image to aim for the true dawn of IP telephony.
In this last episode, I will discuss our idea of "dawn of IP telephony." IP telephony can be said truly as "dawn of IP telephony" for the first time when it brings forth new values by exceeding the quality and concept of conventional telephones. What are such new values?
At the present, various elements of services by telecommunication carriers are being integrated into IP networks. Representative is the movement toward structuring of NGN (Next Generation Network), forming a new order of network using IP.
The major characteristic of IP networks is that the infrastructure is integrated to form a simple configuration. Simplifying a network infrastructure will lead to increase in the opportunity of use by companies and general consumers. The reason is such that business ideas will be easily realized without special knowledge as the "technical barrier" requiring the knowledge of special engineers will no longer exist.
As indicated previously, IP networks also have the strength as a life line using packet communication as one of the attributes.
The potential of IP networks will surely bloom as a creative social infrastructure in the order of the new network. Companies and general consumers will unite as one in this ideal infrastructure to further revitalize economic activities on networks from its convenience by creating innovative services and applications that go beyond real life.
New applications will appear in a new format
There is no mistake that current best-effort services provided on IP networks will evolve into services that fully utilize the order of the new network. However, such IP network of the new order will not come overnight; it will be the result of fixed networks, mobile networks or corporate networks evolving through each of their migration scenarios. However, such scenarios of evolution may not necessary be in the form known to the present world of communication which takes the steps of defining international standards, developing networks and terminals that comply with such standards, and spreading over time. In fact, they will most likely be created freely and openly using the characteristics of IP.
Applications will be created from various layers from entertainment to business applications for business process reform by utilizing the innovative ideas of teenagers and knowledge of veterans proficient in the industry. Such innovative applications will promote the structuring of a new network infrastructure and stimulate the creation of new applications for a spiral development of applications and infrastructure.
To put if differently, the perspective of allowing dynamic network evolution will be necessary despite the uncertainties rather than preparing a predefined system or order.
In such evolution of IP networks, what can we vendors provide and contribute?
Creation of applications with eSound engine
The conclusion we came up with was to provide a "function" and "system" to stimulate creation of applications. And such "function" and "system" will be provided based on the eSound concept (see part 34 ~ 36). To realize this, we will provide the "eSound engine" (Fig.1 and Fig. 2).
Fig. 1 eSound engine configuration
Fig. 2 eSound engine will improve the quality of communication and expand the range of communication
As obvious it may seem, the possibilities of communication using voice is in fact infinite. Voice is a communication method that can be used regardless of when or where, whether you are walking, when you are cooking, or even when you have your eyes close in the dark. The working population in Japan will decline in the future due to the aging population combined with declining birthrate. The roles of each employee working in a company will increase and each person will be forced to accomplish multiple roles. While the labor force declines, there will certainly be the need to raise productivity per person. This will be the same for households. Those with children will need to take care of the elderly while attending to their children. If the husband and wife are both working, the load will further increase. In such "burden-inflicting society," importance of communication will only increase. eSound engine in the future will provide the function of increasing the quality of communication and expanding the types of communication.
Supporting stable services is equally important
There is another value that will be provided by the "eSound engine." The eSound engine is capable of contributing to the support of stable voice services in IP networks of various environments.
Ten years ago, we developed all of the technologies related to VoIP. This may make us look good but truthfully, we didn't have a choice since such technologies did not exist in the world. Fortunately, OKI had the assets to create such technologies. But more importantly, such developments were made possible by the customers who believed in the possibilities of our VoIP products with no performance history and continued to use our products. Hence, VoIP products were not actually developed in a sense, but allowed to grow by the customers themselves.
During incunabula of VoIP, the key was to establish voice quality on a narrow, unstable network. As broadband subscribers began to increase starting with ADSL around 2001, the technical barriers of VoIP were slowly uplifted, expanding the field of VoIP products. 10 years have passed since we released the first VoIP product into the world. At the present, VoIP products are developed all around the world, with infinite number of options. However, issues in common with VoIP of incunabula have surfaced again with the increase of applications in mobile devices.
In the evolution of dynamic networks, it is difficult to assume in advance their usage. In order to maintain stable quality of services with such uncertainties, there will be need to apply the performance history that has endured use in various environments through continuous improvements based on a constant and uniform policy. "eSound engine" is the result of our VoIP technologies that we have accumulated over 10 years with the support of our customers and we believe that it can contribute to the support of stable voice services in various environments. As unspectacular as it may be, we believe it is an important value.
"Dawn of IP telephony"
"Before the Dawn of IP Telephony," which started in February 2004, covered 37 episodes. IP telephony will be embedded in the social infrastructure to create numerous types of communication. IP telephony will stimulate innovation and create groundbreaking application groups. Communication using IP telephony will promote communication between service providers and consumers to create a society that satisfies both parties.
The above is the true image of "dawn of IP telephony." And we firmly believe that the dawn is near. In closing, I would like to thank all the readers who tirelessly read our beliefs behind the development of IP telephony, all the readers who have been supportive, and the persons in the Editing Department for proofing my unskilled writing.
The end
