Voice Over IP: Multiple bridges over turbulent waters

1. Voice Over IP:Multiple bridges over turbulent waters Tom Maier & Alan M. Brown Georgia Board of Regents Tom_Maier@oit.PeachNet.EDU, Alan@PeachNet.EDU (404) 656-6174

2. Agenda • VOIP - Hype and Reality • VOIP Targets and Requirements • Show Me the Money • IP Telephony - Why? • Telephony in Georgia Education • PeachNet IP Telephony Trials • Summary

3. VOIP - Hype • It’s about money, money and more money - $1,000,000,000,000! • Competition, marketing and market share • You too can use the noise in your data circuits for fun and profit.

4. VOIP - Reality • “real savings are probably 3-4 yr. out”, GartnerGroup, 3/99 • transition costs are high • infrastructure not ready • do we want to or can we become the phone company? • All cost of voice will be due to overhead

5. USA SNAPSHOTS 5/13/99 Preferences for alternatives for phone service

6. VOIP - Targets • WAN is where biggest impact will be felt - look there first. • LAN and intrabuilding are not affected by voice • convergence does not mean one network • but local service is a big ticket item

7. VOIP Requirements • Bandwidth low, management highQoS, diffserv, MPLS, IPv6 w/RSVP • Need for “voice-grade” sound • reliability Issues • hardened network • not at five nines level • Bandwidth throwing not the solution

8. IP Telephony Market • From GartnerGroup 1999/01/01 • Although the Market for Internet-based telephony should reach $3 billion by 2003, it will constitute just two tenths of 1 percent of the total network service market of $1.4 trillion. • IP Telephony is in “Slow Growth” stage of technological maturity

9. Carriers Are Thinking about VOIP • AT&T Global Clearinghouse for billing, call admin., etc.; also testing • ICG Netcon On-Line testing now at 5.9 ¢/min in 166 cities • Qwest testing now at 7.5 ¢/min in 125 metropolitan service areas • Sprint testing now at 7.5 ¢/min

10. VOIP - Savings? • voice/min. price drop • CCLs demise (from 2.7¢ to 0 ¢ by ‘01) • DWDM improving efficiencies • expected 3 to 5 cents/min. for LD

11. VOIP - FUD Factor • The five letter force - C I S C O • Driving the market development? • Can Higher Education add to momentum?

12. IP Telephony Opportunities? • Bypass long distance • Reduce # of access lines • Cost savings, maybe • Convergence of technologies • Focus on IP network, not multiple nets • Integration with video • Integrated messaging

13. VOIP - Why Bother? • Opportunities • take advantage of higher education’s unique environments • educational intranets w/ end-to-end possibilities local - state - regional - national - global Campuses-Regional/State-GigaPoPs-UCAID/Abilene-STARTAP

14. VOIP - Side Effect • Communications envelope approach (comprehensive infrastructure) • Socialize “zero sum savings” • communications costs should remain constant or increase with demand. The decreasing unit costs for voice should be redirected to cover data.

15. VOIP • Scenario • best solution maybe to encourage someone else do voice/IP at savings approaching what we can obtain and with redirection of savings inside a communications envelope to cover data.

16. VOIP - GaBOR’s Efforts • Telecommunications Costing Committee • composed of institutional CBOs and CIOs • developing business models • prospective cost savings • redirection of savings

17. USG LD Costs Today • Total LD ~ $6,000,000 annually • Within Georgia ~ 10 ¢ per minute • Outside Georgia ~ 14 ¢ per minute • Credit Card ~ 15 ¢ per minute • Intra 40%, Inter 55%, Credit 5% • 63 million call minutes • If we could save 1/2 of it somehow … • $6M x 40% x 1/2 is $1.2M

18. USG Local Service Costs Today • Total local - $26,000,000 annually • ~ 35,000 (?) lines, excluding dormitories

19. Trial LD Solution • Use existing telephones & PBXs • Use standard interior phone lines • Keep familiar dialing plan • Requires staged dial tone • Dial into Atlanta only; not symmetric • Limited accounting • Avoid becoming common carrier

20. Trial Questions • Quality • Compatibility (with existing telco) • Ease of use • Costs projected for more sites • Interoperability (with other VOIP) • Maximize throughput & minimize latency, independent of traffic patterns

21. PBX PBX PBX (706) 721-xxxx C3620 C3620 PeachNet (404) 111-1111 x2000 C3640 x2222 PSTN (404) 111-1111 (912) 369-xxxx x3000 (404) xxx-xxxx (770) xxx-xxxx PeachNet (678) xxx-xxxx x3333 Voice over IP (Long Distance) Augusta IP/PSTN Gateway PBX Phone IP/PSTN Gateway PBX Phone PeachNet Savannah Atlanta IP/PSTN Gateway PBX Phone Graphics from Selsius & Modified

22. C2610 PSTN PeachNet Use of VOIP for Home Office Analog Voice Circuit “Office” port IP/PSTN Gateway T1 Phone “Station” port Ethernet Graphics from Selsius & Modified

23. Future Trial - Local Service • Uses special phones • IP/Ethernet telephone • PC with H.323 soft phone • NT server with PBX functionality • IP/PSTN Gateway • PSTN trunk or standard voice line • Trials later this year with Selsius & Lucent

24. IP/PSTN Gateway • IP/PSTN Gateways • PSTN trunk interface • Analog fax/phone/modem PSTN Call Manager IP Phone • User Instrument • Ethernet IP telephone • PC with H.323 softphone • H.323 wireless handsets • Call Processing • NT server • PBX functionality Voice over IP (Local Service) PeachNet Graphics from Selsius & Modified

25. Future Integration with Video • Audio bridge function via MCU • H.323

26. CP Server 1 App Server 2 IP Phone IP Phone PC Phone Application App Server 1 PSTN Phone Local gateway Local gateway Campus Net Central gateway PeachNet Central gateway CP Server 3 PBX Remote Office PBX Phone Streaming Server 1 PC Phone Application PSTN PSTN PSTN PC Phone Application IP Phone Ultimate Future?

27. VOIP - Conclusions • Packetized voice is happening • Savings possible • New world order The future is just one damned thing after another.