Archive for the 'Voice over IP' Category

FierceVoIP June 7, 2007

Thursday, June 7th, 2007
  • Microsoft taps Verizon for Windows Live Call
  • Avaya heads down private road
  • Blog: With a one, one here, and a zero, zero there…
  • TI, Network Physics offer deep analysis solution
  • Text2it tests call transfer
  • SPOTLIGHT: Do you know the ABC’s of VoIP security?
  • ALSO NOTED: CommPartners picks Sonus; To converge or not to converge; and much more…

Press Release: TI and Network Physics Collaborate to Deliver Optomized End-User Experience

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS AND NETWORK PHYSICS COLLABORATE TO DELIVER OPTIMIZED END-USER EXPERIENCE FOR IP-BASED SERVICES

Companies to Deliver Deep Visibility and Intelligent Action Solutions to Manufacturers of IP Equipment and Devices

DALLAS, TX and MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. (June 5, 2007) - Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) and Network Physics, the leader in real-time application performance insight, today announced a far-reaching development initiative centered on delivering optimized end-user experiences for VoIP and IPTV services. Designed around TI’s PIQUA™ quality management system, the partnership will further help service providers and enterprise IT managers deliver important real-time visibility into performance related problems and provide automated corrective actions that can be deployed to mitigate some of the challenges with delivering IP-based services.

“TI’s PIQUA system is a standards-based, embedded capability in IP endpoints, including CPE devices and access and infrastructure media gateways, which gathers and reports real-time operational and experiential data from equipment used to deliver services such as VoIP and IPTV,” said Debbie Greenstreet, director of service provider strategic marketing, Texas Instruments. “Working with Network Physics, our PIQUA system automates the process of gathering IP endpoint performance metrics and converts this data into real-time actionable information, improving the delivery of IP services. The results of our alliance will include improved user experience and a reduction in overall network operating costs.”

Based on TI’s digital signal processor (DSP) technology and embedded software solutions, TI’s PIQUA system utilizes sophisticated, real-time calculations to instantly assess quality parameters related to the user’s experience, allowing both equipment manufacturers and service providers to automatically and dynamically adapt to changing conditions and make adjustments, which today are either impossible or done manually. The integration of PIQUA software with the NetSensory Solution Insight for VoIP 2.0 from Network Physics is done via standard protocols such as RTCP-XR by communicating call quality metrics, including TI RTCP-XR extensions for reporting echo quality metrics. The NetSensory tool combines valuable endpoint information and correlates it with other network data to provide network operators and enterprise IT managers with an outstanding set of metrics for actionable and rapid resolution, ensuring high quality services. In addition, this unique insight greatly reduces the need for further testing equipment with a real-time view into business application performance.

The NetSensory Solution Insight for VoIP overcomes problems associated with typical voice monitoring solutions by integrating standard voice quality metrics with more than 60 performance and utilization metrics. The Solution Insight for VoIP delivers real-time, integrated management of both voice and data applications from an easily-installed appliance, without the need for agents, probes, or synthetic handsets. It has the ability to drill down from industry-standard voice quality metrics to the underlying network conditions responsible for call degradation, measure the impact of other enterprise applications on voice traffic, and judge how other applications are affected by the network changes made to support voice.

“Successfully delivering VoIP and IPTV requires deep, real-time analysis of underlying network conditions that can potentially impair the delivery of these services” said Kenny Frerichs, President and CEO at Network Physics. “The whole point of deploying VoIP is to run voice across the network just like any other application, but voice and network management tools aren’t always up to the task. The marrying of TI’s PIQUA technology and the NetSensory Solution Insight for VoIP seizes the full advantage of the PIQUA system by creating a solution that optimizes services based on true end-user experiences and provides exceptional insight into application performance.”

Microsoft taps Verizon for Windows Live Call

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

We used to let our fingers do the walking, but now people looking for a merchant can use VoIP to do their talking. Using Windows Live Call for Free (powered by Verizon Business SIP Gateway service sans an adapter or VoIP service of their own), consumers are just a click away from chatting with local businesses or advertisers they encounter while searching
www.maps.live.com. The best part of this announcement has to be that the service is free to end users. This is good news for people with smartphones and perhaps even for people without them in the long run. If the service proves popular, it could put pressure on mobile operators to reduce or eliminate their fees for directory assistance and connection through service.

For more about Microsoft and Verizon:

- read this article from Telephony Online

Related Articles:

Microsoft shows VoIP phones. Report

Microsoft sniffing around VoIP. Report

Avaya heads down private road

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

So long public quarterly performance reviews and hello pure, focused and aggressive pursuit of the IP communications market. Avaya’s Michael Thurk waxes poetic with the press on the benefits of the company’s pending merger this fall, with two private equity firms–Silver Lake and TPG Capital. The arrangement couldn’t be further from Avaya’s reality had it been bought by likes of Cisco or Nortel.

For more on Avaya’s acquisition:

- read this article from the ChannelWeb Network

Related Articles:

Silver Lake Playing for Avaya. Report

Nortel said to be weighing Avaya buy. Report

Avaya goes in for services. Report 

Blog: With a one, one here, and a zero, zero there…

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

Old MacDonald had V-o-I-P… one, one, one, one, zero. Internet providers in New Zealand are preparing to push wireless VoIP services to rural customers who live out on the farm. Sheepish about the CapEx investment required of them the first time VoIP was offered to farmers, this time they can get it on their existing wireless broadband links. They still have to pay some upfront costs, but the service providers are hoping the farmers will want to reap the benefits of cutting the cord to their wireline providers once and for all.

For more on VoIP to the farm:

- read this blog from the New Zealand Herald

TI, Network Physics offer deep analysis solution

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

The next time your VoIP or IPTV network needs deep analysis, you don’t have to call Dr. Phil. With the addition of Network Physics’ NetSensory Solution Insight 2.0 to Texas Instruments’ PIQUA quality management system, VoIP and IPTV network managers can drill down to the underlying network conditions that are causing call degradation. The tool also helps them measure the impact of other enterprise applications on voice traffic and determine if other applications are affected by  voice on the network.

It never ceases to amaze me how much technology mirrors real life and vice versa. If only vendors could create a solution to help humans get to the bottom of their bad behavior caused by their voices, we’d all be better off. But it’s probably best to stick with VoIP.

For more on TI and Network Physics:

- see this press release

Related Article:

TI puts PIQUA in carrier products Report

Text2it tests call transfer

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

For Montreal-based Text2it, VoIP is all about freedom and its subscribers are now good to go. The company launches beta testing of a feature that enables its VoIP from Anywhere subscribers to transfer their VoIP calls to any landline or mobile phone. Subscribers do not need to download or install any special software to use the service. They initiate calls by sending an SMS message to the Text2it gateway or by accessing the gateway via a Web browser. Now subscribers can switch calls to their landline phones or mobile phones by pressing a few keys on their telephone’s keypad.

For more information on Text2it’s beta test:

- read this Business VoIP Report article

- check out the press release

- click here for more information on the company

SPOTLIGHT: Do you know the ABC’s of VoIP security?

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

The very things that make VoIP so appealing to enterprises and end users are also the things that make VoIP networks vulnerable to attack. There is no such thing as being too educated about making VoIP networks secure. They are, after all, data networks, and therefore are vulnerable to all the same security problems IT folks already are waging war against for years now. If that weren’t bad enough, the “bad guys” are getting specific and targeting VoIP. And, contrary to what many may think, it’s actually easier to eavesdrop on IP calls than TDM calls. Who knew? One thing’s for sure, anyone involved in deploying or maintaining VoIP networks should know the fundamentals of VoIP security. Article

ALSO NOTED: CommPartners picks Sonus; To converge or not to converge; and much more…

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

> CommPartners picks Sonus. Release

> To converge or not to converge–the pros and cons. Article

> Toshiba unveils Strata CIX voice mail card for SMB VoIP systems. Release

> Microtune introduces 1 GHz cable modem tuner offers more bandwidth and 20 percent less power. Release

And Finally… Telecom archaeologists and historians take note. As VoIP sweeps across the globe rendering the TDM network obsolete, satellites over Egypt have discovered remnants of a civilization dating back to 400 A.D. The images are being captured for a project that is mapping such sites before they are lost forever. Article

FierceVoIP May 10, 2007

Sunday, May 13th, 2007
  • Have cablecos won the consumer VoIP market?
  • Truphone/Vodafone tiff expands
  • TalkPlus founder becomes top strategy officer
  • SIP trunking resource launched
  • Vonage gets a marketing chief
  • SPOTLIGHT: BT says VoIP-less N95 is no big deal
  • ALSO NOTED: Big River uses MetaSwitch for regional cablecos; Project Goth raises $10 million; and much more…