Voice over IP takes center stage at N+I

Voice over IP takes center stage at N+I
LAS VEGAS, N.V. — "Is innovation dead?" That was the question raised by Gordon Stitt, president and CEO of Extreme Networks during his keynote address at last week's Networld+Interop show in Las Vegas. While it may seem that way in that way in some respects, ask anyone on the show floor doing voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), particularly over wireless LANs, and the answer will be a resounding "No!"

Though historically hampered by latency concerns leading to poor voice quality, and more recently by a downturn in spending for IT infrastructure, recent figures show that all that's about to change for the positive. The upswing brings with it questions of management and control of handoffs with wireless IP networks, given the stringent latency requirements of VoIP.

In addition, while issues such as security would seem to have been addressed by the introduction of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the apparent success of WPA itself has started a heated debate within the IEEE 802.11i security Task Group over whether or not the Project Authorization Request under which the group operates should be split. This, theoretically, would crystallize the frame-protection elements of the draft standard that are finalized, and mostly reflected in WPA. This would allow product development with WPA with the IEEE's formal blessing, meanwhile elements of the standard that have been slow to materialize, mostly involving handoffs, can continue under less pressure to get done. That debate continues.

But there's no debating the pending inflection point with VoIP. Spurred by improved voice quality, ease of use, advanced features and control, lower overall cost per call and a desire to "future-proof" networks, In-Stat/MDR predicts that enterprise VoIP telephony station sales will exceed regular PBX phones for the first time later this year.

In a separate report, Allied Business Intelligence's senior consulting analyst Julia Mermelstein sees several incumbent telecom providers, who have been slow to engage in the hosted VoIP services market, convert trial activities into large-scale product launches. "In 2003, we expect to see continued growth from emerging services providers who, after quietly launching their offers during 2001 and 2002, have been gradually building their customer base." While recognizing that general availability of IP voice to date has been limited, Mermelstein predicts that the combined worldwide revenues for hosted VoIP services, including IP-PBX, videoconferencing, contact center and unified communications are expected to grow from $46 million in 2001 to $36.5 billion in 2008.

The momentum behind the numbers was felt at N+I where Avaya took center stage by providing show-wide VoIP wired telephony services as well as demonstrations and panel discussions of its myriad software and hardware VoIP solutions. In addition, ARM and Hellosoft Inc. demonstrated a low-cost VoIP phone on a single ARM926EJ-S using HelloSoft's optimized software suite, while Cisco announced two new IP phone models, the 7912G and 7902G, as well as improvements to its IP-based hardware and software.

However, it was the unusually strong wireless LAN emphasis at the show, thanks to the presence of almost every major WLAN chip, switch, router and software vendor, that gave VoIP over WLANs the spotlight. Avaya demonstrated a wireless access point (AP) designed to protect wireless calls routed over a converged IP infrastructure, while both Cisco and SpectraLink announced enterprise wireless VoIP phones based on IEEE 802.11b.

SpectraLink's NetLink e340 ($399) is designed for general applications, while the i640 ($599) is more robust and features a VoIP multicast push-to-talk capability with an integrated loudspeaker. Cisco's 7920, based on an Atmel .11b chipset, is priced at $595.

With the arrival of wireless VoIP phones, the pressure mounts on the IEEE's 802.11e Task Group to finish its work so a standardized quality of service regimen can be implemented for WLANs. Until that's accomplished companies such as SpectraLink and Cisco are forced to use proprietary QoS protocols, such as SpectraLink Voice Priority (SVP).

That pressure raises the question of whether or not a WPA-like extraction of certain elements of the .11e group's work can be performed to get things moving along a somewhat coordinated manner. That approach has met with enormous success in terms of addressing security concerns, according to Brian Grimm, marketing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance. That group led the WPA initiative and demonstrated a string of WPA-certified devices at the show from the likes of Broadcom, Cisco, Atheros, Intel, Intersil and Symbol.

The success of WPA, combined with the on-going difficulties involved with resolving the fast roaming and key management with the 802.11i group, has spurred the debate as to whether or not the .11i PAR should be split in two. The frame-protection protocols such as TKIP (part of WPA) and CCMP could be formalized and published to allow product development, while work continues on key management and fast roaming. Theoretically, the two could be merged when the latter is finalized.

This has met with some resistance within the group, derived from procedural concerns as well as the delays inherent to the splitting process and its implementation. As the formal spokesperson for the Wi-Fi Alliance, Grimm took no position either way and would not comment on whether or not a similar approach would be taken for the 802.11e QoS effort. Cisco's Ron Seide, product line manager for wireless LANs was similarly reticent. "The Wi-Fi Alliance has done a huge service with WPA, as oftimes time-to-market concerns outstrip the ratification process," he said. However, with respect to a similar process for .11e, he added, "optimally Wi-Fi will test to a ratified standard."

Perspective reset

While much of the discussion at the show revolved around wireless, according to Gordon Stitt, a perspective reset is required. "The big idea isn't wireless, the big innovation is the integration of wireline networks in a scalable and manageable form." Undoubtedly this comes within a breath of a shameless plug for the company's newly announced Summit WLAN management solutions for Extreme's vision of a Unified Access Architecture. However, he could be forgiven for capitalizing upon any opportunity to be heard above the noise of every other WLAN management solution being hawked at the show.

Promising everything from seamless roaming to scalability to hacker-proof security, the myriad solutions being offered by the likes of Trapeze, Chantry, Extreme, Vivato, Airespace, Aruba, Bluesocket and ReefEdge all came to N+I with one mission: to step out of the shadow of incumbents such as Cisco. Trapeze's president and ceo Jim Flach laid down the gauntlet to Cisco, and others, by touting its user-based identity and rapid handoff and roaming from AP to AP and from subnet to subnet, as well as the company's extensive network monitoring and layout features.

For IT managers evaluating the various solutions from both incumbents and especially startups, Stitt summed up the situation: "You have to buy a vision, not a product."