Convergence means a lot of things to different people. The most common perception of convergence is that it is the convergence of voice, video and data over a common TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) infrastructure.
As all these applications converge onto a common infrastructure, the tools that manage these also need to converge. So, the separate tools that handled telephony and those that handled data must now converge.
The people operating these networks used to hold two separate skills sets and these too will now need to converge. The end devices, being the last mile or broadband, mean that all the different access media will also converge.
The personal digital assistant, cellphone, laptop and scanner, for example, will all use a common infrastructure and protocol to communicate - leaving us in no doubt that convergence is upon us.
Just as no one is an island or nothing exists in a void, convergence cannot be seen in isolation. One needs to think quite broadly in terms of communications. This means that it is about more than just talking. Contact centres are primarily voice-intensive. The merging of data and voice adds another dimension in terms to these centres.
The long and short of it is that pioneering work has been done with respect to convergence.
Andy Brauer, Chief Technology Executive, Business Connexion`s Networks Competency.
Already we are starting to see e-mail, interactive voice recognition (IVR), customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning systems and instant messaging all coming together in the contact centre. In this space one needs to ensure a structured approach to laying down solid foundations for what is termed new generation networks (NGNs).
This is not a new term. If one draws a parallel with the tests that are being conducted on a global basis, NGNs are possibly the start of the hybrid phase of a converged communications infrastructure.
Vital to providing sustained expected service are devices (such as soft switches and media gateways) that allow one to connect to traditional telephony systems, and yet make use of the new generation core infrastructure, which is IP-based and takes consideration of IPV6 and quality of service.
Expected service implies that there has to be continuous supply. Data can endure the occasional delay, but not voice. With video any delays in the connection become clearly visible. For reference purposes, people can look at infrastructure such as Internet II that is already interconnecting major research institutes on a global basis. The long and short of it is that pioneering work has been done with respect to convergence.
The NGN Institute has been formed and considers not only convergence, but also the interoperability among various vendors. This interoperability is an important facet that architects should consider when designing, deploying and procuring equipment within the boundaries of the required designs.
While equipment costs have come down, one has to guard against cheap solutions that eventually lead to expensive problems. Functionality is often left out of the less expensive equipment. Accounting mechanisms, smarter provisioning tools, carrier-class equipment and network intelligence are all factors that allow one to manage the infrastructure more effectively. To be able to do this means to reduce operational expense.
Applying this to NGNs implies that eventually technologies such as ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), frame relaying (better known as frame delay) and time division multiplexing, will ultimately be replaced by smarter devices with fewer layers within the fabric. Currently one would go from TCP/IP to ATM to SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) to get to the fibre, but in future one will go directly with IP/GMPLS (Internet Protocol/Generalised Multiprotocol Label Switching), to the fibre, which reduces the complexity and cost. One has to look at what GMPLS holds for the future.
We could also see traditional enterprise and service provider models, as far as communications is concerned, converging. The enterprise and service provider networks used to have clear lines separating the different models. However, going forward, the lines get distorted and this ultimately leads to the convergence of service provider and enterprise architects, which then becomes an enabler for virtualisation.
So, convergence means more than only voice, video and data coming together. One has to consider the total environment that we find ourselves in when thinking about convergence.
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