This article was published in CAUSE/EFFECT journal, Volume 22 Number 2 1999. The copyright is shared by EDUCAUSE and the author. See http://www.educause.edu/copyright for additional copyright information.
VoIP -- A Practical Campus Perspective
by Dale Smith and Dave BartaWe are at the beginning of dramatic and funda- mental changes in the telephony world. These changes are already starting to alter the technology underlying voice telecommunications in a fundamental way. However, the changes will be incremental and the new technology will integrate with the existing technology before it replaces it.
This revolution is similar to the changes in computing we saw in the 1980s and 1990s. During that period, the microcomputer and networking moved the mainframe computer from the center stage of computing to a less significant role, but rather than signal its demise, these changes have forced the mainframe to evolve into a significantly different animal. This evolution has not decreased the demand for mainframe computers � in fact, it has increased the numbers by orders of magnitude by creating the role of servers. Similarly, we should see the PBX�s role change from being the whole system to being more a behind-the-scenes device used for providing central control and billing as well as for certain critical functions and service to legacy devices. A key catalyst to this change will be Voice over IP (Internet protocol) services.
Analysts often make two mistakes when looking at VoIP: they try to conceive of VoIP on the commodity Internet, and they focus on the shortcomings of PC-based telephones. Both the commodity Internet and PC-based phones introduce significant latency, which negatively affects the quality of voice calls, far exceeding an acceptable delay. Clearly, VoIP won�t operate successfully given the present state of the Internet and PC telephone software. However, employing VoIP is not an all-or-nothing proposition. There are very good applications for the technology.
An obvious immediate application for VoIP is augmenting or replacing voice trunks between sites. Traditionally, a branch office will have voice lines as well as data networking from a branch office to a main campus or corporate office. There are clear economic benefits to being able to move the voice traffic to the data network. At the University of Oregon, we have begun doing this in an experimental fashion with good success. As IP phones become more standardized and robust, we can also envision placing IP phones in some locations. In fact, we believe that for small systems we�re near the point where we might consider installing an IP phone system instead of a key system.
We clearly would not advocate throwing out an installed PBX today. In fact, for large-scale systems, a PBX is still the preferred choice, but if you are about to install a PBX, it is important to make sure the manufacturer has plans to support IP telephony as it develops.
IP telephony should be viewed by both the telecommunications and data communications organizations on campus as a way to collaborate and add value and service to the institution. There are pieces of VoIP that don�t work well today (PC-based software phones, traffic over the commodity Internet), but there are pieces that do work and can add real value. As with all new technologies, there will be a significant amount of hype in the emerging phase, but some of that hype will be based on reality. If your campus has the opportunity, it is worth investing some time and resources to experiment with VoIP hardware to see what works and what doesn�t for your environment.
Dale Smith ([email protected]) is assistant director for Network Services and Dave Barta ([email protected]) is associate director of Business Affairs, Communications, at the University of Oregon.