Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Web 2.0 and Business Communications

TMC Editor Rich Tehrani just published an interview with me in one of the TMC blogs.   The title of the article is a bit misleading, I think, but the content is fine.  

In the interview, I talk about key trends for the year in Voice over IP and related parts of the telecom industry.   I tried to be consistent with my company's view on these matters, but the opinions are my own.  

The article is:  Dialogic: Communications Developers Should Focus on Web 2.0 and Open Source

If it were up to me, a more realistic title would have been:  "Coming soon: Web 2.0 Tools for a Business Near You".   But the TMC editors saw it differently.  

If you have any comments on the interview, let me know.   It also mentions that I'll be speaking at TMC's Communications Developer Conference on September 16 in LA.   My session is called "IMS and ATCA".   If you're in town, please stop by.  

New Article on Voice over IP Gateways

Internet Telephony Magazine, from TMC, has just published an article that I wrote on Voice over IP Gateways.   The article is entitled:  Paving the Way to Next Generation Media and Signaling VoIP Gateways.  

The focus of the article is to review the paths that service providers can take in developing a voice infrastructure that builds on existing circuit based investments, but still supports a way forward in developing new services based on protocols such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).  

The particular thrust of the article is to consider the evolving role of the media gateway.   Such gateways typically offer both media translation and some degree of signaling translation.   Going forward, customers will have a variety of choices, which will include distribution of gateway functions among many elements and a more consolidated type of product that is known as an Integrated Media Gateway.  

Speaking In Hawaii on Media and VoIP Signaling

I'm in Hawaii for the Pacific Telecommunications Council, also known as PTC '08.   This is the 2nd time I've attended this conference.   It is set at the very picturesque Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach in Oahu.   

I'll be speaking on January 14 in the afternoon on the topic of "Media and ISUP Signaling Translation for IMS and other Next Gen Networks".   I have found that the nuts and bolts of translating media and signaling are an important part of what is needed to effectively deploy Voice over IP.   I wrote a paper on this topic for the conference and will present it in slide form as part of a Next Generation Platforms session tomorrow.   If you are at the conference, please join us. 

I had a fascinating discussion on where Telecom is going tonight with a woman professor in Telecommunications from Syracuse University.   We were in general agreement that the innovation in Telecom is tending to come from upstarts that change the rules and force the bigger carriers to accelerate the move to new technologies.  As an example, when Vonage started to prove that VoIP was viable, this caused the US cable companies to move from talk to execution in their VoIP strategies.   In a like manner, Apple is proving that an innovative handset can create lots of excitement in a part of the business that many companies view as a commodity item.   As is the case with much innovation, Apple moved into a vacuum and changed the UI experience for phones in a way that is likely to have a far reaching ripple effect.   Too bad that they've tied it to an exclusive with AT&T in the US and not let consumers choose their own wireless phone vendor.   I'm still waiting for more aggressive deployment by carriers of phones that can support both Wifi and 2G/3G; for internet access, the higher bandwidth available via Wifi is a game changer that customers should be allowed to take advantage of. 

As I write, the wind is howling.  We've had pretty good weather the last 2 days, as it has been mostly sunny despite predictions of rain.   There was a downpour overnight last night, but it was followed by morning sun with a mix of clouds.   

Internet Telephony in LA

It is a clear day in Los Angeles as the Internet Telephony Fall conference begins today.  I got up at 6:30 after a good night's sleep, had breakfast and then headed to the show. 

I spoke on SIP and SS7 to an audience of about 35 people at 10:00 am.   This talk built on themes which I'd previously written about in an article for SIP Magazine earlier this year.    In essence, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) has won the standards wars, but there is a still a lot of Signaling System 7 (SS7) in the network, so there will be a need for carriers to support both SIP and SS7 for years to come.   

As usual, this is a good networking show.  I have already run into many of my friends from the industry here and have also had numerous conversations with new acquaintances.  If you are in the LA area and have an interest in next generation communications, stop by and check it out.   I have a speaker pass, so I'll be roaming  both the show floor and attending conference sessions. 

Interview by Rich Tehrani

A few weeks back, I was speaking the Communications Developer Conference, put on by TMC.   I had a nasty cold while there, but still managed to speak in a one hour session on Media and Signaling Translation, and to take about twenty minutes to talk with Rich Tehrani, the Editor-In-Chief of Internet Telephony magazine.   

We had a pretty wide ranging discussion about Voice over IP industry trends and the product that I manage for Cantata Technology, the IMG 1010 Integrated Gateway, as well as its sister product, the MSP or Multi-Service Platform.   

For a link to Rich's blog and the interview, please go here. 

Speaking about VoIP Signaling Transition

Next week I'll be out in Santa Clara, California to speak at the Communications Developer Conference sponsored by TMC.   The topic will be on Media and Signaling Transitions for IMS and Next Generation Networks.   The date is May 15th.   

TMC was kind enough to provide a press release on the speaking engagement which can be found here.

Lately, I've been writing and speaking on a variety of related topics.   For example, the current issue of SIP Magazine has my article on "Integration of SIP & SS7 for Voice-Over-IP: Opportunities and Challenges".   

Based on the hype, one might believe that nobody is using SS7 anymore and all new networks are fully SIP enabled, but we are actually a long way from this state of affairs.   In fact, SS7 is widely deployed and is a linchpin for a number of services that are widely used such as Caller ID, Local Number Portability and so on.   Hence, there is a real need for products that can translate between SS7 ISUP and SIP.   My company Cantata provides such a product, the IMG 1010 (for which I am the product manager), and there are other vendors as well.  However, as the article notes, the features of media and signaling translation are often handled in separate devices, which generally adds to the overall cost for a carrier.   

Next week I'll speak for one hour on this topic and cover a variety of network scenarios for media and signaling translation, including use on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and on other non-IMS networks.   I hope you can join us in sunny Santa Clara.