IP telephony is far from convergent, says reader

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: STEVE TAYLOR AND LARRY HETTICK ON
CONVERGENCE
08/08/05
Today's focus: IP telephony is far from convergent, says reader

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Reader questions why IP telephony vendors tout proprietary
  protocols
* Links related to Convergence
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: IP telephony is far from convergent, says reader

By Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

This week, we'd like to turn our focus to several observations
and questions that one of our readers has forwarded. He works as
a network and development assistant for a major university, and
has been following the growth of VoIP and open source telephony
for several years.

Our reader writes: "As convergence and IP telephony become more
and more popular, I've noticed everything but convergence when
it comes to the core protocols behind many vendors'
communications servers. I feel that proprietary technologies
such as Cisco's SCCP [Signalling Connection Control Part]
(skinny) protocol for communications between their CallManager
servers and IP endpoints, and Nortel's UNISTIM [Unified Network
Stimulus] protocol are building barriers, not breaking them
down. In my opinion, the world of IP telephony has become
increasingly divergent instead of convergent."

Our reader has been involved with the testing and implementation
of open source PBXs like Asterisk for about six months, and he
notes that "in order for different brands and types of IP
communications devices to co-exist on the same network, the
communications world needs to agree on one, or a small set of
core IP communications protocols."

In his experience, he cites three major vendors that don't seem
to agree on a common, cost-effective set of VoIP protocols. For
example in his experience "Cisco offers their 7900 series IP
endpoints, yet [Cisco] only distributes SIP firmware to service
contract holders at a price of around $80 per phone, not
including the $300 phone [or the costs associated with] the
service contact.

He contends that, "Nortel does not support SIP at all, sticking
to their proprietary UNISTIM protocol. The hardware units
themselves are engineered very well, but [the] lack of a
standard protocol support such as SIP makes them unusable on any
platform other than Nortel's."

On a more positive note, he's been advised that, "Avaya is
currently working on a SIP-compliant endpoint program as well as
a project to implement SIP into their communications servers."

Bottom line: the reader wants to know if "companies such as
Avaya, Nortel, and Cisco [will] continue to tout their own
proprietary technologies to ensure that their clients remain
with them for any future telecom upgrades."

Next time, we'll add our observations and next week, we'll get
replies directly from the vendors to address our reader's
concerns.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. First family of Windows Vista viruses unleashed
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence4547>

2. The CEO's sidekick
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence4548>

3. BellSouth sues AT&T
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence4549>

4. Leaked Cisco slides pulled after legal threats
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence4550>

5. Cisco vulnerability posted to Internet
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence4551>
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates
and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed
information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter,
connect to Webtorials <http://www.webtorials.com/>, the premier
site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and
market research. Taylor can be reached at
<mailto:taylor@webtorials.com>

Larry Hettick is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of
experience in voice and data. He is Vice President for Telecom
Services and Infrastructure at Current Analysis, the leading
competitive response solutions company. He can be reached at
<mailto:lhettick@currentanalysis.com>
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