Communications Software White Papers

The Converged Network Infrastructure: An Introductory Guide

• Tags:
• communications software,
• equipment,
• providers,
• architectures

Overview Communication services drive the current model and pace of business, enabling a whole new way of transacting commerce and interacting with customer and employees. The emergence of global competition and the continued domination of the Internet has driven a need for much more sophisticated multifunctional communication services in order for businesses to reach customers. Carriers are responding to the challenge through the building of much more versatile platforms, both through new network deployments and the transformation of their traditional singular communication networks to multiservice architectures. For traditional carriers, the importance of co-existence of existing and newer technologies and equipment is an important reality. Next-generation multiservice networks, based on packetized technologies will not entirely push out existent circuit-switching equipment and solutions for many years. This is where a network element called a "media gateway" is needed--it performs both signaling and media format conversion between different network encoding and transmission standards. For new communications service providers that don't have a legacy of traditional networks, co-existence is moot. Flexible and versatile multiservice network architectures can provide an immediate competitive advantage, although since these are relatively new technologies, there are still issues of proven capability to be achieved. However, these new service providers must still work with existing networks to maximize customer coverage and appeal. Key to success in this new communications market is the ability to rapidly create new communications solutions that offer carriers and other communication services providers a competitive edge in attracting new and retaining existing customers. The adoption of open standards in equipment development generates a virtuous circle where a market for outsourced components fosters competition which in turn drives innovation, so visionary network equipment

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