Internet Protocol (IP) telephony can yield big cost savings to both corporations and consumers. It is more efficient than the plain old telephone service (POTS) and is poised to undergo huge growth. Before that growth can occur, however, designers who want to use the technology have to vault hurdles concerning latency, quality, and security. Quality of service (QoS) is the primary problem impeding this growth. A traditional problem with this technology, QoS must improve enough to enable Internet-based services to compete with traditional telephony providers. Many industry pundits think this scenario won’t happen unless IP overcomes these problems . Read the rest of this entry »

There are many ways to bring home a high-speed link beyond the 56-kbps limit that plain-old telephone service (POTS)-based V.90 performance allows. The methods include integrated-services digital network (ISDN), satellite links, cable modems, hybrid fiber-coax, and wireless local loops. But all these methods eventually encounter the virtually universal, metallic local loop that is the “last mile” between the phone company’s central office (CO) and the end user in the public switched-telephone network (PSTN). This loop can be a significant barrier to installing yet another type of path, or it can be a major opportunity—if you can effectively exploit the availability of this enormous, already-in-place link. Read the rest of this entry »