But you don’t need to build your system from components. If you want a
total solution, try an UnPBX, an NT-based phone system with automated attendant,
voice messaging, ACD, and email functions. One exciting UnPBX approach, for
example, is Sphere Communications’ Sphericall software and hardware
product. Sphericall puts a switch in an NT Server. But it can also use
asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networking to combine LAN and voice traffic on
the same wires. You just need Sphere Communications’ PhoneNICs to connect
each phone to the host PC. The company also offers PhoneHubs to add plain old
telephone service (POTS) phones without ATM. Most of the call handling is on
Screen, so you don’t need expensive phones. (For more information about
Sphericall, see Chris Bajorek, "What’s Happening in Computer
Telephony," Windows NT Magazine, January 1997.) Sphericall blurs
the line between computers and telephony. In fact, Sphericall received more
attention at NetWorld+InterOp than at CT Expo.
Despite all the board-level, UnPBX, and hybrid solutions, don’t expect
the traditional switch to dry up. Switches have redundancy and reliability that
make PCs look like toy computers. (You can’t even put a card in a PC
without turning it off.) In addition, many companies already have large
investments in switch equipment and telephones. So, instead of companies
replacing their switch equipment, they will most likely use computers to more
easily control the switches.
Predictions Through a Foggy Crystal Ball
Two events will affect CT in the near future. One event is the release of NT
5.0. (For more information about the new NT 5.0 capabilities that will affect
CT, see the sidebar, "Windows NT 5.0 and CT.") This new version of NT
will make CT applications, especially Internet-based ones, easier to develop—and
that brings us to the second event: the growing reliance on the Internet. The
widespread popularity of the Internet will greatly affect both CT and NT.
Companies will need to use both to help them meet their customers’ rapidly
changing needs. For example, companies will need to integrate Internet
phone-like plugins into their customer service and tech support centers. They
will also require page-push features to show customers the right Web page.
Because more voice- and videoconferences will take place over the Internet,
companies will need to install full-time (and large) connections. Companies will
also need telephone systems with an Ethernet jack so that they can make and
receive voice-over-IP calls directly. Finally, Internet delays will make
extranets to vital customers and suppliers more important.
In the more distant future, perhaps NT 6.0 will have more smarts for CT.
But the independent CT application-development tools and CT hardware market aren’t
going to fade away. Like dreams, both will change in unpredicTable and exciting
ways. Connecting and using all these new innovations will get easier for SOHOs
and FORTUNE 500 organizations alike. I can’t wait for next year’s CT
Expo show to see how.
The Role of Standards in CT’s Growth
Standards have been incredibly important to the CT industry’s growth
and are shaping it today. Interoperability is one area in which standards play a
critical role. Companies want to buy software and hardware components from
multiple vendors, install them on a Windows NT server, and have them all work
together in call-automating harmony. For example, you can buy a voice card, fax
card, voicemail software, and fax server package from different vendors, and
through the magic of standards, they peacefully coexist. They can even work as
an integrated messaging solution with Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook.
Vendors now have many standards to choose from. Open Database Connectivity
(ODBC), SQL, Telephony API (TAPI), Telephony Services API (TSAPI), Messaging API
(MAPI), H.323, S.x00, and Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM) are but a few.
(For more information on these standards, see Chris Bajorek and Alex Pournelle,
"Computer Telephony Terms and Technologies," Windows NT Magazine,
September 1997.)
In the last year, NT became a pivotal standard for CT, providing a common
software platform for CT manufacturers. In fact, Microsoft has been a driving
force in CT by providing the following standards:
• PC-based OS (MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and NT)
• ODBC for database access
• Messaging API (MAPI) for messaging
• COM/DCOM for distributed object-oriented development
• Application development tools (primarily Visual C++ and Visual Basic)
• TAPI and related API standards
While Microsoft’s CT focus and momentum waned a bit during its full
frontal attack on Netscape, the company recently updated its CT efforts with
COM-enabled TAPI 3.0. Microsoft has also been busy with an NT networking
standard important to CT: RRAS (formerly code-named Steelhead) for NT Server.
When multiple corporate sites have their own CT systems, a natural need
exists to network them. For example, if you want to send a voicemail message to
a remote office, you need to send that message from your local system and have
the CT system automatically transfer it to the appropriate remote mailbox. With
RRAS, you can establish server-to-server connections that provide a conduit for
the routing of email, voice, fax, data, and video with equal ease and
efficiency. Of course, you need application code to implement the routing
function, but with NT making the network connections, CT application developers
have one less piece that they must create themselves. The same update also makes
it easier to create IP-to-PSTN gateways because establishing the
server-to-server connection is an intrinsic NT capability.
—Chris Bajorek
Windows NT 5.0 and CT
Core features in Windows NT 5.0 will spawn new computer telephony (CT)
products and capabilities. Although NT 4.0 is already a highly capable CT
platform, NT 5.0 will make CT applications, especially Internet-based ones,
easier to develop. Here are several new NT 5.0 capabilities that will affect CT.
Active Directory Service: The most strategic addition to NT
5.0 will be the built-in Active Directory Service. It will enable many
user-addressing features for communications routing, all of which NT will
handle. One such feature will let you publish controlled user information in a
global directory entry. The global entry will let anyone on the Internet find
you.
Active Movie: New data-streaming protocols will simplify
implementing Internet telephony applications. These protocols will, for example,
make IP-to-Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) gateways easier to implement
and appropriate for all realtime communications streams, including voice, fax,
and video.
COM/DCOM support: NT 5.0 will offer support for Component
Object Model/Distributed Component Object Model (COM/DCOM). With
this support, NT can provide scalable object-oriented solutions.
Hot-swap: NT 5.0’s hot-swap feature will let users
exchange NT Server components without shutting down the server. This new feature
will most likely prompt PC vendors to begin supporting hot-swap capabilities,
although they won’t address hot-swapping PCI cards.
Nonstop computing: On the software front, when Microsoft
releases the Wolfpack clustering program, more software and hardware companies
will use nonstop computing for failover in telephony. Thus, NT 5.0 users will
have nonstop computing capability.
Plug and Play (PnP) support: On the hardware front, NT 5.0’s
PnP architecture will slowly make CT hardware easier to install compared with
installation on those systems in which the call-processing boards have ISA
architecture. But the switch to PCI will be slow until CT becomes more
do-it-yourself. In addition, PCI’s three to five cards-per-PCI-bus limit
will keep ISA from fading away for another year, at least for applications
requiring 8 to 10 boards. This situation will put CT in a separate box and out
of the file server, especially in large installations (120 lines or more).
ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP): Microsoft will implement this
quality-of-service protocol for the Internet as part of NT 5.0. RSVP will enable
realtime communications that will be far less susceptible to dropouts.
Telephony API (TAPI) 3.0: This version of TAPI will merge
call control with media streaming and control. TAPI 3.0 will have features that
make Internet telephony applications easier to implement. For example, a COM
layer will be put around TAPI 3.0, so developers can use their language of
choice (e.g., Java, C++, or Visual Basic).
Virtual private networks: NT 5.0 will provide efficient
server-to-server routing over virtual private networks, providing low-cost CT
bandwidth. No router hardware is necessary. These connections will provide
realtime communications for all media types. (This capability is already
available for NT 4.0 through RRAS, which Microsoft released this summer.)
—Alex Pournelle and Chris Bajorek