IT_June2014

Top of Mind Too Much and Group Publisher and Editor-In-Chief, Never Enough Rich Tehrani, ([email protected]) EDITORIAL Group Editorial Director, Erik Linask ([email protected]) My husband and I have spent the last FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently Executive Editor, IP Communications Group, few evenings sifting through our cabi- blogged that spectrum below 1 gHz – Paula Bernier ([email protected]) nets, closets, and garage to clean out such as the spectrum that will be avail- TMC LABS broken, too tight, unused, and unwanted able via the Incentive Auction, which is CEO, Rich Tehrani camping gear, clothing, sporting goods, expected to take place next year – has ([email protected]) and tchotchkes. It’s the community-wide physical properties that increase the reach garage sale in our neighborhood, so it’s a of mobile networks over long distances. ART/DESIGN Associate Vice President of Creative, Alan Urkawich great opportunity to do some purging. Graphic Designer, Lisa Mellers “The effect of such properties is that Production Manager, Stephanie Thompson The last place we lived was a tiny bunga- fewer base stations and other infrastruc- low in the Chicago suburbs. Our current ture are required to build out a mobile ExECuTIvE OffICERS place is more than twice the size of the network. This makes low-band particu- Nadji Tehrani, Chairman and Founder Rich Tehrani, CEO last one. And, yet, every cabinet, every larly important in rural areas. A legacy of Dave Rodriguez, President closet, every drawer, and every shelf and earlier spectrum assignments, however, Michael Genaro, EVP of Operations corner in the garage is full to the gills. I is that two national carriers control the guess it’s true that the amount of stuff vast majority of low-band spectrum. As ADvERTISING SALES we amass is proportional to the space we a result, rural consumers are denied the Sales Offce Phone: 203-852-6800 have in which to put it. competition and choice that would be VP Business Development available if more wireless competitors Anthony Graffeo, 203-295-0234 ([email protected]) VP Events It’s kind of like what’s happening with also had access to low-band spectrum.” Joe Fabiano ([email protected]) our networks lately. As soon as new AVP of Client Services bandwidth becomes available, we fill it Wheeler and the FCC are working to Jaime Hernaez, ext. 217 ([email protected]) up and are quickly looking for more. address that. Also on the rural front, the FCC continues to implement the SuBSCRIpTIONS Circulation Director, Steph Thompson, ext. 157 The fact that about 60 percent of Americans Connect America Fund, which has in- ([email protected]) use smartphones, which are bandwidth- vested more than $438 million to bring loving devices, is one key factor contribut- broadband to 1.6 million previously INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine is published monthly ing to this trend. According to Cisco’s Visual unserved Americans and invested $300 ® except February and August. Annual digital subscriptions are free Networking Index, worldwide mobile data million to expand advanced mobile to qualifying U.S., Canada and Foreign subscribers. Annual print subscriptions are free to U.S. qualifying readers; $69.00 U.S. traffic will increase nearly 11-fold in the wireless service and nearly $50 million non-qualifying, $99.00 Canada, $119.00 foreign qualifying and next four years to reach an annual run rate for better mobile voice and broadband non-qualifying. All orders are payable in advance in U.S. Dollars drawn against a U.S. Bank. Connecticut residents add applicable of 190 exabytes by 2018. on Tribal lands. And that’s just Phase 1 sales tax. For more information, contact our Web site at www. of the project. itmag.com or call 203-852-6800. That’s why the Federal Communications POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: INTERNET TELE- Commission continues to make available Meanwhile, Google is working to bring ® PHONY , Technology Marketing Corporation, 800 Connecticut Ave, 1st Floor East, Norwalk, CT. 06854-1628 USA. Canada Post: new spectrum. It’s why the cellular carriers broadband and the Internet to more Publications Mail Agreement # 40612608, Canada Returns to be and their suppliers, which just recently people via its FTTH builds in places sent to: Pitney Bowes International, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C implemented 4G LTE, are already talking like Kansas City, where an organization 6B2, CANADA about 5G and are deploying DAS, small called Arts Tech has created a program ExhIBIT SALES cell, and Wi-Fi technologies to augment (and won a grant) to help with the edu- Sales Offce Phone: 203-852-6800 existing networks. cation barrier relative to broadband. VP of Events, Joe Fabiano ([email protected]) Companies whose names begin with A-L or #s: But for all the advances we’ve seen in “Instead of sleeping in on Saturday Sr. Global Events Director, Maureen Gambino ([email protected]) broadband, we still hear about how not mornings, students join us to learn Conference Sales Director, everybody is benefitting from our great about computer hardware, in-home Frank Coppola ([email protected]) growing networks, either because of networking, the Internet and computer their location, their financial situation, or software,” Dave Sullivan, executive About INTERNET TELEPHONY ® a lack of education. director of Arts Tech wrote in an April Internet telephony is revolutionizing telecommunications through the convergence of voice, video, fax, and data, creating 14 Google fiber blog. “ They’re also unprecedented opportunities for resellers, developers, and service providers alike. INTERNET TELEPHONY focuses on Some folks in rural areas still don’t have learning how to work with seniors, and ® providing readers with the information necessary to learn about access to broadband, as you’re probably al- how to develop their very own digital and purchase the equipment, software, and services necessary to take advantage of this technology. INTERNET TELEPHONY ready aware, but there are even some busi- literacy curriculum (like planning classes ® readers include resellers, developers, MIS/networking depart- nesses in tier 1 cities that lack the broad- on how to create email addresses, and ments, telecom departments, datacom departments, telcos/LECs, wireless/PCS providers, ISPs, and cable companies. band resources they require, as discussed in how to use social networks to connect this issue’s piece on DAS and in past issues with friends) that they’ll be able to teach of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine. by the end of the program.” IT June 2014 INTERNET TELEPHONY ® 1

Publisher’s Outlook Carriers Need to Get in TMCnet (www.tmcnet.com) the Game TMCnet EDITORIAL Group Editorial Director, Erik Linask Senior Editors, Paula Bernier, Peter Bernstein Assignment Editor, Stefania Viscusi Contributing Editorial, Gary Kim, Tara Seals Carriers are losing control over core what is obviously a pricing war, and Zynga Ed Silverstein, Rachel Ramsey, Oliver VanDervoort network services such as voice and text. shows us a game that can get a $10 billion This is in-turn making them dumb-pipe increase in market cap thanks to third-party TMCnet PRODUCTION Webmaster, Robert Hashemian providers. While wireless is still a profit- marketing through a network – in this case Associate Vice President of Creative, Alan Urkawich able business, the presence of companies social. Did you digest that? Senior Designer & Director of TMCnet Communities like T-Mobile and Sprint in the U.S. makes and Channels, Maxine Sandler it more difficult than ever for carriers like Carriers are storehouses of value that Senior Web Designer, Director of Strategic Web Initiatives, Chhityz Thapa AT&T and Verizon to keep their higher may never be tapped – because they are Operations Manager, Tim Goins ([email protected]) than industry-average margins. busy being carriers and don’t think like entrepreneurs. You can’t blame them; MARKETING Partnering with an app company is one they have massive infrastructure, tow- EVP of Operations, Michael Genaro way carriers can add value to their of- ers, unions, FCC regulations, and more Creative Director, Alan Urkawich ferings. Apps like Pele King of Football, lawyers than most companies have paper FINANCE (Google Play) – which after being out for clips. But I tell you, the best way for VP Finance, Allen Frydrych two weeks has had more than 300,000 AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. to unlock value Senior Accountant, Betsy Estes downloads – is incredibly addictive. is to figure out how to get involved in the Accounts Coordinator, Charles Hendricks What distinguishes this game from many app and specifically, the gaming, market. others is the tie in to soccer, the world’s READER INPUT most popular sport, and Pele, the world’s If we use the Pele game as an example, I INTERNET TELEPHONY encourages readers to contact ® most famous soccer player. could see this being a two-way relationship. us with their questions, comments, and suggestions. Send e-mail On the one hand, they partner with the (addresses above), or send ordinary mail. We reserve the right to You may think no one young knows who game, which offers all sorts of things you edit letters for clarity and brevity. All submissions will be considered eligible for publication unless otherwise specifed by the author. Pele is, but Josh Blitz, CEO of Cosi Produc- can win. But the carrier could throw in incen- tions LLC, the company behind the game, tives for playing, such as a bucket of free INTERNET TELEPHONY is a registered trademark of Technol- ® says you would be surprised at how many SMS minutes, a free month of service, $10 ogy Marketing Corporation. Copyright © 2014 Technology Marketing kids know the great Pele. Whether or not worth of international calling, 10 percent off Corporation. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without they have heard of Pele, however, players your next device purchase, etc. In addition, permission of the publisher is prohibited. of the game are peppered with facts about they could take an equity stake in games like Pele’s life and get to see exclusive video this and then promote them like crazy. REPRINTS AND LIST RENTALS content about the champion. For authorized reprints of articles appearing in Amazon is going to come out with a INTERNET TELEPHONY , please contact: ® Blitz says the company is working to part- phone, and the company will likely subsi- The YGS Group Reprint Division 3650 West Market Street, York, PA 17404 ner with carriers that are looking for an dize the device. Content and services will 717-505-9701 or 800-501-9571 x105 • [email protected] association with Pele and the World Cup. be the way phone service is paid for. What The game has all sorts of mini-contests will this do to carrier margins? It could be included in it, enabling players to win highly problematic for the service provid- things like tickets to the World Cup. This ers that aren’t chosen by Amazon. integrated publishing solutions got me thinking that carriers are missing FOR LIST RENTALS out on the app world – the most exciting So carriers, I am telling you: Start exploring please contact Jill Olsen at [email protected] or part of mobile, according to some. I’m just your options. Try out this game now – if call 914-765-0700 ext. 105. saying, King Digital Entertainment has a you like it, give the company call. Alterna- market cap far north of $5 billion, and it tively, pick any game vendor out there that makes just one game, Candy Crush. is new and exciting, and reach out. Zynga was early to the world of Facebook Yes, it stinks to be in a business that is com- games and was fortunate enough to be able moditized where the smaller players have to use the social network as a free market- to drop prices to gain share, and the leaders ing vehicle, which enabled it to have an IPO have to follow suit. Alternatively, we talk often A Technology Marketing Publication, where its shares were soon valued at almost of the ecosystem Apple and Google enjoy. River Park, 800 Connecticut Ave. 1st Fl. Norwalk, CT 06854-1628 U.S.A. $15 each. Even as of today, when the shares You know what? Carriers have ecosystems Phone: 203-852-6800 Fax: 203 295-3773 or 203 295-3717 are at $4.35, the company’s market cap is a too. They just don’t seem to realize they have staggering $3.81 billion dollars. them and haven’t figured out how to maxi- mize the revenue they could generate. Getting Let’s think this through for a second. Carri- more involved with gaming seems to be a ers are in an all-out battle to make profit in logical way to explore your options. IT ® 2 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com

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Contents CovEr STory Vol. 17 – No. 5 June 2014 Smooth Operator: Phybridge Enables Businesses to Confidently Migrate to IP CoLUMNS 18 1 Top of Mind Too Much and Never Enough 2 Publisher’s Outlook Carriers Need to Get in the Game 6 Guest Room (with Alston & Bird’s Jeffrey A. Belkin & Jessica L. Sharron) USAC Turns up the Heat on E-Rate Price Requirement 8 Infrastructure Peering Dark Fiber’s Long Tail – The Digital Deserts of America 8 UC Unplugged Customer Obsession – The Path to Gaining a Competitive Edge Subscribe FrEE 10 Rethinking Communications Today! Personal Video and UC, Part 2 – What are You Afraid Of? 12 Ask the SIP Trunk Expert What is Necessary for SIP Trunking – The E-SBC Departments 14 Wireless Wonk The Shared Experience Edit Series Roundup 22 Yorktel Makes Complicated Simple 50 IP Cameras 16 Enterprise View Brought to you by Yorktel The Only Constant Is Change The Channel WebRTC Supplement 54 On Rad’s Radar: Don’t Be Like 16 Enterprise Mobility 23 What You Need to Know House Hunters The Dawn of the Web App Age About WebRTC 24 Welcome to WebRTC Cloud & Data Center 17 WebRTC to WebComm 56 The Challenges of Moving Data To 26 The WebRTC Market and Ecosystems the Cloud The Video Conundrum 28 WebRTC Conference & Expo – The Global Best of WebRTC Network Infrastructure 64 Convergence Corner Network Forensics – The Forgotten 30 The Outlook for WebRTC in 2014 57 Service Control: The Obvious Answer Need for IT and Beyond to the OSS/BSS Conundrum 32 An Enterprising View on WebRTC Wireless 34 WebRTC’s Impact on Service Providers 58 DAS Crazy: Distributed Antennae 36 Talking WebRTC with Priologic’s Systems Hit the Big Time Doug Pelton 38 Acision: WebRTC is Moving Beyond Getting Vertical the Hoo-Ha 60 Transbeam Addresses the Needs of Post Acute Partners – Stat 40 Avaya Offers a Practical View of WebRTC 42 CafeX Dishes on WebRTC Ad Index 44 Temasys Discusses the Innovation 62 Ad Index WebRTC Can Enable Special Focus 46 The GLOBALINX Masterstream Solu- tion: A Tool to Help Agents Spend Time 58 Selling Rather Than Doing Quoting ® 4 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com



Guest Room By Jeffrey A. Belkin & Jessica L. Sharron USAC Turns up the Heat on E-rate Price requirement The Universal Service Administrative Company has begun issu- to implement the lowest corresponding price rule as required by ing Payment Quality Assurance assessments to E-Rate service the Commission’s rules at 47 C.F.R. § 54.511(b).” Interestingly, providers in the Schools and Libraries Program. E-Rate is a the FCC ultimately decided against adding this express certifica- federal program that provides eligible K-12 public schools and tion, and the current Form 473 does not include it. libraries discounts on approved telecommunications services, broadband Internet access, and internal network connections. On July 23, 2013, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comments on E-Rate topics in an effort to Although PQAs are generally common, the circumstances sur- modernize the program. Significantly, the NPRM addressed the rounding this round of PQAs warrants special attention. That’s LCP requirement. because this round requires service providers to certify com- pliance with the lowest corresponding price requirement – a For example, the FCC sought comments on requirement that is a well-documented source of • whether to measure compliance with the LCP rule as a mea- confusion. sure of affordability; • the extent to which the LCP rule helps ensure that service The LCP is “the lowest price providers charge cost-effective prices and its role in competitive It appears that that a service provider bidding; and • if clarification of the LCP rule is needed regarding (1) whether charges to non-residen- USAC is using tial customers who the obligation applies only to competitive bids submitted in are similarly situ- response to a Form 470, (2) whether compliance is a continuing the PQA process, ated to a particular obligation throughout the contract term, (3) whether there are pro- cedures to ensure compliance, (4) how the LCP requirement applies school, library, or and a formal library consor- to service bundles, and (5) whether, if challenged, the initial burden certification of LCP tium for similar falls on the challenger to demonstrate noncompliance. services.” The compliance, to test LCP rule states: Other issues the FCC has not addressed include the geographic “Providers of scope of the requirement, any distinctions between Priority 1 eligible services LCP requirements, shall not charge and Priority 2 services, and whether state master contract prices are presumptively compliant. Hundreds of comments were schools, school despite the districts, libraries, received, but the FCC has not issued a final rule. library consortia, or unanswered consortia including Meanwhile, USAC has issued requests for LCP certifications to service providers, apparently for the first time. The PQA any of these entities a questions. price above the lowest Program is essentially an auditing program under which USAC reviews funding payments to determine if they were accurate, corresponding price for properly documented, and in compliance with regulations. supported services, unless the Commission, with respect to inter- Having elected not to issue formal guidance on the LCP rule or state services or the state commission modify Form 473 to include an LCP certification, it appears that with respect to intrastate services, finds that the USAC is using the PQA process, and a formal certification of LCP lowest corresponding price is not compensatory.” compliance, to test LCP requirements, despite the unanswered questions. This is especially curious given that USAC’s website Although the LCP requirement is not new, there is little regula- states that PQAs will be directed only at applicants, and the PQA tory guidance available and as a result, there is significant document request list relates to applicants, not service providers. confusion on how to comply. Even the Federal Communications Commission, under whose direction USAC administers the Although these PQAs may appear innocuous, they could pose program, acknowledges this lack of clarity. a major risk for service providers and expose them to liability for already-paid invoices. We advise all service providers to In March 2013, the FCC raised the question of LCP certification, scrutinize their pricing practices – even in the face of aggressive when it released a Public Notice seeking comment on proposed E-Rate competitions – to ensure a good faith basis exists for revisions to certain E-Rate forms, including Form 473, the each price invoiced to the applicant and USAC. IT Service Provider Annual Certification Form. The FCC proposed adding the following certification: “I certify that this Service Jeffrey A. Belkin is a partner & Jessica L. Sharron is a se- Provider is in compliance with and has taken reasonable steps nior associate with Alston & Bird LLP (www.alston.com). ® 6 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com



Infrastructure Peering By Hunter Newby Dark Fiber’s Long Tail – The Digital Deserts of America A recent article written by Scott Amundson tion of where fiber is and is not presently “The majority of the time is spent figuring highlighted the New York City Economic available. This is the premise of the Con- out how to get the fiber where it needs Development Corp’s. ConnectNYC Fiber nectNYC Fiber Challenge. to go,” notes Shrihari Pandit, CEO of Challenge to address the so-called digital Stealth Communications. deserts in New York City. These are the The places where there is no fiber require buildings, neighborhoods, and areas within a plan, investment and construction to If this is the case in New York City, then the largest city in the United States that bring fiber to them. The biggest chal- imagine the fiber drought conditions in have no fiber-based network services at all. lenge faced in trying to connect fiber optic every other city and all of the places in be- These are real places that exist today and cables to the city’s businesses is physical tween in the U.S. If the U.S. economy is the are, unfortunately, vast. They are dry spots access to the endpoints and the rights of size that it is presently with such conditions, on the major metropolitan landscape where way and costs associated with the process then imagine what it would be with a plan barely any forms of innovation, creativity, or of finding and utilizing any existing physi- to bring fiber everywhere it needs to go. economic life can grow, flourish, and thrive. cal assets and/or creating new paths. The three major components/impediments of What this country needs is a ConnectAmeri- The concept of a fiber drought anywhere physical access are the congestion of New ca Fiber Challenge! The need is known, and in America, let alone in the middle of York City’s underground fiber optic conduit the reality is rising like the sun. The plan and New York City, is shocking to many. The system, the points of entry into the build- its stakeholders, the businesses in America, shocked have been deluged with the com- ings themselves, and the in-building riser must come together to bring fiber to all of mon, mass-market notion of a metropolis to get to the actual business point of the digital deserts, and this will spring eco- being advanced in all aspects. demarcation. The need for these elements, nomic life all throughout the land. IT the system with laterals to the points of Waking up to the reality that fiber brings entry and the risers to the demarcation Hunter Newby is CEO of Allied Fiber economic growth necessitates the evalua- points, are a global constant. (www.alliedfiber.com). UC Unplugged By Chris Koziol Customer obsession – The Path to Gaining a Competitive Edge Today’s tech-savvy consumer is very systems in place: e-mail, chat, and phone, ing issues, more importantly, Trupanion skilled at juggling multiple communication with a lack of support and significant customers can now get questions answered modes. Consumers expect their questions switching costs. The company recognized and issues resolved on their terms while and concerns to be addressed in the same customers’ frustrations and the impact they developing deeper relationships with the speed that they themselves consume infor- had on the company’s bottom line. agents with whom they interact. mation: through seamless and contiguous interaction on multiple channels and plat- As a result, Aspect worked with Trupanion The success of Trupanion’s omni-channel forms. They want an omni-channel service to overhaul its entire customer contact and capabilities is a clear sign of where the con- experience where they are able to move workforce optimization infrastructure. The tact center industry is headed. Companies from chat to phone without the hassle overhaul has allowed Trupanion customers creating customer obsession cultures and of repeating their personal details and to manage the interactions they have with placing the consumers’ experience above experiences, or getting different answers the company’s agents on their terms. By put- everything else will give them a competi- from different people. ting customers in control of how they want tive advantage. Delivering truly remarkable to engage with the company, Trupanion is experiences will keep their customers loyal One of the industry leaders in omni-channel living up to its motto, “customer preferences and help them win the hearts and the wal- customer service today is Trupanion, a pro- first.” Regardless of whether customers use lets of today’s consumer. IT vider of medical insurance for pets. Trupa- chat or phone to initiate contact, they can nion recognized that having omni-channel move seamlessly from channel to channel Chris Koziol is president and general customer service capabilities would give it and connect to the same agent. Not only has manager of the interaction manage- a competitive edge. It had several disparate this resulted in increased efficiency in resolv- ment division at Aspect (www.aspect). ® 8 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com



Rethinking Communications By Jon Arnold Personal video and UC, Part 2 – What are you Afraid of? As screens get bigger and keypads recede into the back- and in time, figure out the business model. The latter has yet ground, it’s clear that mobile devices are data-centric, not to really happen for Skype, but it demonstrated the power of voice-centric, and a big part of their appeal comes from the web to scale at practically no cost and create a border- enabling a quality video streaming experience. Today’s less, global community in very little time. younger workers are both mobile-savvy and video-savvy, and this is having a major impact on how they communi- Many similar platforms have since come along, and with cate, both at work and at play. the advent of social media, what Rakuten saw in Viber is exactly what Facebook sees in WhatsApp. Mobile broad- With this preamble in place, I’m going take things in another band and smartphones have created an unprecedented direction and shift to text and messaging, but at the end, you’ll opportunity for players like Rakuten to assemble an eco- see why this relates to video. system with the likes of Viber to ultimately monetize their hundreds of millions of users. In my last post, I mentioned Viber, a company that went from obscure startup with nominal revenues to a $900 Text messaging is the starting point, and its appeal is million exit in less than four years. Its niche is a messaging understandable since you previously had to pay to do mes- platform that works across all major smartphones. Viber’s saging beyond your native mobile network. Mobility de- platform is primarily for text messaging, but also supports fines how people do things today, and companies like Viber sending images, as well as audio and video messages. create a lot of stickiness when you consider how much this These small-scale modes are free, and generation uses text and chat. Now that you have them do- drive most of the traffic, but the ing that, adding images, video and voice is relatively easy. platform was enhanced re- This is exactly the path that Facebook is on with WhatsApp, cently by Viber Out, which but where the stakes get much higher is when you factor in allows the company e-commerce and video. to generate revenue by enabling calls If you only think about the consumer-oriented possibili- In the business to mobile and ties, these developments put Rakuten on course to com- fixed line phone pete against Amazon and even Netflix if you consider how numbers. This popular streaming video has become on mobile devices. In space, viber’s doesn’t sound the business space, however, Viber’s acquisition is another like much for validation of video’s potential. Video is not a big focus now, acquisition $900 mil- but it’s part of the platform. lion, but the value lies in So, let’s come back to the title of this article – what are is another Viber’s mas- you afraid of? Certainly, employees will make use of sive foot- personal video for social purposes during work time, but print of 300 that will prove secondary once they discover the business million users validation of across 193 value. As noted in Part 1, if personal video delivers a great experience, they will quickly adopt it as part of their countries. everyday toolbox. video’s potential. The story gets As companies like Rakuten make it possible to do voice and more interesting video across all mobile networks, employees will have more when you con- options for using personal video with each other and even to sider who bought the engage with customers. Sticking with Rakuten, think about company. Japan-based how adding an e-commerce engine can make it easier for Rakuten may be the biggest customers to do business with you. Some mobile purchases company you’ve never heard of, can easily be facilitated with basic voice or messaging, but but for them, Viber is one small piece in personal video certainly has a role to play for more complex, a complex jigsaw puzzle that is defining the emerging world show-and-tell situations. IT of mobile e-commerce. Skype is the forerunner for busi- nesses like Rakuten, where the name of the game is to first Jon Arnold is principal of J Arnold & Associates, an inde- build up a substantial user base by offering free services, pendent telecom analyst and marketing consultancy. ® Subscribe FREE online at 10 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.comwww.itmag.com

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Ask the SIP Trunk Expert By Steven Johnson What is Necessary for SIP Trunking – The E-SBC Enterprise session border controllers serve as a crucial and rity of the enterprise LAN network. In addition, safeguards can be necessary element in deployments for SIP trunking, UC, and added to protect against buffer overflow attacks, denial of service soon, WebRTC. attacks, sophisticated intrusions, and a small percentage of worms that fit within a single packet. Any of these attacks could be highly E-SBCs sit at the edge of the enterprise network to provide control detrimental to an enterprise’s business activities, or worse, could over the SIP traffic. The enterprise edge component can either be a result in theft of services with significant financial consequences. firewall with complete support for SIP or an edge device connected to the firewall, handling the management of the SIP traffic. Fourth, the E-SBC also enables remote SIP connectivity or far-end NAT traversal, where remote users (or workers) can leverage the SIP The E-SBC performs several critical functions. capabilities of their businesses’ IP PBX. For example, workers based at a separate location (home office, satellite office, working on an oil rig, First, firewall traversal – E-SBCs provide SIP protocol routing to etc.) can, over an Internet connection, use their company’s SIP service resolve NAT traversal issues by securely permitting SIP signaling (audio, video, etc.) from anywhere without the need for additional and related media to traverse the enterprise firewall. Tradi- hardware at the remote site. This can eliminate the need for second tional firewalls block SIP traffic because they don’t recognize phone lines in home offices, the use of expensive hotel phone services, the protocol. E-SBCs rewrite the publicly routable IP address or cell phones, adding to the cost savings of employing SIP trunking. in the header information to the private IP address of the PBX. This permits the SIP traffic to go through the firewall. Without Today’s E-SBCs are also called upon to add other services to the this capability, the PBX would have to be on the outside of the environment to further enhance the SIP trunking implementation: firewall, exposing it to the Internet, or if the PBX is placed on • Disaster Recovery: E-SBCs can reroute SIP traffic to a sec- the inside of the firewall, there will be one-way media. ondary PBX or to an alternate service provider to keep business The E-SBC performs several critical functions, including firewall traversal, interoperability, security, remote SIP connectivity or far-end NAT traversal, and more. The second important function is interoperability. While SIP is up and running should there be a failure. The E-SBC can also a standard protocol developed and published by the IETF, the load balance to multiple PBXs on the customer’s network based language of the protocol permits several different methods to be on a user-defined algorithm. used to accomplish the same telephony function. No one method • Quality of Service: Increasingly critical as high-bandwidth is considered right, nor even the best, way to accomplish the task. applications become more popular, the E-SBC can tag packets The E-SBC, because it employs a Back-to-Back-User-Agent, is able so that other devices in the LAN can give voice packets priority to stop and restart the call implementing the appropriate method over data packets. for the receiving environment. In this manner, E-SBCs can fix these • The E-SBC can add encryption of the signaling and/or the media. types of disparity issues and create instant interoperability – paving • Diagnostics: The best E-SBCs have extensive diagnostic the way to a faster deployment. Since E-SBCs facilitate interopera- features which not only supply event logs, but also can be used bility, there is no need to conduct extensive trial and error between to capture wire-shark traces that can find issues quickly. In addi- your PBX and ITSP to get the two systems to work together. This tion, the E-SBC can report on Mean Opinion Scores for each call also gives more choices to the enterprise when selecting a service made so that the administrator can watch for degradation of provider, and permits the service provider to interact with more IP service and take proactive steps to cure impending issues. PBXs than would be possible otherwise. • The E-SBC also can be used to supply the information to populate call detail records and invoices. IT The third important function is security. The first line of defense, E-SBCs can provide authentication (which some IP PBXs do not Steven Johnson is president of Ingate Systems natively support) and deep packet inspection to preserve the integ- (www.ingate.com). ® 12 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com



Wireless Wonk By Barlow Keener The Shared Experience The 2012 President’s Council of Advi- IEEE was working on making 802.11 a 100,000 Wi-Fi outdoor access points. sors on Science and Technology report standard for unlicensed wireless local This new growth in outdoor Wi-Fi could strongly encouraged more sharing of access network sharing and settling on greatly benefit from using the UNII federal spectrum as a way to solve our 2.4gHz as the first spectrum to be used. spectrum. The FCC solved the UNII-1 insatiable demand for using wireless Each part of the 5gHz spectrum has a dilemma by saying that UNII-1 outdoor to connect. Now, the FCC in the 5gHz different UNII band assigned to it for a radios can have an antenna pointing rulemaking is starting to take steps different unlicensed use. up in the sky as long as the devices toward efficiently sharing more federal operate at a lower power of 250mW (a (used by radar) and non-federal (used Licensed users in the UNII band include typical indoor Wi-Fi device uses 50mW for satellite communication) spectrum. airport FAA Doppler weather radar of power). If a company, like Comcast, On March 31, 2014, the FCC made that uses 5.250-5.350gHz and 5.470- deploys more than 1,000 UNII devices 100mHz more spectrum available for 5.725gHz. Because the radar helps outdoors, the provider is required to no- utilization. The 5gHz spectrum includes planes safely use airports, something we tify the FCC and take action to eliminate 5.15-35gHz and 5.47-85gHz. all care about, the FCC issued new rules interference if found. UNII-1 outdoor to ensure that unlicensed Wi-Fi outdoor Wi-Fi devices could operate at a higher As users of Wi-Fi know, 5gHz range users do not interfere with the radar. In power level, 1W, if the antennas do not signals propagate longer distances than 2009, the FAA discovered that unlicensed point above 30 degrees. at 2.4gHz, delivering lots of bandwidth. broadband radios were open all through But that requires line of sight – in the 5gHz band and were interfering with The FCC is moving toward spectrum other words, no buildings and no trees. the radar. The new FCC order requires sharing that will use a database in the Using a database in the cloud decoupled from the radios would ensure more efficient use of spectrum. Almost every Wi-Fi router uses 5gHz UNII devices to have software that locks cloud to deliver location and power infor- spectrum now. The IEEE standards the device out of the radar’s 5.6-5.65gHz mation, just like that used in the lower used for unlicensed devices in 5gHz are spectrum. Hacking radio spectrum use is 700mHz bands. The radio could switch 802.11a, 802.11n, and 802.11ac. FCC now eliminated by software. automatically to another available spec- Chairman Tom Wheeler pointed out that trum. The database would automatically unlicensed and licensed are playing The other licensed use is for satellite inform an MSS or the FCC when more well together, making the user experi- communications. In 1997, the FCC than 1,000 radios are operating and ence better and better: “They are less limited UNII-1 to indoor use and lower where they are operating, giving enough oil and vinegar and more peanut butter power because, five years earlier, 5.096- information to power the radios down, and jelly.” The FCC’s technical solutions, 250gHz had been assigned by the ITU, up, or off and protect the safety critical contained in the order, for sharing spec- then followed by the FCC, to mobile sat- satellite communication signal. trum in 5gHz are more about creating ellite service. The unlicensed spectrum methods of efficiently using lightly-used allowed use inside buildings but not Using a database in the cloud decoupled spectrum by all users, licensed and un- outdoors. The cable industry wanted to from the radios, with all radios connected licensed, and less about an unlicensed open up outdoor use without interfering to it, would ensure more efficient use of versus licensed battle. with MSS satellite communications. If spectrum than the more manual methods the UNII-1 and UNII-2 devices could use deployed in the new 5gHz order. IT In 1997, the FCC gave the name Unli- all the spectrum, the 802.11ac could censed National Information Infrastruc- approach, outdoors, gig Wi-Fi speeds on Barlow Keener is the principal with ture to radios using unlicensed 5gHz 160mHz in the bands. Cable companies Keener Law Group (www.keenerlaw- spectrum. That was about the same time like Comcast have deployed more than group.com) out of Boston. ® 14 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com

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Enterprise View By Max Schroeder The only Constant Is Change The above statement is attributed to management. However, your customers industries like health care where time Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher from and prospective customers also have seri- is quite limited. This is partly due to around 500 BCE. Interestingly, that was a ous time constraints. Decision makers, in their having to allocate a lot of time to time when change was moving at a snail’s particular, have very little time to consider maintain a proficiency in their medi- pace as compared to today. People would options and make a choice, plus almost cal specialty, which results in a limited even have had considerable time to actu- zero time for learning a new technology. knowledge outside their industry. ally reflect on the philosopher’s message. This means you have to help manage their In today’s world the only reflection time time for them, from the onset of the sales The pair-model will showcase your organi- most of us get is when looking in a mirror. cycle to post-sales support. zation’s high degree of knowledge at the onset of the relationship, plus demonstrate Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity The key to success is to pick your your respect for the prospect’s time con- revealed that time slows down (time dila- target markets carefully based on your straints. The sales strategy is also a great tion) when you approach the speed of light. organization’s skill set. Customize your method to introduce and justify the concept Unfortunately, we earthbound humans sales efforts accordingly. For example, of a premium price for a premium product. traveling at a much slower speed have to some resellers have a wealth of techni- deal with an unvarying 24-hour day, and cal personnel but few sales personnel Change may be a constant, but the rate there’s no known technique of stretching with technical skills. Pair them into of change is variable and increasing time other than careful time management. two-person teams for pre-sales support. rapidly. Time to get moving. IT This ensures that any questions will be This column has covered the importance answered promptly and correctly from Max Schroeder is vice president of time management in the past but those both a technical and a sales perspective. emeritus of FaxCore Inc. (www. discussions were limited to personal time The pair-model is particularly suited to faxcore.com ). Enterprise Mobility By Michael Stanford The Dawn of the Web App Age When Steve Jobs first announced the toward making the browser environment tion, native apps run more smoothly than iPhone in 2007, he explained that it was as smooth as the native environment, Cordova apps, and there are some things designed to run web apps in the browser. to the point that Firefox is now promot- that Cordova apps can’t do. But a care- There was no need to write programs ing a smartphone OS that is basically fully designed Cordova app, addressing directly to iOS, because the browser had an embedded browser. The only kind of appropriate capabilities, can be indistin- a set of user interface elements callable app that is supported on that platform is guishable from a native app. from JavaScript that mimicked the look a web app, written in JavaScript, HTML and feel of the native apps. and CSS. Mozilla’s goal is that these apps The kicker is that a Cordova app doesn’t will be equally capable in every way as need to be rewritten to go from iOS to An- Perhaps because developers were not native apps on iOS or Android. droid. So, in many cases, Cordova yields impressed with this notion, Apple an- apps that are just as good as native apps, nounced a native SDK for the iPhone This capability is not exclusive to the but covering all the main platforms with less than a year later. In retrospect, this Firefox OS. The Cordova (aka PhoneGap) dramatically less effort. And as HTML5 and turns out to have been a very good framework extends to all the other main Cordova evolve, the necessity for native move. Apple App Store revenue in 2013 mobile operating systems the ability to apps will continue to diminish. IT was $10 billion. write apps in JavaScript that to the user are indistinguishable from native apps. Michael Stanford has been an en- But the long arc of software history may With Cordova any engineer capable of trepreneur and strategist in VoIP for yet turn out to vindicate Jobs’ original creating a web page and writing Java- more than a decade. (Visit his blog at vision. HTML5 has gone a long way Script can create such an app. By defini- www.wirevolution.com.) ® 16 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com

WebRTC to WebComm By Phil Edholm The video Conundrum You can’t spend much time around WebRTC without hearing licensing constraints of past codecs. Google believes this is es- about the video issue. For most of us this is news, as we did sential to enabling the next explosion of web users and innova- not even know there were video issues. The issue of which co- tion. Companies that have invested millions in developing the decs will dominate in the future is a question of the web world underlying technologies that are used by modern codecs feel vs. the traditional telecom world. strongly that they should be compensated for their use. Modern digital video is a truly amazing thing: with 24 color At this point WebRTC is caught in the middle. bits, sensor video bandwidth varies from .75gbps for 1080i video at 30 frames per second to 2.99gbps for 1080p video There is a huge challenge as to how to resolve the issue. The at 60 fps. Modern video codecs can reduce that huge stream IETF Working Group has taken an extraordinary step of call- to between .5 to 3mbps with little visual consequence. Video ing for a vote on preference to try to resolve the issue. While broadcasts (cable, VDSL, and satellite) operate between 2.5 and WebRTC has rolled out, primarily with VP8, it impacts other 3mbps. Blu-ray average bit rates are 10 to more than 30mbps players like Apple, which has imple- with dynamic bit rates tailored to the scene. mented H.264 acceleration in hardware in iOS devices, a This is possible by the incredible advances in video codecs, function that would be crucial pieces of technology that strip out the meaningless lost with VP8. bits and leave only those that our eyes can see. The technol- ogy that makes this possible is based on literally hundreds of While the IETF Google is adamant innovations over the last 30 years, resulting in a technology vote may pro- that, driven by Moore’s Law, is actually reducing the bandwidth duce a winner, that WebRTC as a needed for a specific level of visual presentation by about 50 I believe it percent every 5 to 7 years. is time to web technology must move to a However, the codecs are encumbered by the very innovation reasonable be unencumbered that enables them. Dozens of companies, from the telecom licensing for space to computing, video, and entertainment, have developed the intellec- by the licensing and patented the techniques that go into today’s codecs. These tual property companies have a goal to monetize those investments. To in codecs. constraints of accomplish this, in the telecom and entertainment industries, Device standards have been agreed to that incorporate the innovations manufacturers past codecs. and patents, and an organization called the MPEG-LA licenses are paying for commercial use in PCs, mobile phones, and disc players. the codec license on the devices. That The challenge has come in the way these are licensed. While license should extend your smartphone may have a license for a specific codec like the to any software running on H.264 standard, a software application loading on the phone that device. requires a separate license for the same codec. This is very contrary to the way the web works, with open interfaces and Regardless of the codec decision, the power of WebRTC is code. Google developed a new codec called VP8 that it offered the enablement of a web communications paradigm. The as open source unlicensed code. Google even negotiated with next generation of codecs (currently H.265 and VP9) deliver the MPEG-LA for unlimited use licensing of this codec. (How- a 50 percent bandwidth reduction, or a doubling of quality ever, some codec patent holders claim they have patents that in the same bandwidth. The power of 60 fps HD video at are infringed on by VP8 and are outside the MPEG-LA license, 1080p enables telepresence-level video on virtually any and have said they will sue VP8 implementers.) device. How this will change the way we communicate will be profound. IT For Google, reducing cost and simplifying is critical. Google has spent a large amount of money and time on Android to eliminate Phil Edholm is the president and founder of PKE Con- the cost of the mobile OS, reducing codec cost is the next step. sulting LLC (www.pkeconsulting.com) and works with INTERNET TELEPHONY parent company TMC to stage This battle is impacting WebRTC. Google is adamant that the WebRTC Conference & Expo, which will be held next WebRTC as a web technology must be unencumbered by the time from June 17 to 19 in Atlanta. Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com June 2014 INTERNET TELEPHONY ® 17

Cover Story By Paula Bernier Smooth operator Phybridge Enables Businesses to Confidently Migrate to IP he communications space is constantly evolving. that can prevent customers from migrating to IP,” says CEO Sometimes the changes create minimal interrup- John Croce. “With Phybridge, users don’t have to redo their Ttion. Other times, they can lead to upheavals. IDF closets, and they don’t have to go through the cost and hassle of rewiring.” Phybridge is a company that provides solutions to make the Instead, customers can simply deploy a Phybridge switch, migration to IP voice (and soon, IP cameras) as seamless and which delivers Ethernet and Power over Ethernet, providing affordable as possible. four times the reach of the typical Ethernet solution. That en- ables businesses to migrate from TDM to IP and still be able That’s important given infrastructure upgrade costs are a to leverage their existing, proven-reliable voice infrastruc- significant and frequently overlooked cost of IP telephony ture with a point-to-point topology designed for real-time and unified communications deployments, as noted by voice application. Nemertes Research. TransUnion Credit in Chicago is just one example of a customer “When accounting for capital and operational costs, LAN that benefitted from the Phybridge solution. The business was upgrades actually can exceed the cost of the IP telephony looking to migrate its 1,400 employees to IP phones, and had a deployment itself,” writes Robin Gereiss, executive vice budget of $1.8 million for the new infrastruc- president and senior founding partner ture (including new cable and IDF closets of Nemertes Research. “As a result, it’s that met PoE requirements) it thought imperative for IT leaders to understand it needed to make that transition. But the cost components associated Phybridge was able to deliver a with LAN upgrades.” “Our go-to-market solution that eliminated the require- strategy is to ment of new cable installation “When the world moved from analog to digital infrastruc- partner with companies and heavy-duty IDF closet ture, it didn’t create any changes, saving TransUnion Earth-shattering chal- and work with them to a whopping $1.5 million in lenges,” says Oliver help them migrate their the process. Emmanuel, president and founder of Phybridge. customer base to IP.” “We saved $1.5 million, “But the adoption of IP fast-tracked our IP tele- phones was different, in that phony migration by 6 months, it exposed LAN infrastructure - Phybridge CEo and successfully completed our limitations that could adversely John Croce 1,400 user migration in a single impact quality of service. Those weekend thanks to the Phy- limitations include Ethernet’s limited bridge switch innovation,” says (~300-foot) reach, quality of service, Tony Christopher, network voice and and the fact that IP phones can create data manager for TransUnion Credit. 911 emergency service challenges due to their nomadic nature.” According to a study of nearly 1,400 companies by Nemertes, 43 percent of capital costs for IP telephony implementations A handful of vendors came forward to try to solve these come from the LAN upgrades. That means the costs related problems, Emmanuel says, but their approaches were vendor- to the LAN average $860,000 in a $2-million implementation, specific and involved too many trade-offs. So Phybridge says Nemertes. Another research firm notes that a single new stepped in to fill the gap by providing a bridge between new drop alone can run in the $400 range. IP endpoints and the IP PBX. “The more users you have, the more complex the network be- “Moving the convergence point from the phone to the central comes, and the more value our offering brings to that customer closet is beneficial because it eliminates infrastructure barriers base,” says Phybridge’s Croce. ® 18 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014

“More important than the cost savings, however, is maximiz- ing the return on investment for organizations while building Customer Benefits of the a sound network foundation,” Croce adds. “The ROI comes from using the productivity-enhancing and cost-saving ap- Phybridge Solution plications. There is no return in infrastructure and network complexity. The Phybridge backbone is proven to save organi- • lower overall total cost of ownership, zations money, allowing them to allocate more of their budget allowing customers to allocate more of on these applications. In addition, Phybridge solutions provide their budgets on applications and driving a the converged infrastructure necessary to offer the quality of better return on investment; service needed for voice services.” • voice quality of service, regardless of data Phybridge technology can keep voice service up and running loads and with no data LAN dependencies; even in cases in which denial of service attacks take out the data LAN. What’s more, with Phybridge, businesses don’t • voice continuity, even if data LAN fails; need to update their voice infrastructure every time they want to do a data network refresh, such as moving to a higher • the most secure network topology, given bandwidth LAN. the physical separation of voice; The company, which sells its products through a network of • an easy to manage network, given the partners, is certified with all the major voice vendors – includ- physical separation of voice; and ing Aastra, Avaya, BroadSoft, Cisco, Mitel, NEC, Polycom, Shoretel, Snom, Unify (the former Siemens Enterprise Commu- • a future-proofed LAN, since there’s no nications), and Zultys. need to change IP phones or PoE with every LAN upgrade. “Our go-to-market strategy is to partner with companies and work with them to help them migrate their customer base to IP,” explains Croce. as New Mexico State University, Arizona State University, More than 250,000 users globally are now on the Phybridge Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech), in government backbone. Those customers include leaders in academia (such (such as British embassies around the world), in hospitality PoLrE Switch Family Delivering Power and Long reach Ethernet over a single pair of wire June 2014 INTERNET TELEPHONY ® 19

Cover Story CLEEr & EC Switch Family Delivering Power and Long reach Ethernet over coax cable (such as Marriott, Princess Cruise Lines, power sharing mode and can continue to and EC solutions, which the company and Starwood Hotels), and at many deliver PoE to connected endpoints. The was showing at a recent surveillance other Fortune 500 companies. switches support AC and DC power, and event, will initially be available in 10- the power supply is hot swappable. port unmanaged and 24-port managed Phybridge outfits such industry-leading form factors. businesses with solutions from its grow- ing product portfolio. Phybridge also has a variety of other products and capabilities in UniPhyer was Phybridge’s first the pipeline. The company later product to market. It’s an “This summer this year expects to unveil a Ethernet and Power over failover adaptor that con- Ethernet switch that works Phybridge will make nects two LANs but keeps over one set of wires, them physically separate. and comes in 24- and generally available a new The adapter will be 48-port varieties. It able snoop the health leverages existing switch that addresses of the Phybridge telephone cabling the analog to IP migration voice and data LAN infrastructure to networks, and if create a parallel of cameras.” the data LAN fails, all network with PoE. traffic can go over the Phybridge network. It’s Last year Phybridge added - Phybridge CEo also a power failover solu- to that with the introduc- tion for the IP phone. Ad- tion of its PoLRE family of John Croce ditionally, Phybridge expects switches. PoLRE stands for to add Wi-Fi adapter capabilities Power over Long Reach Ethernet. to its products in the future. These products, which come in 8-, 24- and 48-port versions, deliver Whatever the particular product, Ethernet and PoE over one pair of however, the overarching goal at wires with four times the reach of Phybridge is to deliver cost-effective, traditional switches. “This summer Phybridge will make simple to deploy and manage, and generally available a new switch that robust solutions that eliminate the The company’s PowerWise technology addresses the analog to IP migration of infrastructure barriers involved in IP enables four of the PoLRE switches to cameras. The camera migration is trail- migrations – enabling customers to work together in a stack, and if one ing the IP phone movement by about know they’re on firm footing as they switch has an outage the stack goes into a decade,” says Croce. The new CLEER make the move to IP. IT ® 20 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com

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Editorial Series By Paula Bernier yorktel Makes Complicated Simple n business for more than 29 years, Yorktel has built its name as an AV in- tegrator. As its expertise grew along with the trends in the video commu- I nications marketplace, Yorktel has evolved to meet the demand for video managed services, cloud services, and unified communications and collabora- tion. INTERNET TELEPHONY recently interviewed Ron Gaboury, CEO of Yorktel, to get the latest on the company and its value proposition. yorktel is expanding its focus and video communication solutions to from being a video managed ser- a much wider audience. vice provider to address unified communications at large. Why, What are the key solutions of- and why now? fered by yorktel? Video has expanded beyond expen- As a cloud, UCC and video managed sive conference rooms. The workforce services provider, we offer a single calls for mobility and interoperabil- source solution for unified and visual the Lync solution. What is yorktel ity between disparate conferencing communications. Our services include offering to support these users? systems. Enterprises increasingly professional consulting, through assess- Yorktel VideoCloud supports full want – and need – to integrate vari- ment, design and implementation. This integration with Microsoft Lync ous communication mediums, video, complements our post implementation and Office 365. Users can connect audio, IM, collaboration, presence, offerings: Managed Services (main- to videoconferencing systems from and more. A true end-to-end provider tenance, troubleshooting, scheduling/ Cisco, Polycom, Avaya (Radvision), must address today’s needs, as well launching, and on site staffing) and LifeSize, Vidyo, and other vendors. as advise customers on how to adapt VideoCloud VaaS (public, private and Tight integration and federated user to new technologies for tomorrow’s hybrid options; self-service or man- identities across IT and communications needs. This often means expanding aged). As video communications moves are key to building secure, reliable, and your offerings. beyond corporate settings, we recently seamless communication. expanded into verticalized applications, What will that mean for including our VideoKiosk, mobile Tele- one of the challenges for vid- yorktel customers? Health carts, and iRobot’s Ava500. One eoconferencing is that differ- This means that our customers can division that truly differentiates Yorktel ent videoconferencing systems communicate both internally and from competing MSPs is our Media Ser- operate as islands. How is yorktel externally without the hassle of the vices practice with video production and addressing that? many video complexities and can stay post-production, webcasting, and asset Yorktel addresses these challenges productive, regardless of participant hosting, among others. with Yorktel VideoCloud, where any location, device or OS. It also means a device, platform, network or enterprise single-vendor solution. Who is yorktel’s target customer? can connect to solve interoperability Yorktel works with U.S. government problems or network complexities. How did the rise of the smart- agencies, the public sector, and global phone, and of applications, drive enterprises. With offices in the U.S., If there’s just one thing you want yorktel’s strategy on this front? U.K., Ireland and France, the key com- customers and prospects to know Mobility has also sparked Yorktel’s mercial verticals we target are financial, about yorktel and its value prop- enablement of UCC and WebRTC ap- pharmaceutical, retail, and media/en- osition, what is that one thing? plications, another fast growing trend, tertainment. We are also seeing a shift Yorktel makes complicated simple. We into our current offerings and cloud in targeted functions beyond just IT as strike a balance between a customer- infrastructure. Extending videoconfer- human resources and finance are finding first approach and keeping our finger encing capabilities to remote workers benefits in video. on the pulse of industry advancements. and external parties is where tradi- Really understanding the customer and tional business technologies fall short. Microsoft Lync has seen great suc- the technology has allowed Yorktel to Through its use of open standards, cess, with more than 90 percent not only grow, but also evolve along- WebRTC simplifies and extends voice of Fortune 100 companies using side a global market. IT ® 22 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com



WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Paula Bernier Welcome to WebrTC f you’re reading this supplement, chances are good then in 2012 with early evangelists and companies, and it that you’ve already heard about WebRTC. But, like continues to snowball. I much of the rest of the industry, you may not be Why It’s Important completely clear about what WebRTC is, where it came The jury is still out as to whether tech giants Apple and Micro- from, why it’s important, and where it fits to in the larger soft will endorse, ignore, or – worst case scenario – interfere communications picture. So here’s a bit of background to with, the advancement of WebRTC. Nonetheless, prospects get you prepped for the rest of this WebRTC supplement for the technology appear bright. For instance, ABI Research and for WebRTC Conference & Expo IV, which takes place expects 4.7 billion WebRTC devices to be out in the world by 2018. (For more on what to expect for WebRTC, see our story June 17 through 19 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta. in this supplement about the WebRTC Outlook 2014 Report.) What It Is WebRTC is interesting not only because it enables two WebRTC stands for web endpoints to easily connect and conduct rich me- real-time communication. dia sessions including data, video, and voice, or The technology allows some combination thereof, but also because for real-time voice and it puts us on a path to what Phil Edholm of video interactions WebRTC is interesting PKE Consulting LLC calls the webification from a web browser of communications. or other peer node because it puts us on a without requiring “The webification of communica- special client soft- path to what Phil Edholm tions is not a single technology, but ware or requiring a rather a transformation of the basics server between the calls the webification of of communications,” says Edholm. two endpoints. “Instead of having a single server that communications. manages all of my communications, It takes the com- the webification process will free me to interact directly with millions of web serv- ponents of a typical ers to manage a succession of independent VoIP media engine into a communications events, each tuned to the browser or any other peer specific needs and requirements of the event, not endpoint with a simple API that an arbitrary vendor paradigm. Just as we all have hun- a web server can control. That means dreds of different web information experiences monthly, developers can build real-time communication into web each web communications experience can be defined by pages, and do so more easily than they could’ve in the past. the suite hosting the event.” Where It Came From Where It Fits The seeds of WebRTC came from Global IP Solutions, a com- The possibilities for WebRTC are endless, but some of the pany that provided the technology to such large VoIP compa- first places we are seeing it in use are in customer care/con- nies as Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, and others. Google purchased tact center, and conferencing applications. GIPS in 2011, and shortly after that made its technology open source, which kicked off the WebRTC movement. “WebRTC applications will both delight and amaze us,” says Edholm. “While many WebRTC implementations will Google has been a leading advocate of WebRTC ever be extensions of existing communications solutions, many since, and today supports WebRTC in its Chrome browser. will emerge that will use WebRTC to deliver communica- (WebRTC is also supported in the Mozilla Firefox and Op- tions in contexts we have yet to imagine. era browsers. There’s no word yet on whether Apple and Microsoft will support WebRTC in their browsers, which is “The change of communications from a separate service an area of much interest.) or capability to being integrated with applications and other activities will become obvious,” Edholm says. “With The WebRTC ecosystem and community continue to grow. this we will see the emergence of asymmetrical com- It started in 2010 with a small group at Google, expanded munications solutions where the experience is different in 2011 with a strong group of standards advocates, and dependent on the role of each individual.”



WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Phil Edholm The WebrTC Market and Ecosystems ebRTC is a technol- ogy that will initi- W ate a fundamental change in the communications market and in how all of us communicate. WebRTC changes the paradigm of communications managed by two service provid- ers interacting for their users (the PSTN) or having to join a club (Skype) to communicate. With WebRTC, any website can be a communications “host” and the entire communications market is open to the same webification market in 2016 will contain 4 billion integrate with WebRTC; to companies like that has transformed the informa- to more than 6 billion devices. With TokBox, which has an advanced WebRTC tion market over the last 20 years. WebRTC being implemented in brows- platform. There are also companies like ers and even in dedicated devices, this Priologic with a freemium model for basic How this will impact all of us in the explosion is creating opportunities for capabilities and advanced services. Ser- communications industry and who tools, components, consulting, and vice provider vendors like Alcatel-Lucent, will be impacted is a critical question. other capabilities to be delivered to the Ericsson, and Oracle are also supporting The figure on this page shows the four WebRTC marketplace. While estimates WebRTC in their portfolios. industry segments where WebRTC will vary about the rate of adoption, Skype have significant impact. Whether lever- has more than 300 billion minutes of Creating and delivering a WebRTC solu- aged by an enterprise, service provider, video, and WebRTC will enable video tion or enabling your organization and or website, WebRTC changes the to an even larger market. With 70 to 90 employees to take advantage of We- market. And it opens up a huge new percent of all contact center transac- bRTC involves a number of components. set of blue ocean opportunities for new tions preceded by a website visit, the For each of the segments above, having offers, just as the information web has integration of WebRTC and real-time a clear view of how WebRTC will impact created Google and Facebook. capabilities into the website could your business and be implemented and move 50 percent of 800 calling to delivered is a clear requirement. For all of these markets, WebRTC WebRTC in the next 3 to 5 years. changes the business, the value The WebRTC Conference & Expo is the proposition, the customer interac- Part of the WebRTC transformation global event where any of the seg- tion, potentially much of what we involves the ecosystem of tool vendors, ments of the WebRTC market can come do today. And for all of them, the contractors, consultants, and service to learn more about the technology, development team that needs to providers that are delivering WebRTC the business models, the tools, the deliver the solution is critical to the components. The WebRTC ecosystem components, and who are your best success of the effort. WebRTC is a is a rich environment with more 200 partners for implementation. For anyone great technology, but combining companies that provide media serv- in the communications, collaboration, or the web; the network; and real-time ers, SBCs, development platforms, interaction markets, this is the best way video, audio, and information into a cloud implementations, consulting, and to understand and evaluate the options cohesive solution that creates value is other components and services. These and path forward. a new challenge for everyone. organizations range from companies like Vidyo, which is bringing its video media Phil Edholm is the president and The WebRTC market appears to be servers to the UC market; to Plantronics, founder of PKE Consulting LLC huge. Initial estimates are that the which has enabled its personal devices to (www.pkeconsulting.com).



WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Phil Edholm WebrTC Conference & Expo – The Global Best of WebrTC ebRTC Conference & Expo is the leading event for WebRTC On Tuesday, there is a set of general worldwide. The event – which takes place June 17 through business sessions that are designed W 19 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta – brings together the to help business teams understand technical and business leaders in WebRTC along with the leading com- the WebRTC deployment and eco- system as well as how WebRTC can panies that are enabling and using WebRTC in their businesses. With impact businesses generally. WebRTC moving so fast, each WebRTC Conference & Expo reflects huge changes in the market and involves new sponsors, attendees, and This is followed by separate service WebRTC examples and knowledge. provider and enterprise tracks on Wednesday and Thursday. In addition Demos & Workshops WebRTC Conference & Expo IV in- to a rich set of sessions, both tracks WebRTC Conference & Expo IV in At- cluded such industry experts as: include a special focus on Thursday lanta will feature Demo Forum presen- • Avaya’s Gary Barnett morning. In the service provider focus tations by a wide array of companies, • Dialogic’s Andrew Goldberg a debate session will focus on the role which on Wednesday and Thursday • GENBAND’s Brad Bush of IMS in WebRTC deployment and will demonstrate their WebRTC • Google’s Serge Lachapelle whether WebRTC applications should products live in front of the confer- • Requestec’s Ben Weekes be tightly integrated into IMS or ence audience. The audience will then • Temasys’s Bill Lewis operated as a separate system. On the be invited to cast their ballots for the • Tokbox’s Ian Small, and enterprise track, the decision session companies they consider the strongest • Vidyo’s Alex Eleftheriadis will focus on the contact center and contenders. Award categories will customer interaction and support. The include Best in Show, Beyond the Call, Tracks & Sessions session will explore whether extend- Best Conferencing, Best Team Excite- For this event, the focus has been ing the current call center to WebRTC ment/Energy, Best WebRTC Tool, Easi- sharpened to address four key areas is the right answer. In addition, a est to Apply, Editor’s Choice, Ready of WebRTC as illustrated by the special focus track will address vertical Now, Visionary, and Wow Factor. business applications, developer, en- markets like health care and advanced terprise, and service provider tracks. solutions like contact center. Another great opportunity at WebRTC The agenda also includes a special in Atlanta this year is Wednesday session addressing key vertical Join Us! night at 7:30 p.m., when Priologic will markets in which WebRTC will drive The WebRTC Conference & Expo serve up free pizza, wings, and beer, significant change and advantage. is the best place in the industry to and the opportunity to learn about its get up to speed on WebRTC and to EasyRTC Open Source solutions. The conference includes three days understand how this disruptive and of developer focus. That includes six transformational technology and Expo Hall extended workshops for the devel- the webification that comes with it WebRTC Conference & Expo attendees oper community on Tuesday. These will impact your business and how will also have the opportunity to expe- workshops are designed to cover to best deploy WebRTC for strate- rience and network with a wide variety specific technical topics in detail. gic advantage. We look forward to of organizations within the WebRTC This is followed on Wednesday and seeing you June 17 through 19 at ecosystem on the event show floor. Ex- Thursday by six other sessions and the Atlanta event, and again Nov. 18 hibits are open Tuesday, June 17 from the peer-to-peer conference net- through 20 at WebRTC Conference & 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and starting at 8 working and education sessions on Expo in San Jose. a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday morning that will enable technical attendees to interact with Phil Edholm is the president and Keynotes leading implementers and vendors founder of PKE Consulting LLC As of press time, the keynotes for on specific topics. (www.pkeconsulting.com).

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WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Paula Bernier The outlook for WebrTC in 2014 and Beyond he outlook for WebRTC is a positive one, but Nonetheless, more than 68 percent of the survey respon- questions persist as to whether and when dents indicated they do not believe that WebRTC will T this technology will cross the chasm from emerge from the chasm in 2014, but rather think we will early adoption to mass-market embrace – and what continue to see initial deployments and niches with a pos- sibility of major deployments. However, the report states, it will take for WebRTC to make that leap. That’s ac- “there is virtually universal agreement that given standard cording to the WebRTC Outlook 2014 Report, which stabilization and Microsoft and Apple support, WebRTC is based on a December 2013 survey of more than will emerge as a major market force.” 100 leading entrepreneurs, users, and vendors in the WebRTC ecosystem. Although the fact that Apple and Microsoft are not at the moment supporting WebRTC looms large with survey respondents, who ranked it second on the technology’s The survey had 13 questions, eight of which were mul- top barriers to adoption, it is lack of awareness relative to tiple choice and five of which were open-ended. Both the WebRTC that the survey group sees as the No. 1 barrier. survey and responses were organized into five categories That means that industry events like WebRTC Conference addressing trends in WebRTC, user adoption, industry & Expo IV and articles like this one are of the utmost adoption and impact, WebRTC plans, and barriers to the importance to move the effort forward. Other top barriers technology. for WebRTC, according to survey respondents, include unspecified codec standards, limited features, lack of Most survey respondents believe WebRTC adoption will developers, lack of standards, and mobile support. be in the 50 million to 200 million range by the end of this year, but some surveyed said their applications will reach a Many of those respondents who said 2014 will not be billion users in 2014. Meanwhile, most survey respondents the year WebRTC crosses the chasm attributed that to believe the number of devices that will be WebRTC enabled the need for Apple and Microsoft to join the market by the end of 2014 will either be in the 100-300 million first. Other reasons were a lack of well-defined use device range or in the one to two billion range. cases and ROI for WebRTC, the fact that the standards process remains a stalemate, that WebRTC made “This data reflects much of the earlier data where about too much noise for the few applications to which it 30-35 percent of the respondents had a relatively low provides real value, and the idea that there are no expectation of the outlook for growth in 2014, while the big companies deploying WebRTC. Meanwhile, some remainders were more positive,” according to the report. who are undecided about the timing of mass-market “It also reflects a greater view that WebRTC is so large adoption for WebRTC indicated that there has to be and divergent that it is hard to make predictions.” a trigger for widespread adoption, such as a service provider or device supporting WebRTC natively. WebRTC will cause major disruption in the areas of con- tact center, videoconferencing, and web conferencing – all “Overall, the general view is that WebRTC is gaining of which are expected to experience dramatic change due velocity and is viewed even more favorably at the to WebRTC, according to many survey respondents. beginning of 2014 than at the beginning of 2013,” ac- cording to the report. “When it comes to 2014 growth “Overall, contact centers have more new business focus by the and adoption, the community is split, with an equal respondents than any other area,” according to the report. number believing that 2014 will be the year versus 2015 or beyond. While the large group of respondents Customer care and contact centers are also expected to indicating that they feel the big surprise will be Micro- be the first area to see widespread WebRTC adoption, fol- soft and/or Apple delivering supported products, this lowed by social media, BYOD, general video, health care, may be as much hope as insight, though perhaps there service providers, and then financial services. is some level of knowledge in the responses.”

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WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Phil Edholm An Enterprising view on WebrTC he enterprise has numerous uses for using WebRTC enables similar device independence. WebRTC, including enabling the bring That makes incorporating home agents much easier as T your own device model, allowing for their device type is not important to how they interact next generation customer interaction through with the control system. web integration, and establishing direct com- The integration between the web side and the contact munications between employees and the outside center side can be accomplished by implementing a com- world. Because WebRTC creates an experience pletely new system, with the website at the core, or by that comes from the host web server, the experi- integrating WebRTC into existing environments. ence the enterprise provides can be unique and tailored to deliver advantage. Of course, adding a media server into the mix enables functions like call recording, IVR, moderated interac- tions, speech recognition-based tools, etc. And there can be multiple media servers that can be mixed, ByoD both in type (premises or cloud) and in network/geo- The combination of HTML5 and WebRTC opens the graphical location. This can enable new capabilities. world of BYOD in a powerful new way. With HTML5 and WebRTC, any compliant device can become a highly integrated endpoint without running an applica- tion and without local data storage. This is a solution to the huge issue of maintaining privacy and compliance for data. By only sending the data to the device that will actually be displayed and using the built in HTML5 and WebRTC technologies, a new generation of highly secure implementations are possible. With the emerging 4G networking technologies, the performance and feel of these applications will be equivalent or better than current local apps. Customer Interaction Between 70 and 80 percent of contact center interac- tions in Western business are proceeded by a website visit, yet many businesses treat the contact center interactions and website visits as if they are unrelated events. WebRTC enables the customer interaction to come directly from the web page and drive how that interaction is handled through the business logic of the website. As a result, the business can define the skills required to meet the customer need and get new information about the success or failure points of the web presence. With an average web interaction costing a small fraction of an agent interaction, this optimization can create huge returns. For organizations with agents, the use of WebRTC enables a new paradigm where a direct connection is started by clicking on an object on any web page. This can allow for agent selection, and enable the agent to be on any WebRTC device. While this type of system could be integrated using SIP devices on the agent side,

For example, when looking to buy something, the website cookies or other certificates such as LinkedIn or Facebook. For visitor on the review site could trigger a conference with most visitors, the page would offer an opportunity to interact a knowledgeable agent. And when going to another page by entering the visitor name and a short explanation on why the agent could change. This concept of context and state an interaction is needed. This request can then be sent to related to a specific web page is an interesting capability the employee, enabling him or her to decide if it is important that WebRTC enables. now. If the employee wants to interact, he or she can push the interact button and the visitor is connected through WebRTC. This can all be done as an extension to existing contact centers, It also can become a form of instant chat. If the employee of course. But with WebRTC this capability will become ubiq- is in a meeting, he or she might type a response suggesting uitous and the choice for future integration will be based on the visitor come back at a specified time later in the day. The whether to extend the legacy contact center into the web world key point of the enterprise portal is that each visit to the web or begin a new customer interaction methodology based on page is a unique experience. and integrated to the company website. For the enterprise, understanding WebRTC is critical. So it’s WebrTC and ByoD important both to understand how your current vendors WebRTC also can be used to integrate open BYOD devices intend to use WebRTC and how WebRTC could change both into a more traditional unified communications architec- the enterprise communications landscape and the vendors ture. For vendors like Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, ShoreTel, you use. and Unify (the former Siemens Enterprise Communications), the use of WebRTC is a logical way to integrate another set Phil Edholm is the president and founder of PKE Consult- of devices. If anyone can go to anyone else’s system and ing LLC (www.pkeconsulting.com). get essentially the same level of capability as the direct participants, the need to federate between systems may go away. That’s because if I need to collaborate with Bob at XYZ Company, I just point my browser at the guest URL on his system and now we are collaborating with all of the tools his system can provide. However, unless the vendor chooses to enable its SIP oper- ated devices to integrate with WebRTC devices directly, a gateway – probably implemented as a media server – may be required. In this architecture, the WebRTC client is talking to the media server using WebRTC signaling, protocols, and codecs. Similarly, the SIP client is using SIP signaling, pro- tocols, and codecs based on the vendor choices. The media server is providing any required translation of the codec streams as well as providing a port-level interface that will connect to each client. The Enterprise Portal One potential significant application of WebRTC in the enterprise is an enterprise portal that enables external access to individuals through WebRTC. The concept of an enterprise portal is a website that allows external access using WebRTC. An example would work like this: On the “Contact Us” web- page there would be a link “Web Interaction” or “Browser Communications”. That link would link to a URL/web server that is the enterprise portal. Upon arriving at the enterprise portal, the visitor would be asked to enter the name of the person with whom he or she wants to interact. Alternatively, the company may just decide to publish a directory. After selecting the employee, the visitor is taken to the employee’s access page, which could have presence and availability information, potentially tuned to who the visitor is based on

WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Dean Bubley WebrTC’s Impact on Service Providers isruptive Analysis believes that WebRTC is core networks and typical conservatism of the relevant one of the most important telecom tech- teams. Instead, the wisest network operators are D nologies that has emerged in the past 10 ensuring that multiple internal teams and stakeholders years or more. It will radically alter the landscape for assess WebRTC independently, and wherever possible act to put solutions into the market as quickly as pos- voice, video, and data real-time communications, sible. This may manifest in several forms relevant to as it helps democratize them – allowing them to enterprise users: be combined directly with a variety of applications, websites, and devices. • Service providers are likely to become important retail channels for certain classes of WebRTC-based, or WebRTC-enabled, services from third parties – WebRTC capability is already supported by around notably audio- and videoconferencing. Others will 1 billion endpoints – predominantly PCs, but also deploy their own WebRTC conferencing platforms, increasing numbers of tablets and smartphones – either standalone web-based tools competing with and Disruptive Analysis forecasts that figure will rise Google Hangouts and Skype (Telenor has already to 5 billion by 2017, spanning both browsers and launched appear.in), or, later, integrated with their native applications. core networks and billing systems. There are three main domains touched by WebRTC: • enterprise communications (such as contact centrers, UC and conferencing); • telecom service providers (including fixed, mobile, and cable players); and TM VidyoWorks • consumer web and mobile apps (including social VidyoWorks TM The WebRTC media, gaming, etc.) The WebRTC Media Platform Media Platform These areas all form an overlapping three-way Venn diagram – and the intersections will yield some of the WebRTC for scalable conferencing and collaboration WebRTC for scalable conferencing and collaboration most powerful effects. Telecom service providers’ adop- tion of WebRTC will in many cases link to their enterprise service portfolios and market positioning. WebRTC is a double-edged sword for service provid- ers. For the most imaginative and aggressive, it could bolster their enterprise presence by enabling innova- tive cloud video propositions, or adding value to IP telephony platforms. But at the same time, for those service providers already worried about the threat of so-called OTT players’ incursion into their market for commodity voice, they will likely face additional and worsening threats. Visit Vidyo at the For telcos, WebRTC makes opportunities larger, threats WebRTC Conference & Expo worse, and everything faster. June 17-19 Although the focus of WebRTC vendor attention for Atlanta, Georgia telcos has been integration with IMS, that probably accounts only for 20 to 30 percent of the total service provider effort around the technology, and is likely to www.vidyo.com/webrtc be the slowest to emerge, given the complexities of

• Where service providers have with occasional embedded voice connectivity, or even low- existing contact center and latency streaming data, for example. hosted UC businesses, it is likely that these will Lastly, a broader renaissance in voice/video evolve to support For telcos, applications is on the horizon, taking com- WebRTC capabili- munications beyond the call into areas such ties, broadly in as biometrics, hypervoice, recording, and line with the WebRTC makes analytics. WebRTC will be an enabler – pace of the rest and telecom service providers may be of the market. present as hosts or innovators. Again, these opportunities will likely Taken together, many service providers span both larger, threats are likely to deploy WebRTC services – stand-alone and in Disruptive Analysis’ view, much and IMS- of the low-hanging fruit lies in servic- ing the needs of corporate communica- based options. worse, and tions and developers. • A number of everything faster. service providers Dean Bubley is director and founder of are already explor- Disruptive Analysis (disruptivewireless. blogspot.com), a London-based research ing the market for firm and consultancy, covering voice, video cloud-based WebRTC-as- a-service, competing against and mobile network technologies. (or acquiring) various specialist API providers targeting application and web developers. While these are mainly targeting busi- temasys.com.sg nesses’ external-facing websites and mobile apps, it can be ex- pected that others will focus on internal enterprise developers in due course. Telefonica Tokbox and NTT Skyway are already present here.Telcos may also offer thin cloud-based slices of It's time to look WebRTC infrastructure, such as hosted TURN servers, or voice/ video transcoding-as-a-service. under the • Some service providers have deep and extensive presence hood. in certain vertical sectors such as health care, education, or finance – for example, providing integrated solutions to hospi- Enterprise ready, scalable solutions that tals or schools. Where these involve communication elements, expect WebRTC to appear as a means to reduce time-to-market deliver beyond the buzz and PR. and development effort. See, test, and form your own opinion. Talk is cheap, • WebRTC-enabled applications will likely form part of some show me the code. operators’ SaaS portfolios, either as horizontal tools, or em- Linus Torvalds, August 25, 2000 bedded into vertical forms such as salesforce automation or industry-specific packaged applications. • As operators deploy IMS-based VoIP and VoLTE, they will look for ways to extend reach to other devices or users that do Come see us at: stations not support native clients or softphones, such as employees’ & PCs and tablets with suitable browsers. 4 5 There will likely be numerous other touchpoints with enterprise for telcos’ WebRTC efforts. Disruptive Analysis has already encountered examples of operators looking at embedding [email protected] real-time communications into M2M or new Internet of Things uses. Corporate fleet-management systems may be upgraded

WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Paula Bernier Talking WebrTC with Priologic’s Doug Pelton NTERNET TELEPHONY recently spoke to Priologic Software Inc. CEO What do you expect to be the Doug Pelton about the state of WebRTC and how this important hot topics at the event? I new technology is impacting its business. Why haven’t Apple and Microsoft stepped up to do WebRTC yet? Should we build native apps, and How is WebrTC integrated What verticals are the early when will they be best used? How into your business today? adopters for WebrTC? do we do a mobile application for Priologic Software has developed I think finance, contact centers, health iOS or Android that uses WebRTC? three products using WebRTC. The care and education are all good sectors What cool new data channel use EasyRTC Open Source framework; to explore. There is lots of opportunity cases are there? Tawk.com, a frictionless WebRTC- to embrace verticals now that the based conference/collaboration underpinnings of WebRTC are strong. What will Priologic be doing service; and PrioPhone, a WebRTC- at the WebrTC Conference & enabled softphone that works Where are we on the WebrTC Expo in Atlanta? against the Oracle WebRTC Session adoption curve? We’ll be showing lots of native Controller. Our team has produced Last year corporations were talking about mobile apps, and hopefully showing some great software, and it is selling. doing proof-of-concept jobs. This year our new IE plugin. We’ll be showing they are doing proof-of-concept jobs. new features on Tawk.com and our Does WebrTC open a new PrioPhone products. We’ll be talking market opportunity for your Do you support the vP8 or about our EasyRTC open source business/product line? H.264 codec? platform. We’ll have our entire Web- Yes. For WebRTC to be useful there We like both. We’ll be trying to sup- RTC engineering team there. I think are a bunch of missing pieces that port both codecs where possible. we’re speaking in three sessions and are needed. Each of those missing putting on our third EasyRTC Pizza, pieces is a huge opportunity. We In theory, HTML5 and WebrTC Wings and Beer learning event. think WebRTC will change the world can eliminate native apps. Do a lot over the next 5 years. you have plans for native mo- Why did you decide to attend bile application with WebrTC the WebrTC Conference & Expo? How does the lack of support or the Google Media Engine? We have made a huge investment of Apple’s Safari and Micro- We think web browsers are too in WebRTC tooling, and we feel this soft’s Internet Explorer impact restrictive for some applications. We is the premier show in the space. your implementation? have a working EasyRTC ActiveX con- We’ve attended three shows so far Safari doesn’t matter much, as trol, and we’ll likely have something and have won three awards. We’re Chrome will work on Mac OSX. We for native MacOSX apps soon. trying for four. are working on an IE plug-in that will enable WebRTC, or at least our How often do you have to ex- What do you hope attendees EasyRTC Javascript API. We hope to plain what WebrTC is to your will learn about Priologic at release it for developers soon. potential customers? the event? Less and less. They’ve heard of it and Attendees who are developers, Has the data channel in WebrTC may just need a bit more technical enterprises or service providers such opened up new opportunities in information this year. as telcos or cable companies should the enterprise? consider leveraging our open source Yes. We use the data channel to How does the WebrTC EasyRTC or our other licensed Web- support file sharing and instant Conference & Expo help the RTC products in their projects. We messaging. We also have some WebrTC community? can help them get them to market experimental WebRTC-based CDN in It is invaluable. We’ve really gotten faster and reduce many of the risks our lab. And we’re keen to use the to know the players in the industry in their projects. We are one of the data channel to control machines by attending these conferences. It is few vendors that provide a full-stack sometime soon. We think data chan- still a very intimate conference. You solution that can be housed in the nel has great potential. can talk to almost everyone. cloud or on premises.

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WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Paula Bernier Acision: WebrTC is Moving Beyond the Hoo-Ha NTERNET TELEPHONY recently spoke to Acision WebRTC and HTML5 cannot really replace native apps Engineering Director John Parr about WebRTC, today as you still need a solution for push notification and I what the company is doing in this realm, and its multi-tasking/back-grounding of web apps. Once those plans for WebRTC Conference & Expo. features are available web apps will be capable of doing what native apps can do today – but by that point there will doubtlessly be new native OS features used in native What do people need to know about Acision? apps that web-apps can’t support. I think there will be Acision connects the world by powering relevant, seam- a good case for native apps in many situations for the less mobile engagement services that interoperate across foreseeable future. The Acision SDK has native libraries for all IP platforms and enrich the user experience, creating Android and iOS that use the Google Media Engine. value and new communication opportunities for carriers, enterprises, and consumers across the world. After leading How do events like the WebrTC Conference & the mobile messaging industry for over 20 years, Acision is Expo help the WebrTC community? uniquely positioned at the convergence of next generation Sharing ideas for different applications of WebRTC stimu- mobile communications, which is built upon carrier-grade lates creativity in the industry. technology, infrastructure, security, and support. What do you expect to be the hot topics at How is WebrTC part of your business today? the event? WebRTC is integrated into our rich communication client We think the debate will have moved on from the previ- FuseMe and Forge product. ous hoo-ha around video codecs and signaling and will be centered on practical integration and implementation How is your partnership with Crocodile going? issues. There will be more emphasis on native mobile Crocodile has integrated well into the Acision core busi- implementations and use cases than previously. ness and its technology and assets are an extremely good fit within the Acision product portfolio, providing addi- What will you be doing at the WebrTC tional value-add capabilities and functionality, particularly Conference & Expo in Atlanta? to new products such as FuseMe and Forge by Acision. We’ll be demonstrating various applications built on the It also means Acision can now extend its new mobile Acision SDK, implemented as web apps and natively for engagement services to beyond mobile operators to the mobile, including our Engage demo for customer service enterprise and developer community. and sales in a retail environment. Has the data channel in WebrTC opened up Why did you decide to attend the event? new opportunities in the enterprise? We believe out of all of the WebRTC-focused events, The data channel is very useful for some applications, but this is one that provides us with great value, networking there are many enterprise use-cases that still require data opportunities, and positive exposure in front of the right and messaging to be routed through the network (for audiences. policy control, audit trails, and interworking). What do you hope attendees will learn about What are your expectations for WebrTC adoption? Acision at the event? We believe by the end of the year we’ll see many ex- We want them to understand how we have changed amples of WebRTC being used in consumer applications, since the Acision partnership, the benefits this has and it will be standard for enterprise unified communica- brought to our WebRTC business proposition, and how tions and conferencing. we have evolved. We have lots to show and offer this year with new ideas and initiatives we want to share, Do you have plans for native mobile application so we value the opportunity to do this at WebRTC with WebrTC or the Google Media Engine? Conference & Expo.

secure acision WebRTC video chat file transfer Chat Revolutionizing real-time IP communications Secure file-transfer, video chat and instant messaging, all in one place Richer, personalized user engagement with direct connectivity Browser based solution (Chrome, Firefox, Opera) instant messaging Send Acision connects the world by powering relevant, seamless mobile engagement services which enrich the user experience, and create value and new communication opportunities for carriers, enterprises and consumers across the world. For more information visit forge.acision.com or visit our corporate website: www.acision.com or email: [email protected] Copyright © Acision 2014. All rights reserved. This document is protected by international copyright law and may not be reprinted, reproduced, copied or utilised in whole or in part by any means including electronic, mechanical, or other means without the prior written consent of Acision.

WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Paula Bernier Avaya offers a Practical view of WebrTC NTERNET TELEPHONY recently spoke to Val Mat- Avaya believes that there is a continuing role for users to ula about WebRTC. Avaya’s senior director of have native apps if the installation process is acceptable I analytics and multimedia says WebRTC will be to them. Avaya today has offers based on the Google an integral offer to the company’s enterprise-wide Media Engine to prove this out. Avaya Aura Collaboration Environment framework. How often do you have to explain what WebrTC is to customers and prospects? Does WebrTC open a new market opportunity It’s not a question of ‘have to explain,’ rather, we are for your product line? making sure we take every opportunity to explain Avaya’s Definitely. Just to start, WebRTC will enable our customers role in helping to shape the standard, support technolo- to offer consumers the ability to connect into their customer gies like Opus outside of just browsers, and finally, dem- service centers using only their WebRTC-capable browser onstrate interoperability between WebRTC and current on their Android device, Chromebook, or PC browser. This industry solutions for UC and customer service. extends the capabilities of our thin-client customer service of- fers, as it adds WebRTC to the portfolio, which is in addition How do events like the WebrTC Conference & to our Adobe Flash-based Avaya One Touch Video offer. Expo help the WebrTC community succeed? The event helps to raise awareness, provide a cadence of Is the data channel in WebrTC creating new events where significant announcements can be made, possibilities in the enterprise? and provides a forum for efficiently promoting our view of It will, but these are likely to move along more slowly the technology and impact. as there are numerous alternatives for client/server data exchange. What do you expect to be the hot topics at the event this time around? What vertical industries are early adopters Personally, not so much the issue of video, but rather, of WebrTC? the role of all-browser/closed garden solutions vs. an In general, we believe that WebRTC (along with non- integrated suite such as Avaya’s WebRTC, native app, and WebRTC technologies, such as co-browsing and co-piloting) core enterprise infrastructure solutions. will make the consumer experience more friendly and quicker – for finance, home mortgage processing, health What will you be doing at the WebrTC care advising, and potentially any online retail experience. Conference & Expo in Atlanta? Avaya’s Gary Barnett, senior vice president and general Where are we on the WebrTC adoption curve? manager of collaboration, will present a keynote. In ad- Clearly, a portion of the browsers [are] support enough to dition, I will be a member of several panels related to the make WebRTC useful. Whether this will be a technology for use of WebRTC in customer service. We will have an expo a significant fraction of users or whether this will become position demonstrating our WebRTC capabilities as well. nearly ubiquitous across most users is still to be seen. Why did you decide to attend the WebrTC Do you support vP8 or H.264? Why? Conference & Expo? Audio is well understood, and Avaya is planning to We thought this was an excellent opportunity to show broadly support Opus. What is also clear is that neither attendees the capabilities of our solutions, and get the VP8 nor H.264 will be chosen as the standard anytime word out on their value. soon, and thus we are making appropriate plans to offer [a] solution in this market. What do you hope attendees will learn about Avaya at the event? In theory, HTML5 and WebrTC can eliminate I think they’ll get a practical view of the use of the tech- native apps. Do you have plans for native nology – as an extremely valuable technology addition to mobile application with WebrTC or the a full suite of communication and collaboration capabili- Google Media Engine? ties already present in our portfolio.

ADD COLLABORATION TO ANY APP IN A SNAP Imagine your users interacting anywhere, anytime, on any device. Imagine your apps improving customer service inside a contact center. Imagine faster development times, reduced costs, and streamlined workfows. ® Avaya Aura Collaboration Environment makes it possible. Add powerful collaboration capabilities to existing applications, or create new ones tailored to your users’ needs—with simple “snap-in” modules that make adding unifed communications and contact center functionality to your applications faster and easier than ever before. And do it all across multiple channels, devices, and application types—mobile, cloud, social, and WebRTC. Imagine what you can do when you add collaboration. Find out more at Booth #1 at the WebRTC Conference & Expo, June 17-19, or visit avaya.com/CollaborationEnvironment.

WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Paula Bernier CafeX Dishes on WebrTC NTERNET TELEPHONY recently spoke to Sajeel ness and operational processes. The size of the opportu- Hussain, vice president of marketing and part- nity will be determined by the quality, friendliness, and I ner development of CaféX Communications, facility of the applications and services that use the tech- about the company’s offerings in the WebRTC nology. We are seeing intense interest in the CaféX Fusion Live Assist solution that leverages WebRTC technology to arena, industry trends, and the WebRTC Conference light up nearly any website or mobile app with integrated & Expo in Atlanta. live video assistance. In addition, our Fusion Palettes solu- tion simplifies integration of mobile consumer apps with Tell us about CaféX. a variety of contact center platforms with live video and CaféX is a leading provider of real-time customer engage- contextual communications. ment solutions. CaféX software for WebRTC and mobile collaboration solutions seamlessly connect customers to How does the lack of support of Apple’s Safari businesses from within mobile and web applications. We and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer impact you? offer powerful developer toolkits and server components Have you had to enable work-arounds? that embed existing enterprise communications within ap- CaféX has taken the initiative to produce plug-ins with plications on smartphones, tablets and desktops, enabling native H.264 support for Internet Explorer and Safari businesses to deliver omni-channel experiences that are browsers to enable enterprises to take advantage of its characterized by consistent, integrated and personalized Fusion Live Assist and Fusion Palettes solutions in nearly customer interactions with context across multiple chan- any computing or mobile environment. The advantage nels. Our solutions not only provide high definition voice, with this approach is that it not only provides cross video and IM but also Live Assist features such as screen browser support, but also minimizes any transcoding sharing, remote control, document push and annotation, while interoperating into an existing SIP environment. all of which are enabled via two lines of code on either a mobile or a web app. We also offer robust integration How has the data channel impacted WebrTC with leading contact centers to ensure proper queuing, in the enterprise? context passing and routing. CaféX solutions support CaféX Fusion Live Assist uses WebSocket rather than Android and iOS mobile as well as H.264 and VP8 video the data channel, as WebSocket is more standardized including transcoding between traditional H.264 endpoint and therefore supported across mobile devices such as and VP8 specific browsers. CaféX has deployed its award tablets as well as major web browsers, and has more winning technology solutions through OEM relationships conventional ways to secure data, and handles firewall with six global banks and a range of businesses that traversal more easily. Also, in most cases, data that enters range from Fortune 100 to medium-sized enterprises. the enterprise must pass through a server first to satisfy compliance constraints, which can be problematic for How has CaféX positioned its WebrTC solutions? peer-to-peer technologies like the WebRTC data channel. Our approach to date has been to focus less on technolo- Fusion Live Assist can also utilize WebSocket to support gy and more on the business outcomes. We see that once application sharing sessions among multiple participants. customers see the results, and experience how relatively simple integration and deployment is, the high-level What is the impact of WebrTC Conference & questions surrounding the ‘what is WebRTC’ transform Expo on the WebrTC community? into ‘how can I apply this technology to my business.’ CaféX has found the WebRTC Conferences to provide a fertile atmosphere for creativity and innovation that has How big is the WebrTC opportunity? helped accelerate exposure and acceptance of WebRTC We see the biggest opportunity in redefining customer across the telecommunications industry. We appreciate experience management with contextual intelligence, the various philosophies and perspectives that different to drive predictable outcomes and higher Net Promoter providers bring to the event. With WebRTC still in its Scores. This is where technologies such as WebRTC can adolescence, events like the WebRTC Conference play a play a critical role as [WebRTC’s] simplicity provides a vital role in helping customers and providers understand solid foundation for innovating and optimizing many busi- the dynamics that are taking place in the market.

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WEBRTC SUPPLEMENT By Paula Bernier Temasys Discusses WebrTC Innovation NTERNET TELEPHONY recently spoke to Chip Wil- cox of Temasys Communications Pte Ltd. about I WebRTC. The CEO says WebRTC is the founda- tion on which Temasys – which says it is leading the new wave of innovation in web and mobile commu- nications and collaboration – has built its business. What sort of opportunities does WebrTC allow for? There is a phenomenal opportunity for businesses that choose to innovate with WebRTC. The Internet was nev- er really built to support interactivity – between people, Have we moved past the codec war? devices, applications, and so on. One only has to look The MTI codec is just here as a fallback for minimum at the hacks that we’ve implemented to make online interoperability. We feel that it has been used as an interaction possible in the last 17 years. WebRTC gives excuse to create fear, uncertainty and doubt (the usual us the first opportunity to see how things work when a FUD). In practice, it is a non-issue. technology is invented specifically to facilitate interactiv- ity online. It’s going to change the world, dramatically. Do you have plans for native mobile application with WebrTC or the Google Google has incorporated WebrTC into Google Media Engine? Hangouts. How does that integration impact Yes. It’s our opinion that for the time being, the best your view of WebrTC and your business plans, way to support WebRTC on iOS and Android mobile if at all? devices is with native apps. We have developed Google Hangouts is one flavor of the way Android and iOS reference clients, and WebRTC can be implemented. It is a SDKs that developers can use to good example of the first major build their own native apps for use case many people think of these platforms. when they hear about WebRTC We have developed – web-based communication What will you be and collaboration. There Android and iOS doing at the WebrTC are many other use cases Conference & Expo and types of applications reference clients, and in Atlanta? that WebRTC will support, We are a sponsor of the especially when one looks SDKs that developers Expo, so we’ll be giving a to the data channel and keynote presentation and getting creative with the can use to build their participating in a number of technology to suit different own native apps for panel discussions. We will use cases beyond the UC also be doing a live demo of perspective. these platforms. some of our innovations over the last 6 to 8 months and those Tell us more about the data about to launch. channel in WebrTC. The data channel is the newest compo- What do you hope attendees will nent of the draft standard, and it is generating learn about Temasys at the event? a lot of excitement. What will matter more is who can We think we have a unique position and value propo- get really creative with it and execute on some of the sition for customers and collaborators, and we’ll use big ideas that are floating around out there in terms of the Atlanta event as an opportunity to showcase our how to leverage it. We are pursuing some very excit- capabilities. Historically, we have shied away from ing opportunities where the data channel will play a doing a lot of marketing and PR for PR’s sake. That major part in driving innovation and collaboration with said, we think it’s time to look under the hood, which customers, but it is early days, still. is our theme for the conference.

atlanta_2014_fullpage.pdf 1 5/2/14 6:40 PM It’s time to look under the hood. Enterprise ready, scalable solutions that deliver beyond the buzz and PR. See, test, and form your own opinion. C Talk is cheap, M show me the code. Y Linus Torvalds, August 25, 2000 CM MY CY CMY K member member Visit us on the web at: temasys.com.sg

Special Focus By Rich Tehrani The GLoBALINX Masterstream Solution A Tool to Help Agents Spend Time Selling Rather Than Doing Quoting LOBALINX is a fast-growing, hosted services provider that offers a complete line of hosted G products for agents and wholesale custom- ers. Recently GLOBALINX changed its billing strategy – moving from a multi-line bill listing CPE and service, to combining both with a competitive single MRC pricing strategy named 1Price. Since advertised, we’ve decided to dive deeper to see how competitive this customer thinks they need, while delivering everything they will need is as simple as it gets.” 1Price offer really is. To view this new pricing strategy, we were able to tryout One proof point of GLOBALINX’s strength in the industry is GLOBALINX’s customized new quoting software, called the fact that the company has been on the Inc. 500/5000 Masterstream, with which many agents already are familiar. list of the fastest growing privately held companies for GLOBALINX customized Masterstream to allow agents to turn eight consecutive years. GLOBALINX has also been on a quote into an order – allowing electronic signatures from the Rochester Top 100, a program that recognizes the customers, order updates, and more. Agents have the ability fastest growing privately owned companies in the Greater to upload their unique logos and have them appear in the top Rochester region. right hand corner of proposals. The new 1Price billing, which was launched late last year, is a We really liked that the Masterstream home screen includes a more competitive and simplified pricing system for agents and bulletin board allowing agents to see messages about impor- customers. It includes all calling features and any customer tant items such as new sales contests and new cross-sell or selected add-on services as part of a single monthly charge. The up-sell opportunities. 1Price model also includes maintenance, professional installa- tion, 24/7 service, award-winning U.S.-based customer service, Speaking of productivity, we liked the Quote Ready and more which we found unique compared to other resellers feature, which allows canned text to be written once and offering similar bundles included on the proposals in an automated fashion. Each user can customize his or her own letter with numerous “It’s our goal to make the decision-making process as easy as messages and unique signatures. It’s worth mentioning the possible for our customers and to provide them with a great ex- standardized letter can be edited before sending – allowing perience,” says Michael Machonkin, GLOBALINX Vice President you to add niceties like, “Good luck at the triathlon this of Business Development. “One price that includes everything a weekend,” etc. ® 46 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com



Special Focus The Resources link allows users to enter in vices from categories such as office station or NPANXX codes to determine who the car- reception. You can also choose from various rier is corresponding to the area code and purchase options, and you can easily present prefix. We performed testing with num- various payment options to your customers. bers in California and Connecticut, and it was accurate each time with responses One great option we liked was the abil- such as “SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND ity to duplicate options so they can be TELEPHONE CO” now part of AT&T and changed and presented to customers for in another search, “CELLCO PARTNERSHIP their evaluation. At this point the system DBA VERIZON WIRELESS – CA.” You also goes out to the carriers and processes the can find out the wire center identification orders. The quotes come back very quickly, code serving this number. Moreover, this but the processing status stays there until can be a handy mileage tool which allows they are sure the price is correct. you to determine the distance from a Another great benefit of the system is wire center to an address. We tested this customized pricing request that lets you feature within Fairfield County, in Con- let GLOBALINX know what you need to necticut, and it was accurate. ensure you win the business. GLOBALINX When entering a new RFQ you can add a can then lower the price based on your new customer, modify existing locations, probability of winning the business, and it and import a CSV file for multiple locations. then shows the new price in the system. Error checking was pretty good. In our test- Once sold, you can track the order as it Perhaps one of the more important parts ing, it caught addresses which were invalid moves through the provisioning system of the solution is its ability to notify when as well as e-mail addresses without the @ of GLOBALINX – similar to how you a customer looks at an order. The default sign. The system has the ability to match might track a package from FedEx. is off, but you should turn it on. addresses, which are entered against the U.S. Post Office database, and when they In short, the GLOBALINX Masterstream We believe the interface, while good, are validated, the location name is displayed system is quite powerful and the customiza- can be more intuitive. If you go through in capital letters to assure you the address tions made to it have improved the service an hour of training or so, you will be is correct. If you enter an invalid address, dramatically, meaning agents can spend able to navigate it effectively, but I which we did – you are alerted to this fact time selling and not performing data entry. get the sense that there is much more and given the option to add it anyway. IT power here than most people will use. This is a typical challenge with full-fea- When adding network services, you can tured solutions such as word processing choose between one and three years as well; but I think the agents will likely and then select the network beyond sell more effectively if they are able to GLOBALINX – the company sug- take advantage of all of the powerful gests you choose “no prefer- features under the hood. It is worth ence” but you can narrow mentioning there is a basic bubble-help the list down by selecting system which we believe helps a lot. specific network(s) the The new 1Price billing, customer requests. In Master agents will love the report- our tests we selected which was launched ing feature, which lets you search for an existing customer orders, RFQs, and other activity based from the prepopu- late last year, is a more on where it is in the order funnel. A lated test database, system administrator can add users selected MPLS, GLO- competitive and simplified who could be sub-agents. A total of 99 BALINX as the carrier, sales managers can be added and each a 20 percent com- pricing system for agents manager can have 9,999 reports, each mission, Ethernet at with their own ability to login with a 10mbps, voice service, and customers. unique ID, orders, etc. People can see and a managed router. If down but not up, meaning a salesper- you have a customer in a son cannot look to see what the man- GLOBALINX location you can ager is up to or what the master agent opt for hosted PBX as a service above him is doing; but master agents as mentioned above. At this point and managers can look below. you are prompted to select various de- ® 48 INTERNET TELEPHONY June 2014 Subscribe FREE online at www.itmag.com