13 October 2005
You would be easily forgiven if you believed that the title ‘4Play over Broadband’ meant more than a group of network engineers showcasing technology. Perhaps that would explain why, at IS' annual knowledge sharing forum, held earlier last month, this was one of the more popular presentations. Aptly titled "Internetix", this has rapidly become an eagerly anticipated industry event, with over 1300 delegates attending in Cape Town and Johannesburg this year.
In ‘4Play over Broadband’ engineers illustrated voice, video, data and home automation utilising a 512kbit/s IS wireless broadband connection, linked to a Linksys home router. Home Automation, made possible using X10, a simple power line carrier protocol developed in 1978, is certainly a topic that's on a lot of tongues. The presentation team explained how X10, utilising control signals across standard electrical wires allowed on/off type instructions to be sent to a remote device, and how through the combination of a house and unit code, it was possible to uniquely identify any appliance on the house's power grid. Connecting a PC to the ‘X10 Universal Computer Interface’ via a standard serial connection, is all that's left to enable you to have to have complete control of all X10 devices, from an easy to use software interface. IS engineers took this concept to the next level and demonstrated how a microwave oven, loaded with popcorn could be switched on, from an application running on a Smart Phone over General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). In essence, this means that no matter where in the world you find yourself, provided you have an Internet connection, and a PC at home with an IP address connected to the Internet, complete control of all X10 enabled devices at home is possible. No more worries about leaving the stove on!
With popcorn in hand it was time to catch up on some television. Not television in the traditional sense, but an on demand Internet stream of an international news channel over IS' Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. The 380kbit/s high quality stream, was decoded, and played back, glitch free, by a media centre connected to a big screen TV. To top things off, the same channel was streamed live to a Smart Phone over the homeís Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) hotspot.
The final demonstration focused on Voice over IP (VoIP) as well as Voice over IS (VoIS) – IS’ VoIP switching platform which has been in development over the past year. Three VoIP enabled phones; a Cisco IP phone, a Wi-Fi enabled Smart Phone running a Xten Soft Phone and a PC also running a Xten Soft Phone, were configured to talk to IS’ VoIP platform via Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). National, international, cellular and IS community calls were all demonstrated with toll-quality audio. To sweeten the pot, the Smart Phone was used to make a call over IS’ VoIP platform using Wi-Fi as opposed to GSM. The exciting introduction of Wi-Fi into cellular telephones is now opening up the ‘air-interface’ previously exclusively guarded by cellular operators, as previously, calls made from traditional cellular handsets had no alternative but to be routed over the phone’s GSM interface. Smart Phones with embedded access mediums such as Wi-Fi and eventually WiMAX will enable callers to make Least Cost Routing (LCR) decisions on their handsets.
All these applications proved to the Internetix delegates that data would quickly become a very small part of the overall broadband service offering. With the advent and availability of always-on, high-speed Internet access to South African homes, services such as voice and video will quickly transform from ‘nice to haves’ to ‘must haves’. The broadband revolution is shifting into overdrive, hold tight and marvel at its ability to transform the way we live, work and play.
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