Attach base stations in place of telephones
Requires: Coupling the PSTN and the Internet telephony worlds,
i.e., unification of voice and data communication
Driven by a number of features:
- emergence of high speed digital paths (ISDN, xDSL, ...)
- emergence of integrated traffic
- ``phone'' programs for placing long distance calls across the internet, loss of traditional income sources
- exploding Multimedia computing market
- therefore, nearly all new PCs have audio input and output
(high-end ones even have video input and output)
- OS and other support for audio is becoming standard
- more and more multimedia information being broadcast, pointcast, ...
Enabled by Voice Gateways:
- Li Wei, (M.S., 1994),Gateway between Packet and Switched
Networks for Speech Communication, KTH/IT
- Lucent's voice gateway was developed with MiBridge
(http://www.mibridge.com/)
- ...
LAN(s) provide the local interconnections between the various types of networks
===> no more PBXs and perhaps no more traditional telecom interfaces!
MEDIA, 26 May 1997
G.Q.Maguire Jr. (maguire@it.kth.se)
Last modified: Sun May 25 21:14:51 METDST