Dialogic Exchange Network

Mobile Video Conferencing and IT Expo

Jim Machi — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:45:00 GMT

IT Expo East was held last week in Miami. One thing I like to do at shows is to figure out if there is a clear theme or not. Sometimes there is, and sometimes there isn’t. I would say this year, one of the themes at IT Expo East was mobile video. The Dialogic booth had a mobile video conferencing demo (video conference tablets, smartphones, laptops – any broadband endpoint) that was busy much of time, and others at the show were also demonstrating aspects of mobile video. Additionally...(read more)

Mobile World Congress – What will 2012 have to offer?

Neil Weldon — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:35:00 GMT

I’ll be attending MWC 2012 in Barcelona at the end of February. This will be my second time, as I was there in 2010. I’ll be attending the conference sessions, a very good way to get a snapshot of the thoughts and planned innovations going on in this space. Along with the exhibition and app world, which is a trek in and of itself through the halls, if you don’t come back thinking mobile in your sleep, then you were not engaging fully. My expectations include: Cloud - (to continue...(read more)

Mobile Video Quality of Experience, Part I

Jim Machi — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:54:00 GMT

Device manufacturers and carriers are touting the quality and speed of their offerings. You've probably noticed that they're always advertising how fast movies and videos can be downloaded, the quality of video streaming, and the sharpness of video quality. Meanwhile, television networks and other content providers are promoting the convenience of video on demand. Together, this provides an expectation among consumers that not only will they be able to view everything from football games...(read more)

Real Time Video Streaming Goes Big Time – Superbowl Sunday

James Rafferty — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:55:00 GMT

Recently NBC announced that for the first time, the largest event in American sports, the Superbowl, would be streamed over its network and through a variety of other channels such as mobile. This is big news. Lots of television is available via streaming today. For example, my youngest son watches streamed versions of programs like South Park. Users have also become very accustomed to clicking on You Tube videos. But streaming of the Superbowl? This promises to be a landmark of sorts both for the...(read more)

Mighty Morphing of the Network Border Element, Part 2

Jim Machi — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:35:00 GMT

In last week’s blog, I introduced this graph showing the history and expected trends for network border elements - the Media Gateway and the SBC. Graph derived from Infonetics data, November 2011 There are two interesting things going on in this graph. First of all, you see the gateways declining and the SBCs growing as time goes on. This makes sense since as more and more IP networks are deployed, SBCs are required to connect them to each other. Wireline IP voice-based networks, such as cable...(read more)

Mighty Morphing of the Network Border Element, Part I

Jim Machi — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:54:00 GMT

Network Border Elements connect two types of networks to each other, sitting at the edge, or border, of each network. Looking at the data below from Infonetics, you can see a trend developing from back in 2007, which we will explore in more detail in next week’s blog. The wireline service provider border element of choice back in 2007 was a gateway. Gateways are required to connect IP networks to TDM networks and deal with the media and signaling conversion between the two networks. When voice...(read more)

Skyping Along

Jim Machi — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:57:00 GMT

Two years ago, Skype was doing about 13% of all International minutes . One year ago, Skype was doing about 20% of all International minutes . We should find out soon what the research analysts think Skype's percent of 2011 International minutes is, but I'm guessing it will be over 25%, perhaps even approaching 30% for 2011. People are even using it as a verb - i.e. "When did you talk to him?" "Well, I Skyped him just now." And it's becoming a well known brand. (I...(read more)

The Premise Network, Part 3

Jim Machi — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:02:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, I explored how fast networks and cloud computing are impacting the Premise Network. This week, the final blog of this series, let me explore some of the apps that could attach themselves to this kind of “new CPE” network. First of all, we see some movement of so-called “non-essential” apps to the cloud. A typical one falling into this area is fax. Fax is still utilized today, but maybe not in the same volume as 10 years ago. Nonetheless, it’s still important...(read more)

2012 Predictions! Oh No!

Jim Machi — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:17:00 GMT

It's the time of year to make some predictions. 2012 will be year of interactivity. What does that mean? The increased penetration of smartphones worldwide, with worldwide 3G network buildout, will enable more mobile interactivity via social networking tools like Facebook and Skype instant messaging. Additionally, in the enterprise, more people will use the collaboration tools such as "sharing." As such, more interactivity in communications will occur, as opposed to one way communications...(read more)

Scoring Last Year's Predictions! Oh No!

Jim Machi — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:30:00 GMT

Last year, I made 5 predictions for 2011 . Let’s be honest and see how I did? 1. It will become more of an everyday occurrence that people find the benefit and joys of using WiFi offload instead of utilizing the 3G data path. Score: Probably right, though not to the extent I had envisioned since even if you are in WiFi range, if you have to pay extra for it, it’s not going to happen. People will continue to use the 3G data path. However, I do see people with iPads and iPhones going right...(read more)

Some Predictions for Cloud in 2012

Neil Weldon — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:39:00 GMT

I have an aversion to the end of year ‘top things that have happened this year’ or ‘will happen next.’ This blog is not a 2 hour TV program counting down the 100 must see TV moments or even the top predictions for Cloud in 2012, which the title may suggest – it’s simply my thoughts being put together in terms of where I may need to pay some focus in 2012 when I’ve got my cloud hat on: Africa – very interesting place to do business and with broadband...(read more)

Just in Time for the Holidays...Fast, Fast , Fast , FAST!!

Jim Machi — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:21:00 GMT

Yesterday, I experienced my first LTE interaction by using an LTE phone that belonged to a colleague. I am not usually easily wowed, but Wow, that was an unexpected experience. I knew it would be fast but I was floored by just how fast it was! I mean like it says on the commercials, going out to websites and grabbing videos was faster than using my laptop from work, not to mention from home. Now, maybe I was the only person in the cell vicinity to be on that LTE network so there was no bandwidth...(read more)

The Future Premise Network, Part 2

Jim Machi — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:20:00 GMT

Last week, I level-set on what a typical Premise Network might look like today. Advanced networks, including mobile networks, are impacting the definition of the premise though and so this “typical” concept is evolving rapidly. More and more people are connecting to the enterprise network via mobile devices, even on mobile devices the IT people wish they wouldn’t connect with. But customer desire is overwhelming the IT people and these devices are coming to the enterprise networks...(read more)

The Future Premise Network, Part 1

Jim Machi — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:34:00 GMT

Two weeks ago, I presented at the US Telecom Voice Innovation 2011 Conference on the topic "The Premise Network." While it might not sound so interesting, the Premise Network is undergoing much change because work is not just a place to go anymore , it's a state of mind . The talk was mostly about the future of the premises network, but before I got to that, I needed to level set on what a typical premise enterprise network might look like. In my estimation, "typical" means...(read more)

My iPad, One Year Later

Jim Machi — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:36:00 GMT

About a year ago, I got an iPad to use at work. About a month after I got it, I predicted I wouldn’t use it too much since I found the iPad great at consuming content but not creating content. And I create a lot of content, for instance this blog (yes, this is content to some folks ). Now that the holiday season is upon us and many people out there will be finding iPads in their stockings, I figured I’d tell you how in fact I used mine. Well, I tried, I really tried, to use it to create...(read more)

Mobile Payments and the Role of SS7

Jim Machi — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:08:00 GMT

Back in June, I wrote a blog about mobile commerce and using your phone to pay for services, or using your phone to enable mobile banking. These are all huge growth opportunities for the industry. I wanted to follow that up with some comments about how this works. Some of the payments will be made using the internet, that is, the mobile internet. Since a smartphone is an on-ramp to the internet, then the same mechanisms to pay via the internet can apply. This is a little cumbersome since we’ve...(read more)

Pure Kryptonite for SMS?

Jim Machi — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:18:00 GMT

The last few months, I have been thinking a lot about SMS. We’ve had customers deploy and develop voice and video SMS solutions, which are innovative in their own right, and we’ve seen what Twitter can do. But at a very high level, what is the future of SMS? I mean, as IP mobile networks proliferate, you can “instant message” people much more easily by using over the top data services. And with the rise of Smartphones (see last week’s blog) the use of over the top data...(read more)

Smartphones and Aliens – Why Does This Not Compute?!

Jim Machi — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:36:00 GMT

Given Halloween was just yesterday, and some Aliens came to my door to get candy, it got me thinking… When you look at the picture below, the takeaway should be – WOW, there are A LOT of smartphones in the United States. Keep this fact is in your head. You may also know that seemingly most UFO sightings occur in the United States. In fact, there are multiple websites to be found on this topic. I found this one here , and it even has a daily sighting record. I read back like 10 days....(read more)

Mobile VAS in Emerging Markets

Neil Weldon — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:10:00 GMT

Last week I presented a webinar with a partner of ours, Pharos Avantgard , focused on Mobile Value Added Services . The audience was primarily from the Middle East and Africa. It’s nice to be able to do such things, especially geographically focused, as you can get a better feel for the regional issues and pain points through the Q&A. Thanks to all who joined and especially those who engaged as part of the Q&A. When we talk about Mobile VAS, we hit a number of different types of services...(read more)

The Land (and soon to be land) of Mobile Internet

Jim Machi — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:57:00 GMT

Last week I visited Japan and China. Japan truly is the land of the mobile internet, as pretty much all 120M mobile subscribers are on 3G now, with something like 25% of mobile subscribers expected to be on LTE by 2015. It’s interesting having great mobile internet connections. One of my colleagues was using an iPhone and got great connectivity, at faster rates than he was used to in the US. He was pumped! However, I did not have this same experience. Nor did another colleague I was with. We...(read more)

Russian Winter in Early October and Italian Bling

Jim Machi — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:03:00 GMT

In early October, I visited Moscow to attend Capacity Russia and CIS. Everyone I was with kept telling me it looked like a regular Russian winter day (except it wasn’t cold ). See the picture above and you get the idea. Red Square was more than I expected and I was particularly impressed with the memorial to WWII soldiers just off the Red Square. Dialogic has been doing business in Russia for many, many years, though this was my first visit. It was quite an interesting experience on many fronts...(read more)

Which FoIP Codec is Best? The Definitive Answer

Jim Machi — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:31:00 GMT

On July 19 th , I wrote a blog about Fax and FoIP and the cloud , and I got a few questions in regarding which codec to use when FoIPing, T.38 or G.711. And since Dialogic just wrote a white paper called “Considerations for Using T.38 versus G.711 for Fax over IP.” I was ecstatic that I’d have a short answer. Before we get to the simple answer, it’s important to understand a few things. Since FoIP goes over VoIP networks, which are optimized for voice traffic, there are some...(read more)

Lync’ing Apples

Neil Weldon — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:04:00 GMT

I was travelling last week to the US while back at home we were moving office premises. Not an easy task since its operations and distribution that also takes place out of Dublin, so plenty of pallets as well as boxes. As part of the move we’ve updated our communications systems and deployed Microsoft Lync along with our own Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA), the Dialogic® 4000 Media gateway . After getting into the office and getting set-up I can tell you I’m a happy person. I’ve...(read more)

Where is PacketMan Flying Next?

Jim Machi — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:12:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, PacketMan was thawed from his nine year ice cave and took the time to explore some of the changes during his hibernation, and future expectations of the Packet network. Another big change right now for PacketMan is what he actually sees as he’s traveling through the network with the other packets. Increasingly, as he’s traveling along with the packets, he notices multicolor packets, and if they congregate close enough, he’s able to actually view something. Yes,...(read more)

IT Expo West Turns Up the Heat

Jim Machi — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:56:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the IT Expo event in Austin, Texas. After many years of being in Los Angeles, the event organizers decided to move the venue to 102 degree heat. It’s a dry heat though so it’s OK, right? What were the themes of this event? I would say there were three main themes: 1. Unified Communications, and especially video as a part of Unified Communications. Many exhibitors were showing this, (including Dialogic!) and I attended a keynote where Polycom talked about...(read more)