The TTT-Services project (TEN-TELECOM TIPHON Services, in the scope
of the European Commission TEN-TELECOM programme, and along the lines of
the ETSI TIPHON project), has been a very big event in the world of IP
telephony, and is terminating on December 31, 2000.The best appreciation
of its results is given in the letter from the European Commission to the
Project Management Board, following the last technical review:
“Assessment of Work done: The work done has been outstanding in all
respects including tight project management, technical excellence, market
awareness and above all a visionary approach. Trials, management aspects
and final business plan are still to come, but indications are that the
excellent work will continue.
Recommendations for Future Work: In view of the strategic importance
for European industry, and the vast business potential, it is recommended
that the EC provides every assistance available during the deployment phase
to support this worthwhile venture. Further it is recommended that the
EC uses its resources to foster innovative services based on this technology."
From Belgium, the project participants were:
Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Service Télématique et Communication;
Belgacom, which provided the ISDN backbone and lots of hardware.
as well as Motorola, which supplied the excellent Vanguard gateway/router.
From France participated Netcentrex, a dynamic startup company that provided
the premium gatekeeper together with the Back-end-Service.
Many tests and trials were performed. Among others, the tests of IP
telephony connectivity between Belgium and Austria, Austria and Denmark,
Belgium and Denmark. The set of Global services like TRC, Clearinghouse
and Trusted Service Provider were prepared for deployment and tests and
finally partially tested.
|
The domains over Voice over IP and Internet Telephony generate a
large number of activities indeed. In our EuroDemo room, we hosted a seminar
organised by DECUS on those topics, with speakers from CISCO and ULB/STC.
CISCO even provided a life demonstration set-up. |
All the participants of the project agreed with the EC's indication
that this valuable work should be continued. During the last TTT-services
meeting, which was held in Graz, Austria, the consensus was reached about
creation of an association called VISIONng, which will pursue the directions
which have been indicated during this year.
VISIONng is a non-profit making organisation dedicated to support its
members for the deployment of worldwide inter-domain and multi-vendor IP
Telephony services based primarily on TIPHON specifications.
The mission of VISIONng is to provide a framework for all the necessary
measures to be taken by the signatories together to ensure the opening
of a commercial global public IP-Telephony service in their respective
countries or regions in 2001 and beyond.
The objectives of VISIONng are:
-
to promote a common understanding of inter-domain aspects among members,
-
to specify inter-domain services among the members,
-
to support the members for deployment and provision these telephony services
in a concerted action,
-
to support the members in provisioning of a worldwide interconnected IP
network (VISIONng backbone) providing the required guaranteed QoS and necessary
security measures.
