Amimon announced today the availability of its second generation baseband chipset (AMN 2120/2220), designed for the Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) wireless High Definition video standard. It enables uncompressed HD video delivery throughout the home, using the WiFi bands. Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and LG Electronics are supporters of this standard.
The Wireless Home Digital [...]

Earth Day, which will be celebrated on Wednesday, is a good time to turn off your PC, suggests CBS News.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that, “in the average home, 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off.”
The government advises unplugging devices or using a [...]

AT&T is now offering a new tracking service called FamilyMaps that allows people to track the location of any cell phone on AT&T’s network from a mobile phone or PC.

The person being tracked receives a text message informing him or her that he or she is being watched. The service periodically informs the [...]

The major components of a VoIP network are very similar in functionality to that of a circuit-switched network. VoIP networks must perform all of the same tasks that the PSTN does, in addition to performing a gateway function to the existing public network. Although using different technology and approach, some of the same component concepts that make up the PSTN also create VoIP networks. There are three major pieces to a VoIP network.

- Media gateways

- Media gateway/signaling controllers

- IP network

Media Gateways
Media gateways are responsible for call origination, call detection, analog-to-digital conversion of voice, and creation of voice packets (CODEC functions). In addition, media gateways have optional features, such as voice (analog and/or digital) compression, echo cancellation, silence suppression, and statistics gathering.

The media gateway forms the interface that the voice content uses so that it can be transported over the IP network. Media gateways are the sources of bearer traffic. Typically, each conversation (call) is a single IP session transported by a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) that runs over UDP. Media gateways exist in several forms. For example, media gateways could be a dedicated telecommunication equipment chassis, or even generic PC running VoIP software. Their features and services can include some or all of the following.

Trunking gateways that interface between the telephone network and a VoIP network. Such gateways typically manage a large number of digital circuits.

Residential gateways that provide a traditional analog interface to a VoIP network. Examples of residential gateways include cable modem/cable set-top boxes, xDSL devices, and broadband wireless devices.

Access media gateways that provide a traditional analog or digital PBX interface to a VoIP network. Examples include small-scale (enterprise) VoIP gateways.

Business media gateways that provide a traditional digital PBX interface or an integrated soft PBX interface to a voip network.

Network access servers that can attach a modem to a telephone circuit and provide data access to the Internet.

Discreet IP telephones units.

Media Gateway Controllers
Media gateway controllers house the signaling and control services that coordinate the media gateway functions. Media gateway controllers could be considered similar to that of H.323 gatekeepers. The media gateway controller has the responsibility for some or all of the call signaling coordination, phone number translations, host lookup, resource management, and signaling gateway services to the PSTN (SS7 gateway). The amount of functionality is based on the particular VoIP enabling products used.

In a scalable VoIP network, you can breakup the role of a controller into signaling gateway controller and media gateway controller. For calls that originate and terminate within the domain of the VoIP network, only a media gateway controller might be needed to complete calls. However, a VoIP network is frequently connected to the public network. You could use a signaling gateway controller to directly connect to the SS7 network, while also interfacing to the VoIP network elements. This signaling controller would be dedicated to the message translation and signaling needed to bridge the PSTN to the VoIP network.

The services of these devices are defined by the protocols and software they are running. There are several protocols and implementations that any number of vendors could deploy. Knowing the details of how the devices use their suite of protocols is important to designing the IP backbone that is to service the VoIP elements.

IP Network
You can view the VoIP network as one logical switch. However, this logical switch is a distributed system, rather than that of a single switch entity; the IP backbone provides the connectivity among the distributed elements. Depending on the VoIP protocols used, this system as a whole is sometimes referred to as a softswitch architecture.

The IP infrastructure must ensure smooth delivery of the voice and signaling packets to the voip elements. Due to their dissimilarities, the IP network must treat voice and data traffic differently. If an IP network is to carry both voice and data traffic, it must be able to prioritize the different traffic types.

There are several correlations to the VoIP and circuit-switching components, however there are many differences. One is in the transport of the resulting voice traffic. Circuit-switching telecommunications can be best classified as a TDM network that dedicates channels, reserving bandwidth as it is needed out of the trunk links interconnecting the switches. For example, a video phones conversation reserves a single DS-0 channel, and that end-to-end connection is used only for the single conversation.

IP networks are quite different from the circuit-switch infrastructure in that it is a packet-network, and it is based on the idea of statistical availability. Class of service (CoS) ensures that packets of a specific application are given priority. This prioritization is required for real-time applications to ensure that the voice service is unaffected by other traffic flows.

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Conferencing through the Internet
Internet phone conferencing is becoming more and more commonplace and more popular as awareness of VoIP and the services that it makes available increase. Internet conferencing allows people in a variety of locations to communicate with one another through the Internet, real-time. This can be in the form of text Instant Messages in the same chat room, voice conferencing or video telephone conferencing. Large companies have held phone conferences for years and paid an arm and a leg for them. These days everyone is saving money through Internet phone conferencing instead.

Internet conferencing at a low price
For businesses and individuals, Internet phone conferencing provides a cheap alternative to traditional teleconferencing through the phone line. If all members of an Internet phone conference are on they same system or using the same VoIP service provider, crystal clear Internet conferences can take place with absolutely no cost and without hassle.

Save time and money with Internet Conferencing
Conferencing, in general, saves a lot of time and resources. This is because information only needs to be dispersed one time, instead of in a relay of email messages or phone calls. Conferencing saves times and it saves money so it really is a practical option when you are considering ways to communicate with a large number of people in your organization at one time.

Internet phone conferencing equipment
If you are considering using voip to conduct conference calls, you must ensure that all participants have all of the correct equipment to make the call voip go smoothly. It makes sense to send out a checklist of some sort to remind people and to show them how to prepare for the conference call. This will eliminate communication problems and information being lost by certain parties during conversations where important issues will be discussed.

Prepare for Internet phone conferences
If you have taken on the task of promoting technology in your company and warming people up to the idea of using the latest technology on an every day basis then you must work hard to present things well. In all honesty, the only way that clients and executives will be sold on using Internet phone conferencing is if calls run smoothly and equipment functions correctly. You can completely avoid and eliminate unnecessary problems by ensuring that anyone that will be involved in your conference calls has all of the necessary equipment. You do not want people entering the conference call, saying “testing, testing, 123″; very unprofessional!

Instant Messenger Conferencing
All of the major VoIP companies offer some type of conferencing options. In addition to this, Instant Messenger systems also offer video conferencing. It is a good idea to ensure that everyone that you want to talk with is using a broadband Internet connection so that the flow of the conference call is not interrupted by a bad connection. All participants must be able to hear what is being said clearly and also heard by all parties. If you decide to use an Instant Messenger conference service be sure to use the voice option so as to make the conference smooth and easy. Almost every major Instant Messenger company offers a voice to voice option.

VoIP software provides an alternative way to use your VoIP Service not only as softphone over your pc in the home but anywhere that you travel. Voice over IP software like softphones or software phones are essentially computer programs that run on your computer and allow you to make voice over IP calls through your computer. The software phone is virtual and is usually designed to look similar to a cell phone. The user dials the recipient phone number using the softphone and is able to connect to the traditional telephone network to make phone calls just like a normal telephone.

Get a local number from your VoIP service provider
Telephone calls can be received also through VoIP software. The provider of your voice over IP service will give you a telephone number which can be dialed from a normal traditional telephone, a cellular phone or a voice over IP which will always connect to your software phone. This way, you will be able to send and receive phone calls through your telephone software without any glitches. People that call you will never know that they are speaking with you through your computer unless you actually tell them, the technology is seamless.

Some voip telephony service providers offer Softphones to their customers for free, others charge for it. Also, software phones can be downloaded from the Internet for free use. Unfortunately, some of the larger voice over IP providers charge extra monthly fees just for the use of a softphone. If you feel that a softphone or video home phone would work for you, try to find a VoIP service provider that offers this service for free. The reality is that the software is free to download and there is no logical reason to charge for its use.

Get the best rates in VoIP telephony
Another alternative to paying extra fees to use a software phone is to sign up with a web based voice over IP company. With these companies, you are free to use the service that they provide any way that you want to. If you want to purchase a VoIP router to connect to their service with a regular phone you can, if you want to connect via a USB phone it is fine or if you want a software phone they allow you to download one for free or purchase one with extra features from absolutely any company that you would like. Now that is freedom!

Get the best in telephony with VoIP
As with anything in life, knowledge is power. Do your research before getting stuck in an agreement that is not in your best interest. Although it is easy to get confused with new technologies, if you do your homework, you will definitely find the best deal for you.

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The final work on the next-generation mobile broadband standard, Long Term Evolution (LTE), was finalized last month. It will be introduced in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 8. LTE work is largely covered by the Radio Access Network (RAN) group of 3GPP.
At the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) meeting last month, the standards body [...]

BelAir Networks today announced the BelAir100SX, the industry’s first dual mode WiMAX/WiFi wireless node optimized for deployment on existing cable infrastructure.

BelAir Networks was first to market with both FCC-approved WiMAX mesh nodes (based on 802.16d) and strand-mounted WiFi nodes optimized for cable operators. The new BelAir100SX leverages the company’s modular architecture to combine the functions [...]