sue with the H.323 protocol. H.323 is a protocol used for voice over Internet protocol. Compared to more mature services such as FTP, Telnet, and HTTP, H.323 is relatively new, thus many proxy servers do not support it. Users making calls on this protocol must be placed outside of the corporate firewall.Many people have become accustomed to their phone with all its fancy features. Call waiting, holding, transferring or redirecting calls are options not available with todays software. Finally, reliability remains a major obstacle. When it comes time to have to reboot the computer after it locks up, that lost call was hopefully not an important client.WHAT’S NEXT As with all technologies, new products and systems are emerging everyday to help alleviate some or all the disadvantages of incorporating VoIP. New protocols are emerging as well. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), and Simple Gateway Control Protocol (SGCP) are protocols designed as alternatives to H.323. They are designed to reduce bandwidth overhead, security issues, and time sensitivities not covered by H.323. Level 3 and a group of other next-gen telcos has developed a protocol called Internet Protocol Device Control (IPDC). This protocol was designed for use between centralized switches and IP-based gateways, providing management and integration on a very large scale. By working on the problems of latency, security, reliability and manageability, VoIP will be more poised than ever to begin its global roll out.CONCLUSIONThe VoIP market is turbulent and characterized by a variety of approaches. These approaches range from the desktop to the carrier switch to the Internet. The players are as equally far flung, from the traditional cornerstones of the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) to the new generation startups, to the steps of local, state, and federal governmental agencies. Such dynamism makes it difficult f...
