Unified Communications

Introduction

Unified communications a technology that represents an integration of real-time services such as instant messaging ( chat ), presence information (presence), telephony (including IP-telephony ), video conferencing , sharing documents , call control and speech recognition with unified messaging systems ( voice mail , e-mail , SMS and fax ). UC, as a rule, is not one product, but a set of products that provide customers a single interface and access to services for a variety of communication devices (landline phone, mobile phone, computer, laptop, etc.).

UC allows the sender to send a message (voice, text, and video) by means of a single technology, and recipient of the message to read it means the other technology. For example, a user can receive voice messages by email on the cell phone to the answering machine. If the sender is now available online on the basis of the presence of the answer can be sent to him via chat or video conference.

Discussion

History

History unified communications begins with the evolution of technology telephone. Initially, the phone system in the business was based on private exchanges or on the basis of telephone stations of local operators. These exchanges are used for analog and digital phones and liaison with clients.

In 1990, the New Zealand Company IPFX developed the first commercial product controls the subscriber, which allowed colleagues to locate each other and decide on the best method of communication, depending on location and availability. The main drawback of this service was to rely on the phone company, which led to an increase in cost to the end customer. Over time, the PBX more accessible to companies employing local experts for their service. Installing PBX in companies led to the development of solutions for telephony and simplifies their maintenance (Wainhouse, pp. 68-70).

Companies began to deploy IP-based networks, including voice transmission. Some vendors, such as Avaya and Nortel created circuit boards (cards) to their PBX that connects the PBX to the IP. Other vendors, such as Cisco created equipment for routing voice calls over the company's network. As time passed, Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, AltiGen , Cisco, Nortel, Avaya and Mitel realized the potential growth of IP-telephony and started rolling in the main system running on IP.

Given the wide range of unified communications, today there is no single definition of UC, because most of the decisions come from different companies. Since 2008, the market has several solutions with open architecture such as the Druid and Elastix , based on Asterisk . The purpose of creating these products was to enable the developer community of open source say in the area of ??unified communications.

In May of 2010, was announced forum Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF). UCIF is an independent alliance between technology companies that create, test, and develop profiles of benefits, implementation and best practices that ensure interoperability between UC products and existing communications systems and applications. Initially, the alliance was founded HP , Juniper Networks , Logitech / LifeSize , Microsoft and Polycom , then was joined other companies: Acme Packet , Aspect , AudioCodes , Broadcom , BroadSoft , Brocade Communications Systems , ClearOne , Jabra , Plantronics , Radvision , ...