UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS
The evolution of real-time unified communications Towards an all-IP future By Jason Colombo, CEO, affini technology
There are many places where operational characteristics, business model or public safety imperatives dictate the need for real time communications (RTC). Generally that means any
environment where push to talk radio or near-instant collaboration using voice communications is needed for fast, safe decision making. RTC applies also to environments
Jason Columbo discusses the future of packet- centric networks...
where there are shared business processes in a single location or where there are multiple tenants, all requiring similar technology and physical infrastructures. The use of RTC technology covers
environments with a mix of critical communications needs, where safety or security is paramount - and where public networks can lead to concerns over availability. Typical examples are airports,
ports, bus and rail hubs, hospitals, event venues, control rooms, dispatch environments, shopping centres or local authorities. Over the last five years there has been
a drive towards using IP as a basis for integrating point solutions into a unified environment.
Adding value to voice While mobile radio is one of the best solutions for public safety, its role in optimising business processes on its own is rather limited. People in voice
communication increasingly need RTC to make more informed decisions, to become more efficient and enhance public safety. The problem is that, historically, radio
tended to sit on its own, outside the main ecosystem of integrated voice/ data communications. If we look at some of the drivers
for real time unified communications (RTUC) there is a generational agenda at play as well as a business requirement. Younger people are used to
smartphones, tablets and the instant access to information that they come with.
In terms of the business case
there is great value to be achieved by bringing together previously isolated communications environments - the obstacle is that PTT radio, being off- grid, has shown itself rather robust and difficult to either replace or integrate into the general IP-based ecosystem. The greatest driver for RTC is where
there is a common business process across a site and organisation or indeed an entire industry. For example, in the aviation sector,
the turn around and departure plan for an aircraft involves a variety of airport staff: refuelling, maintenance, pilots etc. In order to get the plane back on
its way a whole lot of people need to know exactly what is going on at the same time and understand the impact of change and be able to co-ordinate a response to such change.
The level of collaboration needed in
places like airports and other transport hubs is impaired by the legacy of numerous, often analogue, point solutions. Great advances have been made in using wireless technologies such as automated vehicle tracking and asset management, but many of these are specific fixes to an isolated problem – and also introduce extra layers of cost and complexity, as well as the opportunity cost of missing out on revenue streams.
Going real-time There is clearly a need - and opportunity - to deliver real-time unified communications, so what has changed in the world of technology to make this possible? The step change comes first from
the trend for more and more legacy technologies to become IP enabled. Newer PMR radios operate on an IP backbone while IP PBXs are becoming the norm rather than the exception. Increasingly CCTV is real time
and IP centric. At the same time as IP provides the common language for unified communications, there has been the trend towards consumerisation of devices, which with the economies of scale of mass production, brings down costs. Despite the overheads of security
and provisioning of consumer-ised devices, the trend seems irresistible and adds further momentum to the unified communications trend - something that BYOD continues to drive. From a network point of view, we
now have a range of highly capable and potentially ubiquitous broadband wireless technologies: 3G, 4G WiFi and others, that consumer devices can now run business applications on at lower costs with enhanced functionality.
Real-time comms - essential in airports 20 NETCOMMS europe Volume IV Issue 1 2013
The comms checklist So, what needs to be in place to enable unified real time communications as opposed to just real time communications? First of all there has to be IP
connectivity throughout, in terms of
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