FWDLabs

FWD initiated an effort to recruit participants for a trial (http://siptosip.net) of an Internet voice architecture - Nova Internet calling. The trial tests the utility of inserting a conference server (aka Nova server) into the call flow. It evaluates the Nova approach as a means to ease the deployment of Internet connected communication devices, and, in particular, support the deployment of recently available high definition (HD) (G.722) IP Phones. The Nova architecture also seeks to facilitate incremental device deployment in do-it-yourself, bring-your-own broadband and device mode.

The telephone network connects person in location A to a person in location B. Nova Internet calling connects both person A and person B to location C (the Nova server). All communication flows from end point to Nova. End points get connected to each other when two or more connect to the same Nova. The Nova servers like web servers can support an arbitrary number of virtual locations. Off-the-shelf SIP based conference servers provide a starting point for the functionality imagined for a Nova server.

The dramatically superior functionality of a Nova server relative to an end point makes the Nova to end point connection easier to achieve. Inserting a Nova server in the call flow between end points enables transparent multi-party support, transcoding between incompatible end points, and expands addressing options. It eliminates the requirement of linking a particular device to a particular end user. The device used to connect to a Nova does not need to have significance given availability of more flexible means for identifying callers (e.g. PIN).

The merits of the Internet for voice communication parallel those making the Internet a transformative mechanism for distributing text and graphics. Unmetered connections between Internet end points located anywhere in the world represents communication nirvana. The agnostic nature of the Internet relative to the content of packets makes for more efficient transport than the media specific transport mechanisms built into the telephone network. Decoupling transport and media type removes the principal barrier to communication device innovation.

Tim Berners Lee proposed the web server in 1989 as a means to cope with the varied mechanisms used to store information on computers connected to the Internet. Inserting a web server between end users and the unmanageable complexity of information on random computers made the world wide web an alternative to Gutenberg's printing press. The Nova server applies the same mechanism in a communication context by mediating between end users and the unmanagable complexity of Internet connected end points toward the goal of making Internet voice an alternative to Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.

The stream of innovations flowing from the Internet leaves the lowly telephone call remarkably untouched. This fact seems even more striking given 40 years of Moore's Law driven processor improvements, the emergence VoIP in 1995 and the SIP open standard in 2000, and the growing availability of broadband after 2000. While evolving technology transformed the means of delivering telephone calls, it did not alter the end user experience of a telephone call. This outcome owes to the structural obstacles to innovation associated with the PSTN and the motivations of the entities in a position to do the innovating.

Traditional telephone architectures presume uniform needs independent of communication context and willingness to pay. President Obama's calls with foreign leaders suffer the same mediocre voice quality as teenagers planning a party. The demand for matching voice quality to context remains uncertain, but it seems reasonable to believe people might want more than one level of quality as in the case of transportation, housing, or food. Tim Berners Lee's original 1989 web server proposal sought to counter assertions of an adequate information retrieval status quo.

Recent declines in demand for voice services follows the growing number of Internet enabled text communication options. The status quo leaves a telephone call as the last resort in contexts too urgent or complex for the alternatives. Voice nonetheless remains a very large business with seventy percent of telephone company revenues still generated through voice services. Voice gets no love but it remains the dominant mode of in-person communication. Restoring voice to its former status as the communication medium of choice requires improvements in quality and reductions in cost.