Convergence and Rich Media Fuel Expectations For Next Generation Networks.

SAN RAMON, Calif. -- Convergence is the word, and attendees of The International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) Spring Forum, held in Eibsee, Germany, May 10 - 12, listened as Andrew Davis of Wainhouse Research, and a host of keynote speakers, examined the state of the technology. Sound bites such as "convergence eliminates barriers" served to reinforce what the industry is struggling to achieve, as the race intensifies between competitors to provide interoperability in the delivery of rich media applications and services across a suite of platforms and architectures. The IMTC Spring Forum focused on the future of next generation networks, specifically, in the convergence of VoIP, Videoconferencing and Mobile technologies.

Henning Schulzrinne, Professor and Department Chairman, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, and co-author of the Internet standards-track protocols RTP, RTSP, SIP and GIMPS, provided an inside look at the future of 'presence' and how rich media will affect the user community.

"Clearly, access to rich presence information has to be very tightly controlled so that people feel comfortable knowing that only trusted individuals authorized by them or services they authorize use this information. The IETF is specifying a policy rule language, expressed in XML, that allows a user to restrict who can access what information when and where. Naturally, people would not specify this in XML itself, but use a graphical user interface, e.g., based on assigning people to categories (family, work). It should also be noted that, for SIP, users can run their own server or can use a server operated by a third party (such as their employer or an affinity group), so that they can choose whom to entrust with that information," added Professor Schulzrinne in a follow-up to the Spring Forum.

Continuing the focus on enriched media and presence, Joe Burton, Director of Engineering for Cisco's rich-media collaboration and PC client products contributed Cisco's experiential strategies using rich media; while R. Brough Turner, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of NMS Communications, focused on 'disruptive' influencers.

Nortel Networks is hosting IMTC's June Interop, June 13 - 17 in Belleville, Canada, and the IMTC "jewel" event, SuperOp!, is being held Sept. 12 - 16, 2005, in Ancona, Italy.

About the International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC)

The IMTC is an industry-leading non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and facilitate the development and use of interoperable, real-time, multimedia telecommunication products and services based on open international standards. The IMTC hosts interoperability testing events and demonstrations throughout the world. Over the past three years the IMTC has hosted more than 20 interoperability-testing events to test H.323, 3G-324M, 3G-PSS, SIP, Nat/Firewall Traversal, T.120, H .320, and Voice over IP products and services with each other. The IMTC Board of Directors includes representatives from Cisco Systems, Dilithium Networks, Emblaze Mobile, France Telecom, LifeSize Communications, Nextreaming Corp., NMS Communications, Nokia, Nortel Networks, Polycom, RADVISION, Siemens AG, Sony, and TANDBERG. The San Ramon, California-based consortium comprises approximately 70 member organizations from around the globe. Membership is open to any interested party, including vendors of audio, document, and video conferencing hardware and software; academic institutions; government agencies; and non-profit organizations. "The IMTC is making Rich Media happen Anywhere, Anytime." Further information on IMTC can be found at http://www.imtc.org.