I’ve spent the past few weeks thinking about video interoperability, and not just interoperability at the signaling level or the codec level, but at the security level as well. I presently have four video solutions in my office that I run regularly: a Cisco/Tandberg MXP 1700 executive unit, a Vidyo desktop client, Microsoft Lync hosted through Office 365, and Skype. In addition to these, I often use Apple’s FaceTime video product when using my iOS devices. It seems like video is all around me, and it is likely pervasive for others as well.
One of the challenges I often face is that I can’t use video between any of these systems. My MXP 1700 has a four port MCU in it, and it will work with both SIP and H.323 units, but most people have Skype or Lync or FaceTime or the free Jabber client. While Skype and Lync both support multiparty video, they presently don’t support video interoperability with each other. And FaceTime is a point-to-point solution only.
There are some third-party solutions that can help. For example, Blue Jeans Networks and VidTel both provide video interoperability as a service with most of the video endpoints I use every day (not FaceTime or Vidyo, however). But what can be done for enterprise users in a heterogeneous environment that may include Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft, and possibly other desktop UC clients, as well as group and telepresence video endpoints?
I’ve actually written a white paper on this subject titled, "Creating the 'It Just Works' Video Network". It is based around the idea that a lot of video interoperability, QoS, and security issues can be resolved by using a session border controller. The white paper was sponsored by Sonus Networks and corresponds to the company’s announcement on 6 November, 2013 that it has added full multimedia support for video to its SBC 5000 series of session border controllers. Although Sonus sponsored the white paper, the company is not mentioned in the document; rather, this document describes many of the issues that arise around video that an SBC can easily fix, and it is intended to generate thoughtful discussion of these issues.
For example, the signaling used to set up, control, and tear down a video call is slightly different for different UC manufacturers, even though all of their solutions are "SIP-compliant". The Sonus 5000 SBC can normalize the signaling so that video endpoints from different PBX, UC, and video equipment manufacturers can often interoperate. This can be a huge advantage for companies that have investments in both UC and video infrastructure as it may avoid expensive upgrades or relying on pricey multiprotocol MCUs that can bridge point-to-point calls together that would otherwise be incompatible.
As video becomes more and more pervasive, it is also important to provide some type of call admission control and quality of service mechanism so that the network does not become saturated with video packets and so that video calls maintain high quality. Again, the SBC is a good place to have these mechanisms, particularly in heterogeneous video environments.
Given how often video calls traverse the network boundary with the pervasive availability of mobile video devices, SBCs also provide a great control point for authentication, detection of malformed hacker packets, encryption enforcement, secure NAT and firewall traversal, and so forth.
I wrote a detailed report titled “Pervasive Video in the Enterprise” last year in which I mentioned that the software-based MCU will ultimately win the day in the video infrastructure market, simply because hardware-based MCU’s are so expensive. In like manner, software-based SBCs will also win the day in the enterprise as video becomes pervasive. Sonus has released a version of its SBC as a software solution that can run on off-the-shelf servers. Coupled together as instances in a virtual environment, the software-based MCU and the software-based SBC will enable tremendous increases in video usage while protecting the enterprise network from threats and saturation, while enabling video interoperability of high quality video endpoints.
The SBC doesn't solve all video interoperability and compatibility issues, but is solves a lot of them for enterprise video users.