Intel Heeding Call of VoIP

Voice over IP (VoIP) may be hot, but the world’s biggest chip manufacturer thinks it has the technology to make it even hotter with companies.

Today Intel announced details of products designed to help enterprises implement VoIP while protecting their investment in legacy equipment. The company also unveiled a reference design and products for the deployment of multimedia services.

The recently released NetStructure Host Media Processing (HMP) 1.5 software for Linux allows up to 120 channels of video and can facilitate revenue-generating services such as video mail, video color ring back, video caller ID and video portals.

Intel is also using its host media processing technology to attract enterprises looking to take advantage of VoIP technology. Today Intel announced NetStructure HMP 2.0 for Windows as well as NetStructure Digital Network Interface Boards. The company said these products will help enterprises deploy IP-based services in a hybrid network, a combination of legacy TDM and newer IP infrastructures. They are due for release in the next 90 days.

Intel itself is piloting what it describes as a leading-edge hybrid VoIP solution at its Parsippany, N.J. site. The chip maker said it would reduce maintenance costs through a reduction in the number of equipment racks and the amount of floor space required to handle its own heavy call volume. When the entire New Jersey site is fully IP-enabled, Intel estimates that MAC (Moves/Adds/Changes) costs will be reduced by 72 percent and floor space for equipment racks will decrease by approximately 89 percent.

The capabilities of Intel’s Parsippany VoIP installation include unified messaging, presence, click-to-call, ad-hoc click-to-conference and follow-me call routing.

For small-to-medium enterprises interested in deploying multimedia services Intel has released a reference design called the Converged Application Platform for the Distributed Enterprise. Intel offers this reference design, along with a working prototype as a recipe to help telecom equipment manufacturers get to market faster. This design, using processors and host media processing from Intel, allows for the integration of separate pieces of network equipment (routers, VPN/firewalls, switches, and PBXs) into one device.

Service providers can provide the converged application platform as a hosted service. The idea is to help IT managers more-easily deploy, maintain and upgrade their networks to support applications such as Internet access, fax, instant messaging with presence and multimedia conferencing.