IP Based Video Conferencing

1
IP Based Video Conferencing

• By Tom Petersen
• May 3 2007

2
Introduction

• History
• Components
• How it Works
• Benefits
• Cost
• Problems
• Common Questions

3
History

• Started in the 90s
• Done over ISDN lines
• Very expensive
• H.320 protocols were used

4
Protocols

• SIP Session Initiation Protocol
• Internet based application that uses TCP, UDP and
  others
• User agents can be telephones, video units, PDAs
  and more
• H.323
• A family of protocols that is made up of many
  different protocols

5
Protocols cont.
Table1 taken from howstuffworks.com

• The most important protocols in this family are
  H.225 and H.245 which are both in the transport
  layer. H.225 performs call control while H.245
  performs call management

6
Components

• Camera
• Video Display
• Audio Components
• Codec
• User Interface

7
How it Works

• Quality of Service (QoS)
• Manages data traffic
• Makes sure that the quality of the IP video
  transmission is good
• It does this by setting aside an amount of
  bandwidth for video calls and doesnt allow other
  traffic to use it

8
How it Works cont.

• Gatekeeper
• Software that allows you to register all the
  users that you might want to contact for a video
  conference
• Makes it easy for people that arent experts in
  computers
• Can connect to Conference Room 1 or the phone
  number to that room instead of the IP address of
  the computer in that room
• Can limit bandwidth for specific users

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Benefits

• Quality and Technical Advantages
• Some of the things that effect video quality are
  bandwidth, frame rate, resolution, picture size,
  and codecs used

• Ease of Use
• ISDN is difficult to understand
• Need a special technician to fix a lot of the
  problems
• IP based can be used by just about anyone with
  little training

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Benefits cont.

• The amount of people that already use it
• ISDN was never available in every geographic
  region and the regions that did have it only had
  it in specific conference rooms
• IP based is available just about everywhere and
  can be installed on any computer not just in
  meeting rooms

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Benefits cont.

• Cuts down on travel cost
• Dont have to spend money flying employees to
  meetings, pay for hotels and food while they are
  away
• Allows the employee to be more productive
• They dont have to spend half a day traveling,
  they can use that time to get work done

12
Cost

• The biggest benefit to IP video conferencing is
  cost
• Cost can be split up into two main categories
• Initial set up
• Monthly Fee

13
Initial Set Up

• Initial setup includes buying all the equipment
  needed for video conferencing
• There are two different ways you can go when
  buying equipment depending on your needs
• You can buy an all in one unit
• You can buy all the parts separately

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Initial Set Up

• All in one units
• View station
• Buying parts separately
• Good if you already have some parts and only need
  a few others
• Good if you have a specific set up in mind and
  what to pick out your own parts

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Initial Set Up
Figure 1 done with Visio some pictures taken
from polycom.com
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Monthly Fee

• The price can depend on many different things
  including, bandwidth and how much you use it
• Price can range anywhere from free to 1,000 a
  month depending on the type of service you want

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Monthly Fee

• No monthly Fee Services
• Windows Live, Skype, AIM
• Monthly Fees Services
• Glowpoint

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Monthly Fee
Figure2 Monthly charges for using IP instead of
ISDN Taken fromglowpoint.com
19
Problems

• You cant have eye contact with the person you
  are speaking to
• Some people dont like to be on camera
• The biggest problem with IP based video
  conferencing is bandwidth problems

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Fixing Bandwidth Problems

• Multi-cast
• Multi-cast allows multiple endpoints to receive
  data at the same time with about the same
  overhead as sending the data to a single endpoint
  
• Real-time
• Guarantees that packets are delivered in a timely
  manner

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Common Questions

• How many users can be linked together in a
  conference call?
• Multipoint Control Unit (MCU)
• Shows you who is talking
• Grid with all the endpoints on it at once
• All the users dont have to have the same setup
  either

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Questions

• Do all users have to support video on the
  conference call?
• No you can connect with just audio
• This allows meeting rooms to connect with video
  and people that cant get to the meeting can
  connect with audio
• Audio users can still see the video
• Can even connect with a cell phone

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Questions

• Can you connect IP based video conferencing with
  ISDN?
• Yes, but there are fees that are not included in
  the monthly fee
• The fees are a lot cheaper than if you were
  connecting ISDN to another ISDN system

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IP to ISDN Connection Fee
Table 2 Taken fromglowpoint.com
25
References

• 1 Edward A. Garay, Videoconferencing over the
  Internet http//www.uic.edu/depts/accc/itl/pubs/i
  pvc/index.html Accessed March 25, 2007. Last
  updated March 21, 2001.
• 2 Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications
  System. How does IP video conferencing work?
  http//www.ihets.org/progserv/dms/videoconferencin
  g/tutorials/instructors/02_how.html Accessed
  March 26, 2007. Last updated September 01, 2006.
• 3 Hitachi Software Engineering Technology
  Solutions Group, Why IP-based Videoconferencing
  http//www.hitachi-soft.com/tsg/solutions/video/ip
  based.html Accessed March 12, 2007. Last updated
  2007.
• 4Techphonic Corporation, http//www.techphonic.c
  om/html/faq.html1 Accessed April 1, 2007. Last
  updated 2006.
• 5 Ford, Steve, Video Conferencing
  http//www.objs.com/survey/vc.htm Accessed April
  1, 2007. Last updated April 22, 1996.
• 6Saqib Jang, A Technical FAQ Frequently Asked
  Questions About Voice and Video over IP Networks
  http//www.wainhouse.com/files/papers/wr-faq-ip-co
  nf.pdf Accessed April 2, 2007. Last updated
  January, 2003.
• 7GlowPoint, Glowpoint.com Accessed March 12
  2007. Last updated 2007.
• 8Polycom, Polycom.com Accessed April 1 2007.
  Last updated 2007.
• 9Wikipedia, Video conferencing
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_conferencing
  Accessed April 1 2007. Last updated February
  2007.