IP Communications—Converged Voice and Data

The State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland voice and data communications systems were outdated and operating at capacity, with no expansion capabilities. The private branch exchange (PBX) voice communication system was nearly two decades old and was at 99 percent capacity. The six-year-old 155 Mbps ATM backbone flat data network with 10-megabit shared links to the desktop had no redundancy capability and required components that were no longer supported by the vendor. Traditionally data and voice networks have been separate, requiring two different infrastructures with separately trained staff to manage them. For voice communication equipment changes and service moves, an outside vendor performed costly onsite manual wiring changes involving untimely scheduling requirements. The existing network did not support 4-digit dialing and would almost immediately become overwhelmed by multicasting (communication between a single sender and multiple receivers). SUNY Cortland wanted to improve the system and more effectively serve students and parents calling for information about registration, financial aid, and other issues. Educational technology requirements were advancing as faculty and student sophistication increased, and it was becoming increasingly important for communications system to manage video and high-bandwidth applications and file sharing.