The main issue with mobile phones, at least as far as IP networking is concerned, is that they're, well, mobile. People invariably use their laptops sitting in one place, but the whole benefit of a mobile phone is that you can make a call while walking through a corridor, or standing in some place other than an office. "We might know where mobile data users are -- they're usually sitting at a desk," Daley says. "But with voice, we really can be mobile."
That means that a telephone conversation can move from one access point (AP) to another. If there's a dead zone, because of a wall, or because the radius of one AC doesn't quite overlap the next, calls can be rudely interrupted as the caller strolls between them. Moreover, APs have to be configured to quickly and efficiently hand-off the connection as the caller moves.
It's not so much that hand-offs are such a massive technological hurdle, Daley says. It's just that no one has actually proved its feasibility in a real-world situation. "Vendors are proving this out," she says. "But there has been no high-capacity deployment yet. I think it's going to work, but it's going to need some working-out first."
Indeed, voice is a synchronous form of communication. A connection hiccup when you're downloading e-mail, even to a handheld, might be a minor annoyance, but if you're making a deal on the phone and the connection goes dead, you have a big problem. The connection has to be seamless.
It also has to be smooth and trouble-free. One thing that VoWLAN absolutely demands is reliable quality of service (QoS). "When you're running VoWLAN, you really have to make sure that you have QoS on your wireless LAN infrastructure," Daley says. "Though many products do have the old wireless QoS standard, many don't have 802.11E."
Many of the potential problems associated with voice quality and network pervasiveness can be avoided with careful planning, Daley says. Wireless networks that were set up for convenience and grew organically from there have to be examined for holes and optimized to deal with the special demands of voice.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
