Over time, communications networks have developed in isolation from one another. They were designed to convey different media on different networks. Voice services were delivered on telephony networks, video on TV networks and cable systems, and data on Ethernet, Token Ring, or other copper wire systems. This fragmentation led to the development of disparate infrastructures and services that each demanded dedicated service technicians and management. However, the global popularization of the Internet is driving the consolidation of historically disparate communication systems. The integration of voice, video, and data networks, coupled with the advent of richer integrated network applications that combine these three services, is revolutionizing global communications. In addition to changes in media, the insular data networks of the past were designed to serve the internal needs of singular organizations with limited data traffic. These networks are now evolving into intelligent application-aware networks upon which interdependent organizations rely for communications and mission-critical applications.

Focus on Long-Term Solutions

There are various ways to resolve the heavy bandwidth demands of multimedia applications and a growing number of clients. For some organizations, one solution is increasing bandwidth through the implementation of new high bandwidth media to resolve issues generated by network congestion. This solution often provides immediate and compelling gratification for the audiences served. While temporarily effective, this is an exceedingly expensive solution that is not an option for more financially constrained organizations and cannot address the bottlenecks experienced by mobile workers across publicly-owned wide area networks (WANs). For this reason, simply increasing bandwidth is not a pragmatic or comprehensive solution for resolving network performance and quality issues.

Instead, to efficiently meet communication needs now and into the future, the digital data packet submitted to a network needs to be managed. To accomplish this goal, the network itself should be aware of the nature of the traffic data. Ideally, the network would be aware of the source and receivers of the data, the bandwidth needs of the applications, and the capacity of all the network elements to service these needs. This level of awareness would allow administrators to regulate and control information through policy-based rules that prioritize and allocate network resources according to the business objectives of the organization.

The Windows® 2000 operating system provides standards-based networking technologies on open systems to enable a reliable and interoperable communications infrastructure. In addition to its broad support for legacy networking and routing protocols, Windows 2000 supports standards-based communications and Quality of Service (QoS) protocols, including:

QoS standards for handling traffic such as:

QoS standards for configuring and managing network devices such as:

And network directory services with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

Windows 2000 goes beyond simple protocol support to deliver a directory-enabled networking solution for simpler, more scalable management. Its QoS technologies are integrated with the Active Directory^TM service to create an application-aware networking infrastructure.

Standards-based QoS and Active Directory technologies are fully integrated into the networking architecture of Windows 2000 clients and servers. Through the Generic Quality of Service (GQoS) Application Programming Interface (API), which is a subset of the Winsock2 API, Microsoft enables network application vendors to update their current applications to converse with standards-based network resources (switches and routers). This application interface allows streaming packet media services such as IP-based telephony and bandwidth-greedy video services to correspond with the Active Directory. This secures network resources based upon an established policy profile for the user, the application service, and the intermediary network infrastructure. In this manner, Windows 2000-based network-aware applications can effectively work with the network infrastructure to provide more reliable networking services.

To ensure interoperability of network applications with Windows 2000, Microsoft has integrated the operating system's directory services with a variety of standards-based networking technologies. This integration provides a stable and reliable communications platform. Windows 2000 includes address assignment and naming services such as Dynamic Domain Name Service (DDNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), and QoS. This integration of the Active Directory with fundamental networking architecture and network address management services provides a sturdy foundation for reliable communication services.

Windows 2000 also provides directory-enabled communication services including Routing and Remote Access Service (RAS), Internet Authentication Service (IAS), voice and telephony services (TAPI 3.0), and digital media streaming services for voice and video. These services are additionally enhanced by integration with the Web services of the Internet Information Services (IIS), delivering a standards-based, customizable Web-based interface for enhanced communications and e-commerce solutions.

Windows 2000 provides for the creation of an application-aware communication platform by allowing network administrators to configure their networks for host-intelligent applications. These applications produce rich multimedia application services that take advantage of the network infrastructure. These multimedia applications can deliver integrated voice, video, and data services (also referred to as converged networking services) without compromising delivery of mission critical data transmissions. A network-aware infrastructure such as this allows individuals and organizations to quickly adopt the use of multimedia application services on existing networks. Windows 2000 enables organizations to immediately experience the benefits of converged networking services:

Interoperability is key to successful communications, so Microsoft is working with leading networking vendors (Alcatel, CISCO, 3Com,  Intel, GE, Lucent, and Nortel) and numerous service providers (AT&T, MCI WorldCom, Sprint, and others on an international basis). Windows 2000-based organizations can deliver new, network-aware applications, confident that these services will not saturate their network and will interoperate across vendor systems. Through these technologies and services, Windows 2000 provides a rich applications platform for integrated networking and communication services for the convergence of voice, video, and data networks. The open, reliable, and stable platform of Windows 2000 combines with legacy networking and Internet standards to provide the solutions needed by businesses.

While a few ambitious organizations are already commencing with the design and implementation of converged network infrastructures, most organizations will not realize the full integration of their voice, data, and video systems for some time. However, one service area in which the Internet is having an immediate and pronounced impact is on traditional telecommunications services. Trends that are becoming increasingly apparent today include:

These trends indicate a rapid movement toward network convergence, as companies are eager to benefit from:

Windows 2000 telephony solutions build upon the Windows NT® operating system and the joint efforts of Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum (ECTF) partners to deliver better IP telephony interoperability and define a path toward network convergence. Windows 2000 enhances earlier solutions through an application-aware network infrastructure that serves as an integrated communications platform for all communications. The integrated client-server solutions of Windows 2000 provide an extensible platform to streamline business communication services.

Windows 2000 Client Telephony

Windows 2000 client solutions support Windows 2000 Server implementations with complementary protocol support and application services. Microsoft® NetMeeting® 3.0 conferencing software enables quality multimedia conferencing that integrates voice, video, and data communications. In addition, Windows 2000 provides a new IP-multicast-enabled phone dialer, which enables a client to take advantage of new Web-based broadcast services while providing integration with existing phone systems.

An Integrated Telephony Applications Platform

The communications platform of Windows 2000 includes rich call control and media-handling capabilities to support the development of highly interoperable telephony and data streaming applications. This is made possible through a telephony applications interface, TAPI 3.0. This Component Object Model (COM)-based API enables the development of telephony solutions in the programming language of choice and provides transparent accessibility to the Quality of Service networking technologies built into Windows 2000-based servers and clients.

Microsoft provides additional telephony resources in the Windows 2000 platform software development kit (SDK). The SDK provides a Web Telephony Engine that enables the use of standard Internet technologies to develop more integrated server-based telephony applications. It supports client APIs for Web page integration of the NetMeeting client. These tools and services take advantage of the integrated, directory-enabled networking services of Windows 2000 so that software and hardware vendors, channel partners, and end customers can create and use value-added solutions within their Windows 2000 environment. In addition, software developers can integrate their own applications into existing and established Microsoft application programs such as Microsoft Office and BackOffice® and enhance their customers' Internet e-commerce sites in compelling new ways.

Today, networking and communication services of Windows 2000 provide an intelligent infrastructure for unified messaging solutions that deliver voice, video, and data services within a Web environment. By enabling telephony integration with video and data networking services, Windows 2000 provides an opportunity for organizations to merge the latest Internet technologies with their current investments and set the stage for complete integration of their voice, video, and data systems.

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Last Updated: Wednesday, December 15, 1999
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