Kumba -
I agree with you about much of what you said, but i have to take exception to one thing.
My main issue with VOIP is that it is not as reliable as TDM and it never will be.
The problem is the Internet itself.
When I call my brother in California, my call steps up through the "pyramid" of exchanges going from my local Class 5 CO on the base of the pyramid perhaps all the way up to a Class 1 CO at the tip. Then it steps its way back down to a Class 5 CO in Orange County. When the circuit is established I have a dedicated circuit that is all mine (it may be a channel on a T - but it's MY channel). That circuit is all mine for the duration of the call and is only broken down upon disconnect. As a result, the maximum bandwidth available to me is only 56 or 64K but I've got all of that to myself.
What's wrong with that scenario from a military perspective?
Well, let's say a Class 2 office (and there aren't too many of those!)is in Sheboygen and the Russians find out about it. Prior to launching WWIII they explode a small thermonuclear device over Sheboygen. Now I can call the Bronx or Westchester, but I may not be able to call DC or certainly not Cheyenne Mountain.
Unacceptable to the DOD and the Pentagon.
It was too late for the government to redesign the telephone network (they tried to an extent with AUTOVON - but that's another thread), but it wasn't too late to start fresh with this brand new DATA network (Arpanet) that was being developed. As a result the Internet was designed that if I want to "place a data call" to someone in California, my router sends out packets not just on one route, but on MULTIPLE SIMULTANEOUS routes. This way if Sheboygen gets nuked the call will still get through.
It won't get through with the same immediacy as a voice call, but it will eventually get through and it has the potential for a heck of a lot more bandwidth then a voice call.
This is great for data but it SUCKS for voice. Voice requires low bandwidth and high immediacy (is that a real word?)Data requires high bandwidth but not necessarily high immediacy.
When you put Voice over the Internet (NOT an INTRANET - the Internet)how do you guarantee immediacy? You can't. Sometimes the call will go through perfectly and sometimes it won't.
I took my CCNA and Cisco VOIP classes and I learned all the tricks you can try - but none of them are guaranteed once you hit the cloud.
That's the way the darn cloud was designed! Randomness! Keep America safe from the Commie Attack.
Which is why I think VOIP will always be a second class phone service.
That doesn't mean it won't take over, shoot - manual elevators with real operators beat the pants off automatic elevators for a whole host of reasons - and how many elevator operators do you see these days?
Sorry for the Rant, but this stuff makes me nuts.
Sam
