ViDeNet: IP Network for Global Voice and Videoconferencing

A Case Study by Radvision; August 2001

Working together, ViDeNet and RADVision have developed a global video-conferencing network that serves as a model for voice and video communications. Due in large part to this cooperation, ViDeNet has emerged as one of the global leaders in network communications research and deployment, bringing together over 70 universities and research organizations in the world's largest H.323 network. RADVision has benefited from the partnership as well, gaining the opportunity to test its gatekeeper technology in a real-world environment rather than the usual controlled, laboratory setting.

(H.323 is the name given to a set of communications protocol, used by programs such as Microsoft NetMeeting to transmit audio and video information over the Internet. It was developed by the ITU (http://www.itu.int), an international standards body for telecommunications. For more comprehensive information, try the links at http://www.packetizer.com/iptel/h323/)

ViDeNet, an outgrowth of the ViDe consortium's goals of highly scalable and robust video networks, is based on zones, or administrative domains.These zones consist of local area networks and single end-user devices that sit on an H.323 network; these components are then logically defined to become part of the ViDeNet network.

(The gatekeeper is the brain of the H.323 network. It provides the following functions: authentication, authorization, network usage control, system administration and security policy, call control and routing, basic telephony services, and control of bandwidth usage to provide and maintain quality of service. For more comprehensive information, see RADVision's explanation of H.323 gatekeepers.)

By having the chance to field test the gatekeeper technology, RADVision has been able to more accurately develop products like Gateways and Multi-Point Conferencing Units. Rather than building designs tested under carefully monitored and predictable environments, RADVision has had the opportunity to watch its products at work, making changes and improvements based on an actual working network. This has also led to greater feedback for the standards communities from the company.

The case study RADVISION Technology at the Core of the Largest IP Network for Global Voice and Videoconferencing: ViDeNet provides more information about the history of the ViDeNet / RADVision partnership, as well as an introduction to the technology behind the network.