Nation's first IP telephone by ER&DCI-T & ITI

Aswathy V


Thiruvananthapuram

India's first indigenously made Internet Protocol (IP) telephone will be designed by Electronics Research and Development Center of India, Thiruvananthapuram (ER&DCI-T) and public sector unit, ITI Ltd under a project of Union Ministry of Information Technology. The Rs 1.20 crore project will be jointly financed by ITI Ltd and IT Ministry.

In the first phase, ER &DCI-T would develop an IP telephone suitable for corporate offices. This telephone can be connected directly to an RJ45 Ethernet port over a LAN or WAN. It will render existing EPABX redundant in a corporate setup. The idea is to build a cost effective and utilitarian IP telephone suited to Indian conditions. 

"Development of indigenous technology in IP telephony is essential as the products have to work on Indian telephone lines, low bandwidth availability and climatic conditions," a top ER&DCI-T official said. An indigenous IP telephone-manufacturing firm would be able to provide the IP telephone at a reasonable cost, provide maintenance support and prevent MNC's from dumping obsolete versions of the technology in the country. Available IP telephones were found to be exorbitantly costly and difficult to adapt to Indian conditions.

The proposed IP telephone will support existing protocols that minimize some of the problems that VoIP creates. This includes Real Time Transfer Protocol, Real Time Protocol and RAS protocols. A power DSP will be employed to run special algorithm for improving Quality of Service (QoS). The product will later on be enhanced to be compatible with multi point control unit to provide video conferencing facilities.

ER&DCI-T had decided to take up corporate IP telephony project in the first phase, as there was no legal restriction in using VoIP over a LAN or WAN network. In the second phase, an IP telephone for home use will be developed when VoIP is legally permitted in the country. A stand alone IP telephone for home use will have far more complexities compared to a corporate phone as it has to integrate many functions of a modem and a PC on the receiver. 

ER&DCI-T is an autonomous scientific society under the Union Minister of Information Technology and has developed many solutions for Indian industry in diverse areas of science and technology.

(CNS)