Convergence: What will it bring and how can it be achieved?
Jacco Kwaaitaal
Eindhoven Fiber eXchange
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Due to the wide-spread availability of Internet connections and numerous applications on top, IP appears to be a good candidate to act as a transport for converged services. However, filtering, network address translation, lack of IP multicast support, lack of seamless mobility and lack of bandwidth in current field-implementations hamper the development of converged services and high-quality audio-visual interaction on all-IP networks. IP implementations must become more transparent. For that, open networks are important. Users must be able to choose their Service Providers independent from their broadband network connection. The user will then be able to decide about what services are delivered and supported.

The residential gateway will play an important role being the mediator between home networks and devices of various kind and the services delivered to the home. Why doesn't my mobile phone with Bluetooth interface connect locally to my home voice system, dials out through VoIP and allows me to connect to the DECT handset upstairs or the speakers of the audio set? Converged services require open standards, interfaces, APIs to services, development of inter-service interaction and meta-services. A very promising area for Linux/Unix to show its strength.

Ir. J.J.B. Kwaaitaal received a M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in 1999. As a researcher, he joined the Telecommunication Systems group at TU/e and was in part-time connected to the Eindhoven Embedded Systems Institute. He specialized in Home Networking technologies and Residential Gateways. In 2001, he became full-time project manager, representing the group in several (inter)national research projects. Since August 2003, he got part-time

involved in the Cobra Research Institute on Communication Technology. In August 2005, he became chairman of the Eindhoven Fiber eXchange.


Last modified: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 16:30:48 +0200