TitchOnline.com
600 South Dearborn Street
Suite 1902
Chicago, IL 60605 USA
1-312-922-3772
Steven Titch,
Editor-in-Chief
titch@titchonline.com
Sharon J. Watson, Managing Editor
BT Openworld/BT PLC
81 Newgate Street
London EC1A 7AJ
United Kingdom
Telspec PLC
Lancaster Parker Road
Rochester
Kent ME1 3QU
United Kingdom
Aztak Technology Corp.
1101 Channelside Drive
Tampa, Florida 33602
p: +1 813 864 6300
f: +1 813 864-6301
Aztak's Safeticode card
The Personal Information Technology Report
August 27, 2002
In this issue:
A Step Toward Easier Password Management
The Story in Brief:
As they prepare to support a new IP multicasting application, BT
Openworld and its vendor Telspec offer an illustration of how the
intelligent network can support management and mediation of services
between IP and TDM environments and why VoIP is the
last thing service providers should fear.
BT Openworld is providing a
clear look into how the intelligent network will evolve to manage voice
services using the Internet Protocol (IP).
Openworld, BT's Internet
service provider arm, will host an IP multicasting service that will
let U.K. horse-racing fans dial in to hear races called live. Some 40
media servers integrated with switches will support the service. The
equipment was provided by Telspec, Rochester, U.K., under an £8.7
million ($13.2 million) contract signed in January 2001. Installation
of the equipment was completed several weeks ago, according to John
Parr, director of switching products at Telspec. "We're anticipating
this will be the biggest use of VoIP in a [former] PTT network to
date," says Parr.
Openworld did not disclose the
company for which it will host the service, and it is unclear at this
point how the service will be branded. Nonetheless, Openworld's role as
both service provider and applications host illustrates the
opportunities that former monopoly incumbents have if they choose to
adapt their intelligent networks to capitalize on the combination of
centralized management, decentralized distribution and TDM network
mediation that integrated IP services require.
That requirement is moving
front and center as businesses create more Internet-based applications
that integrate voice response and interactive voice recognition (IVR)
as a primary interface. Enterprises are using IVR technologies to an
increasing degree in areas such customer service inquiries by phone.
For example, rather than prompt a caller to enter a number on the
keypad, the IVR system prompts the user to speak the request.
In an enterprise networking
environment, the voice-to-data translations and database inquiries
associated with IVR are fairly simple. The same goes for standard
recorded announcements in the public network, such as those that advise
of phone numbers that have been disconnected or changed.
Openworld's racing application,
however, requires scaling to simultaneously accommodate thousands of
users. In this way it must respond like a standard Web server. But
unlike standard Web servers that use browsers to receive and transmit
information, these servers require the network to convert IP data into
voice.
For the time being, Openworld's
multicasting service does not tie to other media, such as a video
download of the race or on-line wagering, but Telspec's Carr says
there's no reason the service couldn't support such additions. With or
without multimedia integration, however, service providers will compete
on how well they can provision and support these large-scale
applications hosting projects that will need to support voice.
Openworld's approach to the new intelligent network is one example of
how next-generation service providers will accomplish that.
From old to new
First, a refresher on the
intelligent network's role to date. The intelligent network that
undergirds the legacy time division multiplexed (TDM) network was
principally designed to handle one-off data transactions -- translation
of toll-free numbers, calling card verification, caller ID and other
logical "if-then" operations that usually require a single database
inquiry. The public switched network offloaded these operations to the
intelligent network, which performed the necessary database inquiry and
communicated the answer back.
Since a single IP session can
require numerous database inquiries and processing operations, as the
public network becomes more oriented toward IP, the intelligent network
aspect gets all the more complex. Further, the new intelligent network
must deal with the greater amount of intelligence that now exists at
the edge of the network.
Source: Telspec, "The New
Intelligent Network" by John Parr © 2000
The accompanying diagram shows
Telspec's view of how service providers can mediate the classic PSTN
intelligent network with IP. This approach, says Parr, is largely
reflected in Openworld's real-world deployment in the U.K.
Telspec supplies the service
nodes that sit near the edge of the network. Each service node
comprises a circuit switch and a combined IVR/media server. The switch
connects to the PSTN via the intelligent network's standard signaling
system 7 (SS7) protocol. The IVR/media server consists of the server
itself, with redundant back-up, and voice processor boards that handle
voice recognition and play announcements. Telspec's voice processing
boards use digital signal processors from Dialogic.
The service nodes themselves
are becoming more common as service providers begin to integrate VoIP
applications into their networks. Telspec's competition for integrated
switches and servers includes SnowShore Networks and IP Unity.
Meanwhile, several companies, including Convedia (see Convedia: The
Common Thread), offer IVR media servers a la carte.
PSTN moves to the edge
Beyond the equipment, however,
Openworld is reassembling its network with a new awareness of how
important VoIP applications are going to be. Notice that IP now sits at
the network's center and the TDM-based PSTN exists at the edge, more as
a self-contained access mechanism. At the top are the service provider
user interface, the scalable web server itself, the service management
system and the service creation environment. Control of these "new"
intelligent network components, all working within the IP environment,
is what will drive Openworld's business.
________________________________________________
Telspec PLC, spun
off from GTE's U.K. operations in 1975, manufactures access and
switching systems for telecom service providers. Along with intelligent
network switches and media servers, the company makes ISDN, pair gain
and DSL systems. Customers include BT, Telefonica, Telkom South Africa,
Telstra and Krasnodar PTT in Russia. The company reported £41.5
million ($63.1 million) in revenues and a £1.92 million ($2.9
million) net loss in 2001. It has 321 employees.
________________________________________________
Looking at the intelligent
network the way Telspec and Openworld suggest can dissipate much of the
emotional response that VoIP and Internet Telephony trigger within
incumbent carrier organizations. VoIP is a threat only to those who
erroneously put the PSTN at the center of the public network.
In the new public network, the
PSTN has its place in the delivery of personal information technology,
but there's no way it can be the fulcrum for future services. Smarter
players, like Openworld in the U.K. and Sprint in the U.S. (See
Sprint's Voice Strategy Speaks Volumes) realize their competitive
strength lies in the scalable network processing systems that can be
used to manage and mediate voice with other media formats. This opens
the door to large-scale integrated applications hosting, third party
Web services management and an opportunity for leadership in delivery
of a variety of new applications that will use voice as much as they
will data.
________________________________________________
How new is your new
intelligent network?
Questions that service
providers, especially incumbents, should be asking about the
information processing aspects of their networks.
How versatile is your
intelligent network? It's probably set up for TDM intelligent network
applications, but is it ready to handle the mediation functions that
your large customers may be seeking?
Chances are your network
organization is steeped in Bellcore-created intelligent network
protocols, including SS7 and ISUP, but how does that experience compare
to your staff's dexterity with IP signaling protocols such as MGCP,
Megaco, SIP, SOAP and UDDI?
How are your IP gateways
distributed? How robust are they? What are the capabilities of your IVR
systems? If a customer you were hosting proposed an IP multicasting
service that would need phone connections like Openworld's racing
application, would you be ready?
________________________________________________
A
step toward easier password management
The Story in Brief: A low-cost pocket-sized storage
device helps bridge the need for effective password management,
addressing problems organizations have when asking employees to
maintain multiple passcodes.
Even if they are a downside to the expansion of personal information
technology, passwords that allow access to computers, networks and web
sites aren't going away. On the contrary, there's only going to be more
of them. They will contain more characters, change regularly and users
will have less control over their selection. So instead of your
father's birth date, your mother's maiden name or the last five digits
of your social security number, your next password will be something
closer to 4xh$QZx38#k (case sensitive, of course!). Along with the new
password will come a reminder of the company policy forbidding you to
even think of writing it down.
The need for managing and safeguarding passwords has become a renewed
priority within many organizations, especially since the near ad hoc
addition of 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless access has made networks more
vulnerable than ever to outside attack.
No one would argue against the need for network safeguards, but as
devices and applications proliferate, the number of passwords employees
and consumers are being asked to maintain itself becomes a detriment to
sound security. In worse cases, overly aggressive security policies can
make systems less secure, purely because of the human element.
Although the media loves to
portray hackers as nerdy geeks bunkered in a dark basement surrounded
by sophisticated systems for intrusion and decryption, the most common
way unauthorized users gain access to a private system is with a stolen
password. And passwords are most often stolen because they are written
down, says Allen Keetch, president, CEO and co-founder of Aztak
Technology Corp., Tampa, Fla. And despite injunctions and advisories,
users write them down, Keetch adds, because most organizations
increasingly force them to use lengthier passwords in larger
numbers.
Keetch, whose company manufacturers a credit card-sized storage device
designed to let individuals self-manage a large number of passwords,
recalls that when he worked at BT, each employee had to remember an
average of five passwords. "In a company of 100,000 employees, that's
500,000 passcodes," he says, pointing to the management problems these
policies can create. One of the biggest IT chores was resetting
forgotten passwords.
Several companies provide systems that streamline password management,
usually by allowing an automatic user reset. Others perform password
synchronization, that is, allow employees to keep the same password for
all the systems they use throughout the network. Suppliers of password
management systems include Avieter, a Microsoft .Net partner for
automatic password reset; BMC Software, which provides a Web-based
interface for private networks that lets users perform their own
password management; and Courion and M-Tech, which do both reset and
synchronization. Most of these companies target corporate users through
such channels such as outsourcers, systems integrators and service
providers.
Passwords and tokens
Passwords are common - and they tend to proliferate - because they are
the cheapest form of security. They are reliable and require no
client-side hardware and software and they can work with legacy systems.
Smart cards and "tokens" are the next step up. These are devices that
can be carried by the user. These are a bit more secure but come at an
additional cost, about $50 per user according to documentation from
M-Tech.
Aztak's Safeticode card finds a middle ground between password and
smart card. To use the card, which looks like a pocket calculator, the
user only needs a single password. After setting that up, the user can
store up to 20 alphanumeric, case-sensitive passwords, assigning them
each to a numeric slot (01, 02, 03), much like when programming phone
numbers into an automatic dialer. Should the card be lost or stolen,
five straight incorrect attempts at password entry will erase all data
on the card.
Aztak has made volume sales of the card to SunTrust Banks, which uses
them internally for password security. It also has a pilot trial with
BT. The company also sells the cards direct from its web site for
$24.95. Service providers and systems integrators also stand to be a
channel because, as an accompaniment to on-line password management
systems, the cards ultimately reduce the cost and time devoted to
resetting compromised and lost passwords
Concerns about privacy and data security mean that passwords will be a
regular element in the network landscape. Basic management of user
passwords is a fundamental in personal information technology. A
confident level of security can drive service uptake, but cumbersome
requirements, like needing to remember numerous passwords, can be as
much of a detriment. Tools like Aztak's Safeticode card, used in
conjunction with a sound network security system, can help re-establish
balance by giving users more control of everyday network technology
without compromising the necessary barriers to unauthorized access.
-- Steven Titch
A reminder to readers: The Personal Information Technology Report is a paid subscription service of TitchOnline.com. Unauthorized copying, reproduction and reposting of contents are prohibited under subscriber Terms of Use. For information on fees for reprints and PDFs for TitchOnline.com material, please contact reprints@titchonline.com.
***************
Visit www.titchonline.com and take advantage of our new subscription price at a special limited time discount. For just $100 for an annual subscription you can ensure your continued access to TitchOnline.com and its unique coverage of personal information technology services and management.
As a TitchOnline.com subscriber, you will always be able to access all our features at our Web site. Plus you'll have exclusive, subscriber-only access to upcoming special reports.
Complete your subscription today at www.titchonline.com today!
We invite your feedback. Please write to us at feedback@TitchOnline.com with questions, comments or if you'd like us to offer a trial subscription to a colleague. Thank you very much!
Copyright
©2002 Expert Editorial Inc.
All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.