Local-Area Network (LAN) Telephony

Local-Area Network (LAN) telephony integrates voice and data over the same medium, enabling automated call distribution, voice mail, and interactive voice response, as well as voice calls and teleconferencing between workstations on a LAN. The benefit of LAN-based telephony is eliminating the costly, proprietary nature of a PBX and replacing it with a standards-based Ethernet/IP solution. By carrying voice conversations in the form of IP packets, local calls can traverse the Ethernet LAN while long-distance calls can go out to the wide-area, IP-based intranet. Through the use of IP/PSTN gateways, calls can even reach conventional telephones off the IP network.

With LAN telephony, users who are working away from their offices at home or in a hotel, for example can use a single phone line to carry both data and voice traffic. The user dials to access the corporate intranet, which would be equipped and engineered to carry real-time voice traffic. Such a system provides an integrated directory view, enabling remote users to locate individuals within the corporation for voice connection or e-mail connection in a unified way. Likewise, phone callers (internal or external to the corporation) can locate the mobile workers who are connected to any part of the intranet. Thus, LAN telephony enables users to work seamlessly from any location.

By using the LAN-based conferencing standards, transparent connectivity of different terminal equipment can be achieved. The media that is used by any conference participant would be limited only by what is supported...