Introducing I-Phone IP Telephony Services for the University of Florida

IP Telephony, also known as Voice-over-IP (VoIP), represents a new method of providing telephone service. Historically, telephone systems have used dedicated equipment to provide only telephone service. The equipment includes telephone switches, circuits to connect the switches, telephone sets, and so forth. Rather than using dedicated equipment, IP Telephony will use much of the same infrastructure as the data network. It will achieve this by converting sound into small packets of data and transporting them via the regular Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) between telephone sets.

There are various ways to implement IP Telephony. OIT-Telecom is primarily focusing on replacing the telephone sets, dedicated telephone lines and smaller telephone switches with IP Telephony equipment. In this scenario, the telephone set actually plugs into the data network "jack" rather than a telephone "jack." As part of the "services-to-wallplate" model, the network infrastructure and management will need to be in place so that your I-Phone service will be ensured the highest quality of service.

Now! As part of the "services-to-wallplate" model, I-Phone service is currently available. Current projects that have deployed I-Phone service include the new Rinker School of Building Construction building and the Health, Pharmacy and Nursing Professionals (HPNP) facility (via HealthNet). Upcoming projects will include the Fisher School of Accounting building and the Constans Theatre Addition.

All production I-Phone sets are in campus "service-to-wallplate" buildings and are connected with Cisco switches capable of providing in-line power insertion. Access to the public telephone network is provided using two physically redundant Cisco 6608 VoIP gateways, each connected via the BellSouth SmartRing to Primary Rate Interface (PRI) circuits. These Gateways also provide conference bridge resources for the voice conferencing capabilities available with this service.

Call OIT-Telecom at (352) 392-1146, or enter a work order by contacting the Work Management Center at (352) 392-1121. For additional information please contact John Madey, Associate Director, OIT-Telecom, at jmadey@ufl.edu, and visit the University of Florida VoIP Service homepage at http://net-services.ufl.edu/provided_services/voip.