Library items tagged: Videoconferencing

NAT should be familiar to network managers – it is widely deployed in large private networks. NAT is described fully in RFC1918 “Address Allocation for Private Internets”. NAT was introduced partly as a means of conserving real or public (also sometimes called 'routable') IP addresses. The deployment of NAT allows large organisations to give every computer a unique Internet address without diminishing the available pool of public IP addresses.

The H.323 protocol is the common name for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Recommendation that defines packet-based multimedia communications systems. The most commonly deployed packet-based networks are, of course, those based on the TCP/IP suite of communications, which inter-connect to form the Internet. The H.323 recommendation is a widely adopted umbrella protocol that defines standard behaviour for setting up and proceeding with audio and video calls.

The deployment of H.323 (IP) videoconferencing has grown rapidly throughout the commercial, education and public sectors in the United Kingdom and around the world during the last five years. Decreases in bandwidth costs and more reliable and robust networks have contributed to this, as have the continuing improvements in the quality of the products available. This has been accompanied by a growth in demand, as cost and environmental considerations have combined with a growing appreciation of how videoconferencing can be used to enhance organisational partnerships and distance learning.