Medianet Reference Guide - Cisco

Drivers for QoS Design Evolution
Chapter 4
Medianet QoS Design Considerations
• The availability of inexpensive Webcams. Desktop video conferencing may be utilized on a
one-to-one basis or may support a few participants simultaneously.
Once video conferencing moved to software, a whole new range of communication possibilities opened
up, which morphed desktop video conferencing applications into multimedia collaboration applications.
Multimedia collaboration applications, including Cisco Unified Personal Communicator (CUPC) and
Cisco WebEx, share not only voice and video, but also data applications, such as instant messaging,
document and presentation sharing, application sharing, and other integrated multimedia features.
However, not all interactive video migrated to the desktop. Room-based video conferencing solutions
continued to evolve and leveraged advances in high-definition video and audio, leading to solutions like
Cisco TelePresence. Additionally, application sharing capabilities—borrowed from multimedia
conferencing applications—were added to these high-definition room-based video conferencing
solutions.
And video application evolution doesn’t end here, but will continue to expand and morph over time as
new demands and technologies emerge.
The Transition to High-Definition Media
One of the reasons traditional room-to-room video conferencing and desktop Webcam-style video
conferencing are sometimes questioned as less than effective communications systems is the reliance on
low-definition audio and video formats.
On the other hand, high-definition interactive media applications, like Cisco TelePresence, demonstrate
how high-definition audio and video can create an more effective remote collaboration experience,
where meeting participants actually feel like they are in the same meeting room. Additionally, IP video
surveillance cameras are migrating to high-definition video in order to have the digital resolutions
needed for new functions, such as pattern recognition and intelligent event triggering based on motion
and visual characteristics. Cisco fully expects other media applications to migrate to high-definition in
the near future, as people become accustomed to the format in their lives as consumers, as well as the
experiences starting to appear in the corporate environment.
High-definition media formats transmitted over IP networks create unique challenges and demands on
the network that need to be planned for. For example, Figure 4-2 contrasts the behavior of VoIP as
compared to high definition video at the packet level.
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Medianet Reference Guide
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