Unit 3 IP convergence

Convergence of IP-based Networks Most computer networks based on IP are all pervasive today. Every department, building, branch of an organization requires and maintains a full-fledged Local Area Network (LAN) for inter-connecting computers. The IP Network can operate on a variety of media – Copper, Fiber and wireless. So, since they have become inevitable and dominant, the other services (voice and data) have been redesigned to run on this network. Before establishing a converged network, if the computer network has some problems, it will only affect the Internet usage and perhaps access to application servers. You still have access to phones, so you could talk to anyone and you could monitor the video output of a surveillance system. But once the network is converged, any major problem with the computer network would invariably affect all the services. And mind you, the computer network, if not planned and designed properly, can pose quite a few problems. The historical roots of convergence can be traced back to the emergence of mobile telephony and the Internet, although the term properly applies only from the point in marketing history when fixed and mobile telephony began to be offered by operators as joined products. Fixed and mobile operators were, for most of the 1990s, independent companies. Even when the same organization marketed both products, these were sold and serviced independently.
In the 1990s an implicit and often explicit assumption was that new media was going to replace the old media and Internet was going to replace broadcasting. The social function of the cell phone changes as the technology converges. Because of Technological advancement, cell phones

function more than just as a phone. They contain an internet connection, video players, Mp3 players, and a camera. Early in the 21st century, home LAN convergence so rapidly integrated home routers, wireless access points, and DSL modems that users were hard put to identify