U.K.-based InTechnology recently partnered with the University of Oxford to implement SIP trunking across Janet, the school's private research and education network, the company announced on Tuesday.

The Oxford University Computing Service (OUCS) began looking for SIP solutions after concern was raised that all the ISDN30 circuit fibers of its core voice network pass through the same diminutive area in central Oxford. If there were any problems with these fibers, the university's students and faculty wouldn't have been able to place or even receive voice calls.

With this in mind, the OUCS team looked into an alternate solution: sending voice traffic over Janet. As a Janet-connected provider, InTechnology was tapped as a partner for the project.

Alan Hillyer, head of telecoms at OUCS, said that InTechnology was willing to do what other major suppliers were reluctant to try: accepting voice traffic via Janet without QoS (Quality of Service).

"In my opinion, InTechnology were really quite brave and entrepreneurial in recognizing that their existing ultra high bandwidth Janet connectivity, our own fat pipe into Janet, and Janet's high capacity meant that the lack of QoS on Janet was irrelevant," Hillyer noted.

The move resulted in a number of benefits, says InTechnology, including increased resilience, reduced supplier dependency, significant scalability and reduced call costs. The new setup also enables OUCS to add remote access to its VoIP system.

Hillyer even said that the call quality was stable and "probably better than standard ISDN30 quality."

"InTechnology has provided us with an enterprise-class solution, while meeting a need that some of the bigger carriers are turning their back on," he added.

OUCS is now working with InTechnology to continue to develop the system and to configure other traffic that can be routed from its on-premise PBX (News - Alert).

"As we are already connected to the Janet network, deploying SIP trunks proved to be an extremely cost-effective solution for the University," noted Roy Farrow, divisional product director at InTechnology. "We are delighted to have provided a solution that has solved their resilience issues and also delivered a host of other benefits."

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves