Comment: For the love of IP

Convergence is the primary argument for making everything IP-based

Internet Protocol (IP) may not the best answer for every application but, as a generic and flexible communication platform, it's the best we have, so please can we do away with the proprietary and non-standard nonsense.

These days interoperability is key because users demand a greater convergence of services, and the only effective way to deliver these is through a single communications interface.

Fortunately the move to have everything communicate over IP is already well underway, but a few die-hards remain. We can only hope that they wilt under the spotlight of interoperability.

In the same way that proprietary operating systems and file systems caused so much havoc by their inability to talk to each another, the failure of various technologies to communicate easily can be a breaking point for some developers.

There is a growing demand for voice, instant messaging, video conferencing, email, SMS, data, music, TV and video to be delivered across multiple platforms and devices.

This convergence is the primary argument for making everything IP-based, as a single communications platform can reduce costs, increase flexibility and promote open standards.

Similarly it means that we have cheaper, smaller devices with fewer chips and lower power consumption and hence better battery life.

Furthermore, users can stop worrying so much about a device's capabilities, as it just becomes a question of processing power and software or firmware installed.

Some may argue that an all-IP system may present security issues as one exploit now has multiple targets, but that argument can be turned on its head by pointing out that security vendors need only protect a single pipeline.

Similarly, those developing encryption, error checking and compression need only develop their technology for one platform.

Simply put, proper standardisation is good practice and helps everyone.