Integrating VoIP systems with computer applictions

Marko Tišler (2010) Integrating VoIP systems with computer applictions. EngD thesis.

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Abstract

This diploma thesis discusses the interconnection of two systems that were strictly separated until emergence of recent technologies which enable coexis- tence of voice and data in the same network. These technologies bring two completely separate worlds of telephony networks and data networks closer together and they go under a common name of Voice over IP technologies or simply VoIP. This most often results in computer applications which use call control mechanisms and is commonly known as computer telephony integra- tion. The diploma thesis introduces and compares different standards and solutions which cover this particular technical field and it also discusses current trends in computer telephony integration in IP based networks. The main part of the diploma thesis focuses on describing these standards and discusses their common usage and trends in their development. It also compares them on the basis of their attributes, which are crucial for the development of commercially interesting applications. The second part discusses some particular implementations of these solutions which all follow proposed standards. These solutions are all a part of Cisco Unified Communications environment by Cisco Systems, although they can be easily compared to solutions provided by all other major manufacturers, since they are all based on same standards. The main focus of this part is to show strengths and weaknesses of these solutions and to show how and in which environments they are used best. The main points of this discussion are scalability, complexity, security, number of supported functionalities and their extensibility. The third part introduces an example of how this integration is done using one of the discussed standardized solutions. For the final example, I have developed a call control application which integrates with a customer relation- ship management system Microsoft Dynamics CRM and introduces basic call control to its user interface. It also enables the application to automatically show information about the caller stored in Dynamics CRM when the called 3 party receives an incoming call, thus simplifying the process of gathering and entering data regarding phone conversations with customers. The thesis concludes with a critical analysis of the implemented solution and its environment. The key advantages of this solution come from following all the discussed standards. This makes it easy to connect to other PBX systems or even integrate it with other applications. The implementation is very weak security-wise, since it is exposed to attacks.

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