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by Heather Darrow

You pick up your Sprint service cell phone, hit a couple of buttons and you are connected to a friend with an AT&T service cell phone. Easy, right? On the surface maybe, but the technology behind this communication is a fascinating interweaving of complexity. Each phone system uses a different "language," such as Personal Communications Services (PCS), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) or Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO). For communication to occur between different phone systems, each language must be converted to the other language. And that is just with cell phones. Imagine the cacophony of the Internet, television, printers and messaging systems all chatting at the same time in different languages. With new technology emerging on a daily basis, the demand for skilled individuals who are fluent in numerous technological languages is high. Collin College convergence classes offer students the opportunity to be part of a burgeoning team that is transforming communication systems.

"Collin College was the first college to offer a convergence technology program, so I believe they are ahead of the game. With the assistance of their active industry advisory council, they update the course curriculum on a regular basis, meeting the pressing issues in the industry," said Ron Halbach, manager of sales engineering at Nortel Networks.

"The professors and administration at Collin College saw the changes taking place in the networking industry. They had a vision of the skills their students would require to be successful after graduating. They were brave enough to create a curriculum around their vision and kind enough to mentor other colleges," Halbach said.

According to Collin College internetworking professor, Pete Brierley, 15 to 20 years ago the telephone system only transported voice and fax, and the data networks only transported data. Each system used a unique language.

"Now, we are attempting to transport voice, data and images over the same media, via copper wire, air or fiber optics. The whole point is to have the same protocol, set of rules or ‘language’ for transporting information over the Internet. Internet Protocol (IP) was used first as the ‘language’ to transport data. Today, we can send telephone, video and data over IP. That is convergence. Eventually, the market will go completely IP," Brierley said.

The future, according to Brierley, will streamline IP compatible hardware and software into a set of processes and applications called Unified Communications (UC). UC is an industry term for the integration of disparate communications devices, media and applications. It refers to real-time delivery of communications. UC includes email, instant messaging, mobile and fixed voice, IP-Private Branch Exchange (PBX), Voice over IP (VoIP) (a convergence technology which allows voice over the Internet), Fax over IP (FoIP), presence ( a person’s availability status), web conferencing, white boarding, unified voicemail, unified messaging, desktop applications and advanced business applications. UC provides seamless collaboration among people on projects locally or continents away.

According to Halbach, 2006 was the first year that VoIP installations were larger than digital phone installations. Halbach says Nortel has thousands of employees with convergence technology skills who work in a variety of fields including sales engineering, customer support, product development and product marketing.

"Nortel would not be able to participate in this market without the skills of these employees. These people have the skills to build converged networks that will support UC. UC reduces human latency and provides significant benefits to a business, employees and customers. As more companies roll out VoIP and UC, the demand for people with these skills will continue to grow. The applications that follow behind UC will change the way people work, live and play," Halbach said.

As technology evolves, sometimes the demand for new classes is so strong that students, working in the field, request and participate in the newest training. Collin College student Brent Forrest is a telecom technician for Crosstex Energy. He earned six Cisco certifications while taking classes at the college including Cisco VoIP (CVoice), Cisco IP Telephony (CIPT), Quality of Service (QoS), Troubleshooting Unified Communication Systems (TUC), Gateway Gatekeeper (GWGK) and Cisco Certified Voice Professional (CCVP). Forrest and professor Brierley are currently beta testing labs for a new, advanced VoIP course.

"I took classes with professor Brierley, and he started pushing me to take certification exams, so from January to May I took five exams. The knowledge is helping me in my job, and my boss encourages me to take classes. I took Home Technology Integration, which is a way to wire a home for voice, data, security and music. Before I took CVoice and Convergence+ classes, I did not understand the difference in the codecs, software that compresses and decompresses data, and why a technician used one codec in the home office but a different codec going from the Dallas to the Houston office. I implemented our company’s VoIP network from Dallas to our Corpus Christi office, and I felt very confident doing it because of the Collin College classes," Forrest said.

Forrest also participated in classroom-initiated case studies, and says the presentations and documentation were valuable experiences. He firmly believes more individuals would enter the convergence field, if they were aware of it.

"Convergence technology is fun. Your job is different everyday; it is different every hour. The pay is good—it is hands-on and has numerous puzzles. You do not just sit at your desk; you are going to other facilities. This is the only college in the area that I know of that offers a convergence degree. At Collin College you have professors that love to teach, you complete industry-simulated projects and earn a degree showing your skill," Forrest said.

For more information about convergence technology or VoIP at Collin College, visit the website at www.ccccd.edu.