A PROPOSED UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM BASED ON OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

Unified Communications (UC) have the potential to dramatically simplify and improve enterprise communications, reducing costs and improving revenue opportunities. This paper proposes an architecture of three layers for a UC solution based on open source technologies and open standards. The Infrastructure layer is responsible for the physical IP infrastructure network, the Server Hardware and Operating System layer includes the back-end operating system and server services that can be used by the UC platform and the Business Applications layer integrates the UC with other external applications. Finally, the paper presents the major benefits of UC solutions, giving a special emphasis to the benefits derived for the use of a standards-based IP communications.