What is a Corporate Network?

The term "Corporate Network (CN)" describes a network serving a defined and limited group of users; typically, members of a single organisation.

Corporate Networks are often referred to as "Private Networks" and at one time this was quite correct. If an organisation wanted to establish an internal communications network it would rent some leased circuits from a Public Telecommunications network Operator (PTO), buy some PABXs and employ a switchboard operator to handle incoming calls. With advances in technology, and in particular, the introduction of sophisticated computer controlled exchanges into public telecommunications networks, this is no longer strictly the case. Today a Corporate Network is just as likely to be constructed using Centrex and/or Virtual Private Network (VPN) services offered by PTOs. Hybrid networks are also possible, in which some components (such as leased circuits, Centrex, or Virtual Private Network (VPN) facilities) are owned and run by a PTO, while other components (e.g., PABXs, Routers) are owned and managed by the Organisation itself.

A network that was once privately owned may now be out-sourced to a third party who will own and operate the network on behalf of the user organisation. The third party may even acquire a licence to resell network capacity to several or many customers. The distinction between such private networks and true public networks is becoming more blurred. Increasingly it is a distinction based on different licensing regimes rather than distinctions based on technology or ownership.

Private networks were originally established to serve the need for voice communications within and between corporate sites - even before data networks had been thought of . At the time that Arpanet, the forerunner of today's Internet, was being established there were already significant voice communication networks installed and operating in many countries around the World. Public utilities, government, and defence organisations were among the first and largest Corporate Network users, followed closely by financial institutions and industrial conglomerates. Today Corporate telecommunication Networks are often world-wide.

With the emergence of data communications as a key component of corporate communications, and, most dramatically, with the deployment of Internet Protocol (IP) technologies, the issue of voice/data convergence has become increasingly important. The main investments today are in data communications, with organisations deploying LANs, client/server applications, and Internet/Intranet technologies to the desktop. Almost as quickly as a project is completed, additional capacity is needed and the whole cycle begins again using a newer, faster, technology. Today there are many opportunities for businesses to capitalise on their data-comms investments for voice purposes. No where is this more evident than with the current fashions for Internet Telephony (Voice over IP (VoIP)) and computer-telephony enabled call centres.

From the point of view of Standards this means that whereas in the past the needs of private networks could be satisfied with a relatively small number of Standards, today this is no longer the case. There is a complex set of some 200 Standards for Corporate Networks that continues to evolve faster than ever before to keep up with changes in business communications practices and technologies. It becomes an ever harder task for the Standards user, be he an engineer working for an equipment manufacturer, a product manager employed by a Network Operator or Service Provider, or a telecoms manager looking after the communications needs of a corporation (large or small), to keep track of what is applicable and how it might affect his business.

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