September 11, 2001 is a day that many people, particularly Americans, will never forget. When four American planes crashed in various places on American national soil, hundreds of lives were lost. Children were left without parents. Spouses were left without lifelong partners. Worlds were shattered. Before September 11, business travelers crowded airports on a daily and hourly basis. Millions of people made business trips each year. Firms and companies spent thousands of dollars on travel expenses, making it possible to work with people, clients, and specialists all over the world. Businesses were able to attend worldwide conferences within their respective fields to improve communications and business practices on a worldwide basis. Airline companies did their best to provide flights across the country and across the world on a regular basis. Flights were leaving airports literally at every single minute of the day. September 11 and the threats of terrorism, as well as the destabilization of the world that followed changed all of that.

Business travel not only became too expensive for firms, as airlines began to fail and ticket prices began to rise, but for many firms and companies, business travel became one of the most dangerous things they could imagine doing. No business wants to put their employees in the way of harm, and as threats continue to rise, most businesses have searched for alternatives to business travel that could jeopardize the life and health of employees.

One of the most popular alternatives many businesses have found is virtual conferences, or videoconferencing systems. Videoconferencing allows businesses to connect with one another using audio and video streams that transmit simultaneously via a number of different kinds of connection sources. The advent of television allowed some very simply videoconferencing applications, but the invention and subsequent popularity of the Internet allowed many more businesses to have some very serious videoconferencing abilities. Early videoconferences via the phone lines were quite slow and cumbersome. A single image was transmitted only every minute, making it hard to have an actual conference, as one party was always waiting on the other to transmit a new image. The videoconferences of today, though, are much quicker. Most companies use either ISDN type connections or Ethernet type connections to meet their videoconferencing needs. You may already be familiar with Ethernet, as in many offices; it is used to tie computers together. ISDN is a phone cable that is digital. ISDN systems replace older analog phone lines that caused some of the bottlenecks in videoconferencing systems. Both of these solutions have very different performance abilities.

One of the biggest differences with these larger bandwidth solutions is how each communications channel is switched. An Ethernet line is packet switched. An ISDN is circuit switched. With an ISDN connection, it lasts only as long as the user wants it to, much like a standard phone line might. Once someone has terminated the connection, it is broken. While the connection is active, though, the bandwidth is solely dedicated to it. Ethernet lines work through packet switching, which basically means that every single user in the network shares the bandwidth. If lots of users are making use of the bandwidth, the videoconferencing system will be much slower. If only a few users are on, the videoconferencing system is much quicker. Ethernet connections provide up to three frames per second. ISDN lines provide one frame every three seconds, but either option is a far cry from the early days of videoconferencing.

There are many applications for videoconferencing systems, no matter what industry you work in. Videoconferencing allows participants to virtually sit in the same room with one another even if they are countries, oceans, even time zones away from one another. This leads to some wonderful things. If you work within the business world, employees no longer have to take days off to travel from place to place when they want to meet with clients or specialists in the field. It can also save the extensive travel expenses that many employees tend to rack up when it is necessary to meet with many people or many clients in various places around the globe. In the world of education, professionals and students can meet via a videoconferencing network no matter what time of day or place they are in. This means that education can truly be found without boundaries. In many cases, teachers can upload materials hours and days ahead of time, and students can work through an educational program without having to make a formal commitment to the classroom. If you are worried about business travel, think videoconferencing.

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