As I wrote in a later message, that's more along the
lines of what I was talking about. 
Cheers,
- ferg
I think you just tossed a red herring into the discussion.
I would suggest that a semi-intelligent playback bufferring scheme
in the VoIP application, plus a 'semi-lossless' link, would be just
fine.
Any competent VoIP application/device developer will use an adaptive jitter
buffer. It's really not that tough, and most apps/devices have them today
because working products sell better than non-working ones.
My VoIP phone (full disclosure: I work for the vendor) operates just fine at
home over a DSL line, across four ISPs, through two NATs, and to a gateway
in Canada. The voice gets a little choppy when a 10MB powerpoint hits my
Inbox (sadly, several times per day), but it self-corrects after a couple
seconds.
Doesn't anyone really remember the whole smart-v.-stupid network
analogy? Not meaning to start a flame war here, but trying to stick
all of the intelligence back into the network is not exactly a win-win
proposal.
I think you'll get further by arguing that intelligent networks with small
pipes cost more to maintain than dumb networks with fat pipes. Less likely
to induce sleep in your bean-counters.
S
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking