Basic VoIP

Q:  What is VoIP ?

A: VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol.

As the term says VoIP is the transmission of voice communication through IP packets and, therefore, through the Internet. VoIP can use accelerating hardware to achieve this purpose and can also be used in a PC environment.

Webopedia defines it as: A category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls. For users who have free, or fixed-price Internet access, Internet telephony software essentially provides free telephone calls anywhere in the world. To date, however, Internet telephony does not offer the same quality of telephone service as direct telephone connections.

Q:  How does VoIP work ?

A: Early on it was determined that it was possible to send a voice signal to a remote destination digitally, as well as via analog. To do that, we have to digitize it with an ADC (analog to digital converter), transmit it, and at the end transform it again in analog format with DAC (digital to analog converter) to use it.

This is basically the way VoIP works, sending voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than in the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone service.
 

Q: What do I need ? 

A: In order to use some of the basic services, you can probably get away with just your PC, an internet connection, and your speakers/microphone. Most feel that using a headset is a much better solution.

In general, you need:

  • A high-speed internet connection. This can be a cable modem, or a super high-speed services such as ISDN, DSL or an E1 link. The link you choose will depend upon the amount of telephone traffic you intend to use. A typical DSL link, for instance, is enough for eight simultaneous phone calls.
  • A VOIP box - about the size of a telephone modem. - your telephones just plug into the box. And your ordinary phone lines allow remote users to call in from outside.
  • An account with a VoIP provider. Your account can be configured to recognize your calls automatically, or you can require your users to enter their unique account numbers, issued by you.

Q: Why isn't everyone using it ? 

A: Like many new technologies, there have been some problems with VoIP. In order to be effective, voice data communication has to be a real time stream. (You wouldn't want to finish a sentence, then wait for many seconds before you could hear the other side answering.)

With normal internet protocols, you can have a network consisting of many routers (20 - 30 or more) which can result in a very high round trip time (RTT).

In addition to standard IP, VoIP uses the real-time protocol (RTP) to help ensure that packets get delivered in a timely way. Using public networks, it is currently difficult to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS). Better service is possible with private networks managed by an enterprise or by an Internet telephony service provider (such as Resonance Networks)
 
Reference:  http://www.dslreports.com/faq/voip
 
[ Back ]
© 2008 Resonance Networks [Voice over IP, Cheap calls, Video Conferencing, Broadband, Phone, Hosting, Phonecalls, Australia]