VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that allows you to make voice / telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line, which has been the method used for the last hundred years or so.

VoIP services vary. Some services using VoIP may only allow you to call other people using the same service, but others may allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number anywhere in the world.  While some services only work via your computer or a special VoIP phone, other services allow you to use a traditional phone with an adaptor.

The Voice / Signal that comes through VoIP is digitized in order to be routed across the Internet or Intranet.  There are two digital coding standards that are most commonly used for VoIP – H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

H.323 was developed many years ago mainly for video conferencing over ISDN telephone lines.  Because H.323 was built long ago, its technology is considered outdated and comes with quite unnecessary overhead costs, lacking the features and flexibilities that SIP has to offer.

SIP is an end-to-end client / server session signaling protocol.  It is much less complicated when it comes to implementation and programming from a developer’s standpoint.  At the same time, it provides all of the features needed to scale and provide reliable voice communication.  With today’s security concerns, SIP also has a better handle when it comes to providing front-end proxy and Network Address Translation (NAT) environments.

Two of the biggest technical issues today with using VoIP are the Security, such as wire tapping, and Quality of the Service (QoS).  Depending on who you are and what you do, Security may not be an issue, but QoS certainly is. Having a sound IP network connection is the first step to a successful VoIP implementation.

There are many ways to implement VoIP communication:

VoIP Communication Matrix	Analog Phone	Analog Phone(With VoIP Adapter)	IP Phone	Soft Phone / Webcam	IP Based PBX(With VoIP Build-In)	Traditional PBX (With VoIP Gateway)	Traditional PBX
Analog Phone	û	û	û	û	û	û	û
Analog Phone (With VoIP Adapter)	û	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	û
IP Phone	û	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	û
Soft Phone / Webcam	û	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	û
IP Based PBX (With VoIP Build-In)	û	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	û
Traditional PBX (With VoIP Gateway)	û	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü	û
Traditional PBX	û	û	û	û	û	û	û

 ü = VoIP Communication | û =  No VoIP Communication

Client (Phone/End Point Device or Software) | Server (PBX / Gateway)

If a Public Branch Exchange (PBX) is capable of handling VoIP, any devices connecting to it, including traditional Analog and Digital phone sets, will be able to place VoIP calls via the PBX.  As of this writing, more devices are being developed to place VoIP calls directly.

As long as one has a PC and an inexpensive Webcam, one can use VoIP to talk and view each other over the IP network.  There are many other VoIP services providing free or low rates for making VoIP calls in Client-to-Client mode.

On Aug. 12, 2002, Barbara Krasnoff said in a report by ZDNet, “The greatest return on investment from VoIP is the most difficult to quantify: increased worker productivity through a variety of new applications and services that are only now becoming available on VoIP systems.”

“Pack up your PBX – VoIP is here,” she said.

For businesses with multiple locations, it is not very difficult to quantify the cost savings, especially if the locations have high-speed connections between them via Internet or an internal data network, such as Frame Relay, Point to Point T1 or other forms of high-speed data network. That is why we are seeing businesses spend billions of dollars in the last few years to convert their phone systems to VoIP capability.

For businesses without more than one location, there are also tangible benefits if implemented in conjunction with other emerging technologies.

In the past, voice / phone calls could only travel through traditional Telephone Companies’ networks. Unified Messaging Service (UMS) and Virtual Office (VO) were the buzz in the media and technology companies for many years, but no one had figured out at that time how to process voice data to work with computer networks. Back then, the concept was way ahead of its time; technology wasn’t yet able to deliver.

But recent improvements to hardware, software and transportation protocols have been making these dreams a reality for those who dare to take advantage of the improvements and make their businesses more competitive in the marketplace.