VoIP, acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol, is a common term used for a group of technologies involving transmission. This protocol is used to deliver voice communications across the internet protocol networks such as various packet switched networks like the internet.
VoIP is often referred to as Internet telephony, or IP telephony, and even voice over broadband. This protocol basically is a type of communication service that involves facsimile and voice messaging techniques and applications that are transmitted via the internet. These do not take help from the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The voice signal that is actually in analog form is first converted into a digital format and then the signal is translated into a format compatible with the internet protocol so that they can be successfully transmitted via the internet. This is the technique used at the transmitting end. At the receiver end these internet protocol packets that are received as digitized signals are converted back into analog form and sent to the receiver.
VoIP is a widely used technique of modern times. You can get connected to VoIP service providers by three primary ways: by an Analog Telephone Adapter, by using the Ethernet or Wi-Fi technique and by means of a softphone or a digital phone. VoIP has many advantages which have made it a successful service. It has high bandwidth efficiency and the cost of transmission is quite low. It also enables the performance of tasks and provides such services that are difficult to be implemented using PSTN making them highly flexible.
However VoIP is prone to internet attacks or what we commonly say that data can be hacked by experts and hence it is not a very secure technique. This problem has been taken into consideration and the government and certain military organizations are now using Voice over Secure IP (VoSIP) to protect data which is a modified version of VoIP
By: Joanne Greco
Posts Tagged ‘Packet Switched Networks’
What Exactly is VoIP?
January 3rd, 2010VoIP Technology, How Does It Work?
October 29th, 2009
VoIP, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, is a protocol that has been optimized for transmitting voice via the internet or through other packet switched networks. VoIP carries telephony signals as digital audio that are usually reduced in data rate with speech data compression methods, encapsulated in a data packet stream over IP. In other words, VoIP is the routing of vocal conversations over the internet, or any other network that is IP based. VoIP is also known by other names including Internet telephony, IP Telephony, and Broadband telephony.
VoIP services can have two types of public switched telephone networks (PSTN):
1. Access numbers – the caller is required to key in the extension number of the VoIP user
2. Direct Inward Dialing (DID) – directly connects the caller to the VoIP user.
One of the great aspects about VoIP is that it has the ability to facilitate tasks and provide services that a more traditional PSTN might have difficulty implementing, or may charge more for. Some examples of services that VoIP features include:
• VoIP makes it easy to add an additional telephone line for a home or office, because VoIP has the ability to transmit more than one phone call down the same telephone line connected to broadband.
• VoIP automatically comes with popular phone features such as call forwarding, caller ID, automatic redial and 3-way calling. All of these features can be included in a traditional phone line, but usually each service has an additional cost.
• VoIP already has security in place such as digitizing and digital transmission, which traditional phone lines can sometimes struggle with.
• VoIP phones can work form any location that has a stable and fast internet connection.
• VoIP can integrate with other services that are available though the internet including message or data file exchange, video conversation, managing address books, audio conferencing, and so on.
As you can see, there are many features you can enjoy with VoIP. Furthermore, on the whole, VoIP tends to be the cheaper telephone service in comparison to a traditional phone line. However, regardless if you use a VoIP telephony, or are called by an unknown VoIP user, you can still find out more about a phone number and who it belongs to here.
By: Dan Krasky
