VoIP Technology » Public Switched Telephone Network

VoIP vs PBX – VoIP is Winning the Battle

admin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:43:48 +0000

PBX phone systems were the standard in recent years. These were needed to handle the huge telephony needs of big business. But a PBX is expensive, high

maintenance, and difficult to upgrade when the company needs change.

With the ubiquitous Internet availability, businesses of all sizes have another option for their demanding telephony needs. This is a VoIP system.

What is VoIP?

VoIP is the acronym for “Voice Over Internet Protocol.”

Protocols are the policies for how all things related to the Internet should work. These rules are in place to make sure that people around the globe are working with

the same rules which will help the Internet work best.

So, VoIP is the international standards for how the human voice can be transmitted over the Internet.

Traditional Communications

Consider the fixed landline in your home. Your home phone has a physical wire which is connected to a local telephone pole. That wire then connects to a group of

others at the telephone company’s central office. And finally, the utility has lines to all of their other central offices where lines exist.

When call from your home, the utility sends your call over the lines to the line of the person you are calling using the central office locations.

To make this happen, the phone company uses a Public Switched Telephone Network, or PSTN. This process uses dedicated lines and is relatively costly because of the

need for all of the physical wiring and equipment.

PBX System

An office business has physical lines which come into the building from the utility company, and then physical lines which connect each phone within the building to the

main wired control panel as well.

Traditionally, the business’ PBX or “Private Branch Exchange” would route the calls that come into the building for the different extensions in the system.

While this set up is certainly effective and has its place in certain operations, a small business owner may consider this larger system more complicated to administer.

In addition, PBX is often cost prohibitive for medium or small businesses to purchase, leaving a small business owner without many options.

VoIP Phone Systems

Many offices of all sizes are now moving away from PBX, and embracing VoIP technology.

Businesses can use this newer technology to address their telephony needs with ease of administration, the relatively easy ability to upgrade their systems, as well as

the number one advantage … reduced costs.

This advanced technology allow large, medium, and small business communication to operate over their existing data network.

Where in the past, each phone and each computer had to have its own line to connect to the central network of the building, now only one is necessary.

Just as your computer sends out digital data over the corporate Ethernet network, your voice over IP phone can turn your voice into digital data and send it the same

way and over the same cable.

Also, when wireless networks are available, the transmissions can use the wireless network as well. Cellular phones are one example of this wireless technology.

When you look at VoIP vs. PBX, it is easy to see that VoIP is the technology being adopted now, and large PBX systems are an effective traditional communications

method, but a cumbersome one.

Just as how, fax machines were the way to pass documents from one location to another, but now, we use e-mail … PBX has been the way to route calls but now

VoIP is taking over our telephony needs.

By: Andrew Stratton

Voice Over IP (VoIP) Phone Systems

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:36:48 +0000

With business firms searching for alternative ways to reduce their costs in business communications, the technology called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) can be highly beneficial, both economically and functionally for small, medium and large business firms alike. The Voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems work the same way as a regular Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), but differs in the fact that here the medium of the internet is used as the backbone for signal transmission.

One of the key advantages of the hosted VoIP PBX system is that all the services of a regular phone system such as caller ID, voicemail and conferencing are all available at much reduced costs. Here in VoIP, both the voice and data transmissions are incorporated within the same system and hence telephone communication and digital data transfers can be done almost simultaneously along the same medium, with no high costs involved for the process.

The Voice over Internet protocol phone systems are highly versatile in their operations. The system can help companies to stay connected with their employees by setting up live Ethernet ports around their company. Companies can also connect all their global offices together with these IP telephony systems and thus save huge amounts in all long distance calls made to their offshore offices in remote locations.

For companies, Voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems can also be set up using their existing computers by using headsets and installing telephone dialer softwares. Here the headset acts as the handset of your office phone and the dialer software can emulate the functions of a regular IP Phone system. This arrangement is helpful for traveling business persons as they can easily convert their laptops into a dedicated Internet protocol phone system to keep in touch with their clients, irrespective of their location. The only external requirement is to have a high speed internet connection for the communication to take place.

Today, a number of Voice over IP service providers are offering their services in a customized manner with packages suitable to varying client requirements. For starters in business, hosted PBX phone systems are also available. These systems can save huge amounts for clients as they do not require business firms to buy and maintain in-house equipments. In hosted Voice over IP systems, all the necessary equipments for the service will be hosted by the provider of the VoIP. Thus whatever hosted PBX IP phone systems are chosen, they are sure to prove highly beneficial for companies in the long run.

By: Alen Smith J

VOIP – The Disadvantages

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:46:59 +0000

Public Switched Telephone Network or PSTN is currently aside away as the regular phone that now is being replaced by the new technology of VoIP, voice over internet protocol, where making a phone call over the internet broadband access. The revolutionary of this technology is very good, but there is also some disadvantages or barriers that come along this existence. Major flaws in VoIP are on its reliability. Therefore, we can say that the disadvantages of VoIP are on its reliability, its accessibility.

VoIP is a voice over internet protocol. By using internet connection means the use of this technology is dependant to the wall power. Normally, when the power goes down or low, we still can make a phone call over the regular phone. But this is not happen in VoIP. If there is no power, here means internet connection, we can make a phone call over VoIP. Therefore, using VoIP technology, beside internet connection, we should also have to have a stable power. In regular phone, we can integrate our home secure such as digital video recorders; digital subscription TV series also home security systems over the regular phone by connect it with the phone line. If we are using VoIP, this could not be happen. VoIP can not integrate with these products. However there are some related companies who are going to work on it, but it is still taking sometimes.

Emergency call of 911 also is the challenge of VoIP. With regular phone, we can call anytime 911 operators, but it could not happen with VoIP. In VoIP, we are using the internet protocol access that is not associated with the geographical location. Therefore we can not make a phone call to the 911 operator if we are having an emergency condition, because VoIP using internet connection and computer, it will be very susceptible to worms and other viruses.

By: Dita Nadia

All About VoIP

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:55:24 +0000

Voice over Internet Protocol or the VoIP, is basically the process of sending voice through internet protocol, making it convenient for a consumer to make phone calls at cheaper price. VoIP is used not only when using the internet protocol to send or receive calls, but it is also useful when you want to avail the service of traditional phone lines that guarantee better quality & allow bigger space for calls.

When the quality of audio and frequency in VoIP is high, it is very hard for customers to notice the difference between it and a normal telephone. Even the person who is receiving the calls from a VoIP will not be able to guess that the calls are made from a VoIP Network. Transferring PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) to VoIP/SIP Session Initiation Protocol) allows VoIP users to send and receive phone calls as done in ordinary phone lines.

Now, enough about VoIP from the scientific point of view. Let us now proceed to the benefits of using VoIP compared to using conventional phone lines. Basically, consumers care mostly about the rates so they would like to know how much can be saved when you purchase a VoIP service. This is one of the advantages of VoIP. It became popular because of its cheap call rates as compared to any conventional phones. It gives you the ability to make unlimited phone calls, long distance calls and low international calls charges with low monthly subscription rate. This is value added service for any consumer.

VoIP can be used in different ways. One possible way is through ATA or Analog Telephone Adapter. ATA is connected between a telephone jack that is already existent and an IP network in order to provide VoIP service. This type of service is generally offered by broadband internet providers such as cable companies and telephone companies.

Simply check the company that provides you with internet cable service or the company that provides your home phone service to see if they offer this service. If you want an easier way, just check the internet out for low rates companies. There are a lot of new companies that are just providing this service and they are concerned about giving the best service with lower rates.

Finally, a VoIP is a better & more economical way of making long distance as well as short distance calls by simply using an internet connection. You can use it for local, nationwide and international calls. You can even make calls to residential phones or cell phones.

By: Joanne Greco

VoIP and Local Telephone Companies

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:20:59 +0000

With VoIP technology entering the mainstream, it brings the possibilities or huge profits for the companies that provide the service. The current promise of cost savings is driving more and more residential and business users to investigate this technology. But the local telephone companies are not going to give up customers without a fight.

There is a current mandate by the US federal government that all VoIP providers offer E911 service. The initial blocking of this information was with the public switched telephone network maintained by the major telephone companies.

The next stumbling block is ‘naked DSL’ or DSL access without local phone service. This service is rare, but without it a residence would not be able to use VoIP as their primary phone service mechanism. You see, DSL is running over your existing phone line provided by your local telephone company. Drop your local phone service and you’ll probably drop your broadband DSL access as well. (Cable broadband access is a viable solution here and the increased cost in cable access should be offset by the reduction on your monthly phone bill)

These are just two fronts in the battle over VoIP. Should companies be compensated for the infrastructures they build? Should E911 service be ‘free’ and offered as a public service? What about the existing phone service run into our homes? Who pays for those lines to be laid and hooked into the public switched telephone network?

There really are no easy answers to the questions above. The phone companies are not about to give up customers without a fight. They have years and billions of dollars spent in building one of the most reliable communications networks ‘currently’ known to us.

Is VoIP the next step in the evolving communications industry? How will this play out with phone companies offering internet and TV services and cable providers offering phone and internet service? The line is being blurred and yet the technology pushes forward.

I don’t have the answers, only questions. I know how I’d like to see it all play out, but alas, there is no Nirvana and no, it would seem we all cannot get along. Not when there’s literally billions of dollars at stake. There will be winners and losers as this war rages on, but it is my hope that we, the end users, will, in the end, be better for it. After all, we’ve been down this path many times before and it’s turned out ok.

Remember the advent of the PC and where we’ve gone since then? Remember the first bulky cellular phones vs. what’s available today? Yes, TV’s, radios, computers, phones the list goes on. Technology advances will continue to push us into new directions. I’m sure that in the end, VoIP will be as commonplace as the home computer.

We can leverage this technology today in a cost effective manner. Like any technology how you implement VoIP will make the difference. Whether you’re a residential or business user, there can be an immediate benefit. Check with your communications broker to find out if your existing phone needs can be met cost effectively with VoIP.

By: Michael Weaver

How Does VoIP Service Work?

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:28:03 +0000

VOIP technology is a one way of sending a voice signal also known as an analog signal in a medium which is digital, i.e, the internet. In practice, the process works like this when you have a standard analog telephone attached to your high speed internet connection with VOIP service. There will be an analog telephone adapter or ATA between the phone and the computer.

In order to place what would normally be a long distance call to a person who doesn’t have VOIP service you key in the number you want. The analog telephone adapter converts the touch tones into a digital format. The digital phone number is sent by the analog telephone adapter to the VOIP routing system at the service provider’s location. The VOIP service provider is located on the internet as well.

The VOIP service provider’s routing system identifies the recipient’s location and sends the call to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PTSN) at that location. The phone rings at the other end and the conversation can begin. Each time you speak, the analog to digital converter in the analog telephone adapter changes the voice tones into packets of digital information that can be transmitted across the internet. When the VOIP service meshes with the Public Switched Telephone Network at the recipient’s end, the digital packets which are the voice tones from you get turned back into an analog signal so that you recipient of your call can understand what you are saying.

The reverse process, i.e. the transmission of what the other person says to you is a mirror image of the first process. Their voice is transformed from analog to digital when it gets to the PSTN/internet connection. The digital packets are sent to the analog telephone adapter at your location where they are converted back into an audible or analog signal to be able to perceive the voice as that of your caller.

The technology to do the conversion from analog to digital and back again has been around as long as digital electronics. For example, your PC sound card converts digital CD information to analog signal needed by the speakers on your computer. The difficult part of the VOIP technology is the necessity to smoothly transmit the digital data over the internet and reassemble it in a continuous stream. This is know as the protocol.

When listening to voice transmission, there can be no gaps in the stream of digital packets or the voices will not be understandable. This part of the technology has only recently been available, but is actually equal or better in quality than you get with standard telephone networks.

The equipment available today that uses VOIP technology can be an analog telephone adapter for your head set through the computer. There are a few VOIP phones that act like a regular analog telephone but have the ATA incorporated into the phone. It’s actually a small dedicated personal computer in your telephone. These VOIP phones can be plugged into the computer with high speed internet connection or into the router.

By: Simon Ahtung

VoIP PBX – Next Big Thing to PBX System

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:51:17 +0000

Few years back, many people thought that advanced VoIP technology is going to be the “next big thing” in the telecom domain. Yes, now VoIP has a major impact on providers in the market which has turned out to be more of a commodity than a paradigm-changer. The main reason for the popularity of voice over IP solution is mobility, flexibility and scalability. The inherent benefits such as cost effectiveness and organisational productivity cannot be ignored. As a matter of fact, these factors have motivated businesses to manage their work with utmost efficiency. For making the various things possible, one solution is VoIP PBX.

The VoIP PBX system is a hallmark for businesses to inculcate double profits in quick time. This system permits the users to save substantial amount on long distance as well as international calls. Most importantly, business that manage calls over the IP PBX VoIP solution provide comfortable integration with existing PSTN telecommunication system.

An VoIP PBX system is a Internet protocol private branch exchange. This exchange is a business telephone system which is designed to deliver voice over a data network and is interoperable with the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). With low upgradation cost, almost every business users can make the changes as it is done through a specific software. As a matter of fact, the VoIP gateways can be combined with traditional PBX functionality which enables the businesses to use their managed intranet to reduce long distance expenses as well as enjoy the benefits of a single network for voice and data. The advanced CTI features of this IP system give greater cost savings, greater mobility and increased redundancy.

To be more specific, an IP-PBX exists as a hardware object or virtually, as a software system. This is because a major part of IPBX functionality is provided in software. The best part is that this system is relatively inexpensive in nature. One can easily add other functionalities such as conferencing, XML-RPC control of live calls, Interactive voice response (IVR)and TTS/ASR (text to speech/automatic speech recognition). Moreover, these advanced system supports public switched telephone network (PSTN) interconnection ability which supports both analogue and digital circuits, Voice over IP protocols including SIP, Inter-Asterisk eXchange, H.323, Jabber and GoogleTalk.

Therefore, it can be said that this high-end technology simplifies communication infrastructure at ease. The VoIP PBX system permits the users to co-ordinate with their multiple offices all around the globe with the support of an unified platform. Interestingly, the single IP PBX VoIP server has the potential to serve more than 1,500 users at the same time. As such, it seems to be an attractive option which can support business enterprise to gain more without any concern.

In comparison with a conventional PBX system, the users require separate networks for sending and receiving the voice and data communication but, VoIP PBX employs the converged data and voice communication over a single IP network. This increases the value of systems to a significant extent.

Moreover, the IP PBX VoIP also provides flexibility to the growing or new enterprises, as it can reduce the long-term investments and maintenance costs. The biggest factor that contributes to the adoption of anything new by the enterprises is cost involved in it. In the case of the VoIP PBX solutions, the costs are within limits of the enterprises. Nowadays, the business users do not have to spend more from their pockets for this system, as cost is coming down. The users must opt for the provider that offers bundled services and features. These advanced solutions enable the business users to make the most of services such as voice extensions or updation.

To conclude, the hybrid solutions offer greater scalability advantage when compared to the traditional PBX systems.

By: Kristen Kiya

VegaStream’s Introduction to VoIP

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:25:31 +0000

Internet Telephony is used to describe a service that enables people connected to the public Internet with a suitably equipped PC to have voice conversation; examples of Internet Telephony providers include Skype. VoIP is the generic term for the technology that enables phone calls to be made over networks running the Internet Protocol, be that the public Internet or private IP networks. It is also the term that is used to describe the technology in a business to business context. One could say that the consumer will use Internet Telephony while businesses use VoIP.

Voice over IP (VoIP) converts the analog signals of sound when using a telephone to a digital format for transmission across a data network and then back into analog when it reaches the receiver. In a VoIP network, digitized voice data is highly compressed and carried in packets over an IP network. The phones can be purpose-built devices for the IP network (e.g. SIP phones) or standard everyday analog telephones. VegaStream core product range allows users of existing phones to take advantage of VoIP networks.

What’s all the hype about?

The reason for VoIP’s popularity is a simple matter of physics. You can put more traffic over the same physical network using IP than you can with traditional telephone technology, Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) as used by the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This simple law is driving many PSTN network providers to migrate their existing TDM networks; that have served them well since the invention of the telephone, to the new IP technology. BTs 21st Century Network is a classic example of this migration.

With VoIP, IP allows us to use a single high-speed Internet connection for all voice, video, and data communications. This is known as convergence and is one of the primary drivers for corporate interest in the technology. The benefits of convergence are obvious. By using a single data network for all communications, it is possible to reduce overall costs.
Furthermore, the business model for data networks, including the Internet allows the customer to remain permanently connected at a fixed price. Meanwhile, when using traditional PSTN, the meter starts running every time you pick up the phone.
The idea of VoIP communication dates back over 20 years however, a greater interest in the applications of VoIP emerged in the 1990’s, with the growth of the Internet. The Internet made it possible to interconnect every home and every business with a packet-switched data network, this saw a rapid growth in VoIP technology. Today, with broadband connectivity the norm not just in business but also at home and even over the mobile, the platform is set for an explosive growth in VoIP.

VoIP Changing the Way We Communicate

VoIP offers a great deal more than cost savings in telephone calls. VoIP technology allows devices to recognize and communicate with each other as if they were connected over a dedicated wire (like the TDM model). It therefore enables video, instant messaging and data conferencing as well as voice. Furthermore all these communications techniques can be used simultaneously allowing people to share images and information as well as hear each other speak – all on the same call.

VoIP communication therefore allows us to actually change the way we communicate with each other. Communicating over the phone with VoIP will be more immediate, collaborative, visual and cost lest. No wonder the market for VoIP equipment and services is the fastest growing sector in the IT industry.

By: Helen Upsher

What Exactly is VoIP?

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:03:53 +0000

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

Compare VoIP and PSTN

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:36:19 +0000

A seamless communication environment, where the limitations of time & distance would be eliminated is surely the ultimate objective behind newer inventions in the communication arena. VoIP technology holds great promise as it keeps evolving itself by providing newer applications.

But has VoIP truly arrived and is it completely ready to replace PSTN? That’s the big question. To know the answer we have to peep a little deeper into the technological aspects of them and try to know their real worth.

PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network): It’s the existing system based on circuit switching, the silent features

Advantages:

1) Well established technology

2) Easy maintenance

3) Hassle free set-up process

4) Simplicity in usage procedures

Disadvantages:

1) Dedicated line required to complete a call

2) Limited scalability

3) Optimum usage of bandwidth not possible

4) Monthly fees applicable for maintenance

5) Higher call charges

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol): The latest technology on the block, it employs the packet switching method of data transmission leading to an increase in the effective rate of transmission.

Advantages:

1) Concurrent transmission of data, voice & video possible

2) Scalability

3) As the data is sent over the network in compressed format, proper utilization of bandwidth is rendered possible

4) The World Wide Web, which is in the public domain, is used as the backbone of the network, that’s why hardware requirements are a bare minimum.

5) The enhanced efficiency which becomes evident due to the proper utilization of bandwidth leads to massive reduction in the costs incurred per call. Thereby making VoIP a very cheap, yet effective communication tool.

6) Value added services are offered free of cost.

Disadvantages:

1) The quality of sound at times become unpredictable

2) Echo

VoIP is a near perfect technology as the disadvantages associated with it, are to a great extent in the domain of the VoIP service provider, so by choosing a reliable service provider you can hope to eliminate the disadvantages.

Coming back to the big question about choosing in between VoIP & PSTN, as of now it would be advisable to use a hybrid system with VoIP being in the core of the system & PSTN in the periphery. This arrangement would ensure that you get most of both the technologies and would not be dependent on one.

Although the near future would see VoIP completely overtaking the existing system, so by switching over to VoIP now on one hand you will witness massive savings and on the other hand get to have a feel of the technology of the future!!

By: Alen Wilson