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
Posts Tagged ‘Telephone Adapter’
How Does VoIP Service Work?
February 10th, 2010Learning the Basics of VoIP
January 10th, 2010
If you have been paying large long distance phone bills, it’s time to introduce you to the VOIP basics. Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP or VoIP) is the latest telecommunications internet technology. It will allow you to make long distance calls over your internet connection, bypassing most, or all of you your long distance provider’s charges.
However, several large telecommunications companies have caught on to the growing trend for consumers to bypass their charges, and have reacted by offering packaged services that include your regular, local phone line service and the VOIP service that will let you place calls over the internet.
When discussing VOIP basics, it’s important to realize that there are actually 3 types of VOIP technologies that are currently in use. The first is called ATA or Analog Telephone Adapter technology. The ATA technologydoes exactly what it sounds like; it takes the analog signal on your regular telephone line and translates it into a digital signal. T
hat digital signal is then sent via the internet. This is the type of service that the large telecommunications providers are offering. They will mail you the ATA and you can set it up easily on your own.
Another of the technologies that is necessary for understanding VOIP basics still has to do with the phone itself. Instead of using an adaptor to change a regular phone into a VOIP compatible one, you purchase a phone that is designed for making VOIP calls. But that phone won’t plug into a regular phone jack (RJ-11). It will have to be plugged into an Ethernet connection (an RJ-45 jack or a spot on your router).
The necessary hardware and software to make a VOIP call is included in the phone itself.
The third technology involved in learning VOIP Basics is the most exciting for the average consumer, as it doesn’t require a monthly service charge from a provider in order to make free business long distance calls. It is computer-to-computer VOIP service. In this case, you download free or purchase low-cost software that turns your computer into the phone.
In addition to the software, you’ll need speakers so you can hear the other party, a microphone so you can speak to them, a sound card in your computer, and a preferably high-speed internet connection so the signal can travel fast enough to avoid delays in what you or the other party hears.
The person you call doesn’t need to be talking to you over a computer; a regular phone will work just fine. You can use the service on your end to make calls to anyone, anywhere without a charge.
Now that we’ve looked at the VOIP or also know as voice over internet protocol, you might be interested in trying it for yourself. But what you don’t realize is that you most likely already are.
Telephone companies have been using the technology for several years in order to route the mass number of calls they receive more efficiently over their networks.
But to try VOIP at home, download software at sites such as skype site. If you already have the needed items mentioned above (speakers, microphone, sound card and high-speed internet connection), you can be making calls in as little as 5 minutes.
By: Van Theodorou
What Exactly is VoIP?
January 3rd, 2010
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
