VoIP Guide
VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a communications system that involves the Internet instead the old Ma Bell network. VoIP uses Internet addresses to make connections between phones. Special equipment is required because ordinary phones are analog based, while IP phones are digital.
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Interoperability Protocols
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Interoperability
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Connecting digital phones to analog devices involves interoperability. Having interoperability between different devices means that agreed-upon procedures for setting up and controlling the phone calls must be in place. Among the protocols that used is H.323, which defines various options for voice (and video) compression and call control.
Another protocol, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), is a signaling setup and control protocol used for voice and video sessions. It is used to communicate with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which is the standard phone system.
Service Providers
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There are numerous VoIP service providers.
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Pure VoIP service providers include Vonage, 8x8, Voiceglo, Cablevision and BT Broadband Voice. There are network-based carriers like Level 3, Qwest and Global Crossing, but they also function as wholesale service providers that rent private networks to carry voice traffic from other phone companies.
How to Make a VoIP Call
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There are three ways to make a VoIP phone call: computer to computer, VoIP Phone to VoIP phone, or VoIP phone to a standard phone.
To use computers, all you need is the VoIP software. The software takes care of the conversion details.
VoIP phones have the necessary software built in, so a call between VoIP phones is placed and received within a system that needs no additional conversion.
You'll need a gateway for a call between a VoIP phone and standard analog phone. The gateway is located by the VoIP service provider. The analog signal is then converted to digital and vice versa. The gateway also receives analog calls and forwards them to VoIP users.
Enterprise VoIP Products
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VoIP
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There are several elements associated with Enterprise VoIP products. There is IP PBX (Internet Protocol Public Branch Exchange), IP Phones and IP Gateways.
IP PBX routes the telephone calls over the Internet or over the existing PSTN telephony network.
IP phone performs conversions from an analog voice signal to a digital packet and back again.
A VoIP gateway is a device that operates in two distinct realms. One is the circuit switched PSTN network and the other is the IP packet network. The gateway allows fax and voice calls from one realm to be directed to the other.
VoIP Value Added Services
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VoIP Network
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VoIP services include current PSTN features such as conferencing (multiple users involved in the same conversation), caller ID and call forwarding. However, there are new applications unique to VoIP, including multimedia conferencing (voice and video--two different presentation formats used simultaneously). Other unique VoIP applications include presence management (controlling the participants' involvement by allowing or denying access) and collaboration services (different people working together on the same project).
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Related Searches
References
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