VoIP resource - VoIP Technology and how it works

VoIP Service & VoIP Provider Resource

VoIP or Voice over IP, is a recent technology that enables users to place telephone calls over the internet connection instead of a normal phone line. There are several versions of VoIP. Whereas some will only permit you to make calls to only people with the same service, others will allow you to call any number at all. You can make a VoIP call anywhere as far as you have internet connection. These days there has been the introduction of soft phones which loads the VoIP software onto your pc. A company call Vonage has a type that has an interface like a phone dial which you use to make the calls, once you have your headset in place.

VoIP Technology

So what makes VoIP possible? Packet switching is the answer. Data networks do not use circuit switching but rather transmit or receive data as needed or required by your connection. So instead of keeping a constant line open, packet switching opens a brief connection, just enough to send packets of data from one PC to another. Here is an illustration of how it works:

If you place a call, the sending computer partitions the data signals into tiny packets, assigns an address and then directs them to the destination computer. Within each packet is a file or groups of files. These pieces of files are called payload. It is the load being carried by the packet. The packet is sent to a router which then sends to the nearest router in a chain till it gets to the router closest to the destination computer. When the receiving computer gets the packets, it reassembles them according to the instructions carried by the signals and then reassembles them into voice or sound. It is important to mention the role of VoIP codec here. A codec (Coder/Decoder) converts analog signals to digital and vice versa. Codecs usually compress data to save network bandwidth.So you can see that packet switching is an efficient way to transmit data as it enables the data to travel along the cheapest and least congested channels. It also has the unique feature of freeing up the computer once data has been sent or received so that the same machine can do some other activity.

VoIP (Packet Switching) Compared To Traditional Voice Telephony (Circuit Switching)

VoIP has become more and more popular due to the fact that it is a lot cheaper compare to traditional phone. On a per-bit basis, packet switching is more economical than circuit-switching because packet switching can put multiple streams of data onto a single channel. For instance, with current algorithms whereby 16-20 Kbps can be reduced to as low as 6 Kbps per call, there is an asset utilization of 10:1 to the advantage of VoIP. A regular telephony switch will require a capital outlay of $20M but will provide 100,000 local access lines, translating to a unit cost of $200 per line. A VOIP system offering the same capacity would cost p to $2,000 per port.

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