http://www.vozip.net

Acronym Defined:
Voice over Internet Protocal
 

Quick Concept:
How traditional long distance works:
You pick up your phone and dial a long distance phone number, the call goes through your local telephone company to your long distance provider who charges you a connection fee and per minute charge, billed monthly in your long distance phone bill.

How long distance works with VoIP:
You pick up your phone and dial a long distance phone number, the call goes through your local telephone company to a VoIP provider, this is a local call. The call then goes over the Internet to the receiver's local calling area were a local call is placed (by the VoIP provider) to complete the connection. You have just circumvented your long distance company and eliminated your long distance phone bill!

This "quick concept" is based on phone-to-phone VoIP services

Overview:
The possibility of voice communications traveling over the Internet, rather than the PSTN, first became a reality in February 1995 when Vocaltec, Inc. introduced its Internet Phone software. Designed to run on a 486/33-MHz (or higher) personal computer (PC) equipped with a sound card, speakers, microphone, and modem, the software compressed the voice signal and translated it into IP packets for transmission over the Internet. This PC-to-PC Internet telephony worked, however, only if both parties were using Internet Phone software.

In the relatively short period of time since then, Internet telephony has advanced rapidly. Many software developers now offer PC telephony software but, more importantly, gateway servers are emerging to act as an interface between the Internet and the PSTN. Equipped with voice-processing cards, these gateway servers enable users to communicate via standard telephones over great distances without going over the "Long Distance" telephone network.

A call goes over the local PSTN to the nearest gateway server, which digitizes the analog voice signal, compresses it into IP packets, and moves it onto the Internet for transport to a gateway server at the receiving end. This server converts the digital IP signal back to analog and completes the call locally. With its support for computer-to-telephone calls, telephone-to-computer calls and telephone-to-telephone calls, VoIP represents a significant step toward the integration of voice and data networks.

Originally regarded as a novelty, Internet telephony is attracting more and more users because it offers tremendous cost savings relative to the PSTN. Users can bypass long-distance carriers and their per-minute usage rates and run their voice traffic over the Internet for a flat monthly Internet-access fee. VoIP provides a competitive threat to the providers of traditional telephone services that, at the very least, will stimulate improvements in cost and function throughout the industry.

VoIP could be applied to almost any voice communications requirement, ranging from a simple inter-office intercom to complex multi-point teleconferencing/shared screen environments.

Widespread deployment of a new technology seldom occurs without a clear and sustainable justification, and this is also the case with VoIP. Demonstrable benefits to end-users are also needed if VoIP products (and services) are to be a long-term success. Generally, the benefits of technology can be divided into the following four categories:

• Cost Reduction. Reducing long distance telephone costs is always a popular topic and provides a good reason for introducing VoIP. Today flat rate long distance pricing is available with the Internet and can result in considerable savings for both voice and facsimile (at least currently). The sharing of equipment and operations costs across both data and voice users can also improve network efficiency since excess bandwidth on one network can be used by the other, thereby creating economies of scale for voice (especially given the rapid growth in data traffic).

   

• Simplification. An integrated infrastructure that supports all forms of communication allows more standardization and reduces the total equipment complement. This combined infrastructure can support dynamic bandwidth optimization and a fault tolerant design. The differences between the traffic patterns of voice and data offer further opportunities for significant efficiency improvements.

   

• Consolidation. Since people are the most significant cost elements in a network, any opportunity to combine operations, to eliminate points of failure, and to consolidate accounting systems would be beneficial. In the enterprise, SNMP-based management can be provided for both voice and data services using VoIP. Universal use of the IP protocols for all applications holds out the promise of both reduced complexity and more flexibility. Related facilities such as directory services and security services may be more easily shared.

   

• Advanced Applications. Even though basic telephony and facsimile are the initial applications for VoIP, the longer term benefits are expected to be derived from multimedia and multiservice applications. For example, Internet commerce solutions can combine WWW access to information with a voice call button that allows immediate access to a call center agent from the PC. Needless to say, voice is an integral part of conferencing systems that may also include shared screens, whiteboarding, etc. Combining voice and data features into new applications will provide the greatest returns over the longer term.