Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

1. Hubert Asuncion Rudy Ramirez Boyan Biandov Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

2. Table of Contents: What is VoIP? See VOIP work right NOW! How VoIP works? VoIP Circuit Switching vs. VoIP Packet Switching VOIP Soft Switches and Protocols VoIP ‘s Benefits and Drawbacks Consumer Adaptation

3. What is VoIP? Voice over Internet Protocol, is a method for taking analog audio signals, like the kind you hear when you talk on the phone, and turning them into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet.

5. How VoIP works? VoIP, means that your voice is carried over the IP network, otherwise known as the Internet. Your voice, which is an analogue signal, is converted to digital data, which is then disassembled and transmitted through the Internet only to be re-converted back to an analogue signal on the other end. 3 Types ATA - The ATA allows you to connect a standard phone to your computer or your Internet connection for use with VoIP. The ATA is an analog-to-digital converter. It takes the analog signal from your traditional phone and converts it into digital data for transmission over the Internet. IP Phones - IP phones connect directly to your router and have all the hardware and software necessary right onboard to handle the IP call. Computer-to-computer - All you need is the software, a microphone, speakers, a sound card and an Internet connection, preferably a fast one like you would get through a cable or DSL modem. Except for your normal monthly ISP fee, there is usually no charge for computer-to-computer calls, no matter the distance.

6. VoIP Circuit Switching vs. VoIP Packet Switching VOIP is growing quickly because it makes sense economically and allows people to avoid high cost phone charges. VOIP has the ability to be so much cheaper because it uses packet switching technology to transmit information instead of traditional circuit switching technology. In a telephone call using traditional circuit switching technology, a circuit is set up by a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). This circuit is basically rented by the two people having a conversation for the whole duration of the call. So the reason long distance telephone calls are more expensive is because you are renting a circuit that has a longer distance and nobody can use it. The fact that the circuit is exclusive makes it inefficient but more reliable. Packet switching uses IP addresses to send data back and forth. Voice is broken down into packets and “sent over a chaotic network along thousands of possible paths”. Every packet contains a destination IP address and finds its own way to the address using the least congested and cheapest lines. VOIP does not have a designated circuit like circuit switching technology so it usually has a lower sound quality. It is however much more efficient because it allows each packet to take the most efficient route.

7. VOIP Soft Switches and Protocols IP addresses are useless unless there is something in place to locate those addresses. That is where soft switches come in handy. A soft switch is a group of protocols and routines that connect a PSTN from a traditional circuit switching network to VOIP by connecting the PSTN to Internet Protocols. To put it simply PSTN is like the circuit switch version of the Internet. The Internet is an IP-based packet switching network while the PSTN is a E.163/E.164 (or more simply a telephone number based) network. Soft switches are like the bridge between the two. They are called soft switches because they use software to forward frames within a network as opposed to the traditional switch which uses hardware to do so. Because soft switches do not require as much hardware to operate they are much more efficient and cheap. VOIP can only work if the soft switches are able to communicate effectively with the other network devices. This is where the protocols come in handy. The book Business Data Networks and Telecommunications by Raymond R. Panko gives the following definition of a protocol; “A protocol is a standard that governs interactions between hardware and software processes at the same layer but on different hosts.” There are many protocols used in VOIP but the most commonly used are H.323 and SIP. H.323 was created by the ITU and is a protocol which is composed of a combination of other protocols. It was originally intended for real-time video conferencing and therefore contains the specifications necessary for VOIP. However, because it was originally intended for video conferencing it can be a little inefficient. A protocol created specifically for VOIP is SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). This protocol is smaller and therefore contains less clutter. It is more efficient than H.323 when used for VOIP and is also composed of other protocols. Because SIP is so important to VOIP it will be discussed in greater detail later in the paper.

8. VoIP ‘s Benefits and Drawbacks

9. Advantages - Access - Functionality - Flexibility - Lower Total Cost of Ownership

10. Disadvantages - Power Dependence - Emergency 911 calls - Internet Connection

11. Consumer Adoption In The U.S. And Worldwide

12. VOIP has been the favorite topic of many VC proposals by mass deployment giants such as Vonage Inc, JoiPhone and Lingo. However VOIP adoption was very slow in the early 2001. Right after Y2K VOIP vendors spurred into development of dissimilar systems and standards causing the market for VOIP to be highly segmented with little to no interoperability between gears manufactured by different vendors. This forced the early adopters of VOIP to commit to a specific vendor and start building networks which ultimately became islands due to the inability to interconnect various gear from multitude of vendors.

13. Today VOIP is a much more defined area of the market with few large players who although strive to interoperate are still unsure of all aspects of their equipment. For example a SIP adapter is likely to work on various IP PBX such as Asterisk, Cisco call manager, 3COM VPBX but others are flat out impossible to interface with a foreign vendor such as Cisco’s Unity voice mail system which was specifically designed to work with CCM and nothing else. Companies such as Multitech have completely departed the standards arena and manufacture proprietary VOIP gateways that only interface with one another. The claim is that cost and technical superiority of their design overcome the drawback of not conforming to publicly accepted standards. However even the hard players will eventually comply with the standards game and abandon highly proprietary niche markets in exchange of mass production and worldwide market opportunity.

14. On the business side of things 36% of large, 23% of medium, and 14% of small North American organizations are already using VoIP products and services in 2005. VoIP adoption will triple by 2010 among small organizations in North America. Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel, the top PBX manufacturers in North America, head the list of manufacturers of VoIP products currently in use (IP PBXs, gateways, and IP phones) On the consumer side, Skype: a small startup company was acquired by eBay in September 2005 for $2.6 billion while in April 2006; the number of registered users reaches 100 million.

15. The VOIP revolution is leading to another term coined by the major players: Unified Communications. What does that mean in terms of the world adoption of VOIP and latter, Unified Communications? Global value chains, mobile workforces, social networking, pervasive video, and information overload: this is the new normal. To address these business complexities, Unified Communications connects people, information, and teams, helping to enable comprehensive and effective collaborative experiences. With Unified Communications, your people can:

16. Connect co-workers, partners, vendors, and customers with the information and expertise they need. 2. Access and share video on the desktop, on the road, and on-demand, as easily as making a phone call 3. Facilitate better team interactions, dynamically bringing together individuals, virtual workgroups, and teams 4. Make mobile devices extensions of the corporate network so mobile workers can be productive anywhere 5. Innovate across the value chain by integrating collaboration and communications into applications and business processes

17. In summary, VOIP is here to stay and its benefits are clear which is evidenced by large rate of adoption and high investment poured into VOIP startups and research and development. The standards are in place which paves the road to interoperability and global expansion. The same way that TCP/IP allowed the Internet to grow to something global connecting every part of the planet, VOIP has the same opportunity to one day completely replace the traditional circuit switched worldwide telephone network