VOIP
What is VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol)?
VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) is the transmission of voice and multimedia content over an internet connection. VoIP allows users to make voice calls from a computer, smartphone, other mobile devices, special VoIP phones and WebRTC-enabled browsers. VoIP is a technology useful for both consumers and businesses as it typically includes other features that can’t be found on common phone services. These features can include call recording, custom caller ID, and voicemail to email. It is also helpful to organizations as a way to unify communications.
Some common features might include the following:
- audio calls;
- video calls;
- voicemail;
- instant messaging;
- team chats;
- email;
- text messaging;
- mobile and desktop apps; and
- mobile and local number portability (enables a subscriber to choose a new telephone carrier without needing a new number).
How does VoIP work?
VoIP services convert a user’s voice from audio signals to digital data, in which that data is then sent to another user — or group of users — over Ethernet or Wi-Fi. To accomplish this, VoIP will use codecs.
Codecs are either a hardware- or software-based process that compresses and decompresses large amounts of VoIP data. Voice quality may suffer when compression is used, but compression reduces bandwidth requirements. Equipment vendors will also use their own proprietary codecs.
The process of sending data to other users includes encapsulating audio into data packets, transmitting the packets across an IP network, and unencapsulating the packets back into audio at the other end of the connection.
Within enterprise or private networks, quality of service is typically used to prioritize voice traffic over non-latency-sensitive applications to ensure acceptable voice quality.
Additional components of a typical VoIP system include an IP private branch exchange (PBX) to manage user telephone numbers, devices, features and clients; gateways to connect networks and provide failover or local survivability in the event of a network outage; and session border controllers to provide security, call policy management and network connections.
A VoIP system can also include location-tracking databases for E911 (enhanced 911) call routing and management platforms. This can collect call performance statistics for reactive and proactive voice quality management.
By eliminating circuit-switched networks for voice, VoIP reduces network infrastructure costs and enables providers to deliver voice services over Broadband and private networks. This should also enable enterprises to operate a single voice and data network.
VoIP also piggybacks on the resiliency of IP-based networks by enabling fast failover following outages and redundant communications between endpoints and networks