VoIP Protocols and Types of Architecture
Voice-over Internet Protocol, also known as VoIP, has been creating a buzz for more than five years now. Before, we communicate with distant people using telephone, our primary mode of communication. VoIP has taken over this basic means of communication, we now converse through the use of computers.
Computers initially aimed for just speedier calculations, its main purpose was to make life easier at work and at home. It never struck people as a communication tool up until recently. Internet turned the leaf of communication, one of its primary uses now is communication and data sharing.
There are four different tools for voice transfer, namely IP Phone, IP Converter, Line gateway and fully IP enabled PBX system. Conventional voice carrying system used to convey analog signals, IP enabled VOIP system now transfers digital signals. That is the main difference between the two.
The main protocols used in VOIP are SIP, H.323, MGCP, and H.248/Megaco. Basically, there are two types of architectures in VoIP: centralized and distributed. The said protocols and their used depend on the architecture used for VOIP system in the organization. Say, MGCP and H.248 protocols are used in centralized type of architecture while SIP and H.323 for distributed type of architecture.
These terms may sound very technical but it doesn’t change the fact that VoIP is the future of communication. VoIP offers an array of advantages. To name a few, the cost, data & voice integrated systems and open standards. No additional costs for any calls, unlike the conventional switch network. Additionally, it offers the convenience of your computer being single terminal for all your communication and data sharing needs.
Categories: VOIP Articles Tags: Draft, IP, protocols, Types, used, voip architecture, voip protocols
Business VoIP Phone Systems
VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol is widely used in businesses nowadays. Business people are availing of the many benefits of VoIP from long distance to international calls at extremely affordable and reasonable rates.
Categories: VOIP Videos Tags: Business Voip, Business VoIP Phone Systems, international, phone systems, rates, used, widely
VoIP Service Is Best Because?
At the present, the most used and perhaps most abused form of technology is the internet. The internet or the world wide web speaks a lot for itself. It takes each and every part of the planet into on circle where they can communicate and interact. In the past, the internet could only be accessed by the rich and powerful. However, due to insistent public demand, the luxury became a necessity. This is now available for everyone from all walks of life and from all ages.
Speaking of internet and technology, both are continuously going through developments. As they say, change is the only constant thing in the world. And the change they are experiencing are all for the better. One of the greatest features of the internet is the ability to serve as a vehicle for communication. A lot of ways are offered such as through instant messaging, social networking sites and a whole lot more. These things have readily replaced the traditional handwritten letters sent via courier that takes about two to three days to arrive. With internet, the email you sent will be received in just a few seconds. Yes, it is like faster than a speeding bullet with no exaggerations added.
With the ever growing world of technology, it still manages to add a touch of the past. Besides, what was then made the now possible. Which is why, software providers created a new communication system that makes use of the conventional telephone technology with the internet communication technology. Collectively, it is called VoIP.
VoIP offers call waiting, fax and answering machine, caller identification and conference calls the same as that of the traditional telephone. It can be used to place calls on mobile phones, long distance calls and to a similar traditional telephone. As expected, a VoIP phone can call another VoIP phone for free as long as they are both subscribed in the same VoIP service provider. One can also do video conference with the use of a webcam.
It does not matter where you use VoIP phones because it is best for home and as well as in businesses. It is uncomplicated and the same as the phone you are used to using, only this one is a whole lot better.
Categories: VOIP Articles Tags: internet, telephone, traditional, used, VOIP, voip advantages, VoIP benefits, Voip Service
Opening New Possibilities With VoIP
VoIP or also known as the Voice Over Internet Protocol is a tool of communication used to send data in the form of voice and is converted into packets as opposed to the typical POTS circuits. The setting is the same as the usual one. Making phone calls but not using the normal telephone but the internet instead. Which is why, the charges of the calls made are placed on the internet access use only as there is no such thing as surcharges on the telephone calls. So it is like sending electronic mails over the internet.
You can actually think of a lot of advantages brought about by VoIP. One of the best things is the fact that you can create phone calls at a reduced rate. This is what attracts consumers most of the time. With the poverty and economic recession that the world is facing right now, the lesser you pay for things then the better it is for you. A lot of VoIP service providers are out there ready to serve you. They offer a wide variety of packages to fit your every need. They also charge differently depending on the package you wished to avail. For example, a certain service may be free to some while others may have a corresponding amount for it. It is best to come up with a package that will be most beneficial to you. Similar to the usual phone calls, VoIP also possess voicemail, call waiting, call transfer, call forwarding and several more others.
Once used in businesses and commercial establishments, VoIP can also give you added features such as email and web access. Moreover, VoIP gives you the opportunity to make things more personal by being able to pick your own number and area code. This only goes to show that you can keep that existing number of yours and just simply convert it to a new VoIP number.
This is the fast raising latest innovation in the society nowadays. It is basically a type of both software and hardware that allows the internet to be utilized by the people as a vehicle for communication to travel on. And by communication that means the ability to conduct your conventional phone calls but in a more sophisticated way.
Categories: VOIP Articles Tags: Business Voip, internet, number, package, personal voip, used, VOIP
VoIP and Bandwidth Management
In the advent of Internet and dial up, VoIP was always deemed luxury. It was so hard to make voice calls back then, considering the latency and lag associated with slow speeds. VoIP was mainly used as a last resort back then; it was only used when other means of communication over the PSTN phone system are not working.
It’s a thing of the past now. Broadband speeds of today are more than enough for the measly traffic that VoIP always comes with. A sample for this would be this: some of the most high quality audio codecs used with VoIP in HD voice require around 128 kbs upload and download speeds. Majority of us today have over 2-3mbps connections. With speed connections reaching 10mbps, you’ll never have problems with bandwidth when using VoIP.
However, you can still have a bandwidth crunch when you use VoIP in a mobile. Today, 3G technologies give more than sufficient bandwidth to pave way for a seamless VoIP experience. It’s not the speed of the mobile Internet that serves as a limiting factor, but the latency and lag that come with wireless connectivity.
Wi-Fi connection serves to be a great alternative since it is covered by a standard Ethernet connection. It’s much more reliable within its area of operation. However, emerging 4G technologies are proving to be the perfect one for VoIP, which yields a new acronym – VoLTE – Voice over LTE.
Maybe the biggest threat to mobile VoIP is not the technology per se, but the data caps that are imposed by carriers. VoIP might not put a dent in your usage rates, it’s the wrong way of thinking that using it might cause overshooting in the data limits.
Categories: VOIP Articles Tags: bandwidth management, connections, data, PSTN, speeds, used, voip bandwidth, VoIP/PSTN
VPN for Business VoIP Phone Systems
Despite all the benefits and the extreme influence in unified communications, Voice-over Internet Protocol has a lot of issues. Security being one of them. This problem makes many companies stay away from a VoIP set up from their PSTN set up. However, since PSTN is expensive but not as fast as VoIP, several companies want to switch to a Business VoIP Phone System to yield better results, and they are known to be very fast. VoIP is deemed the future of communication, you know
Every issue today is some sort form of business in one way or another. That being said, there is a solution to every problem. It can be used in VoIP phone systems, as well. VoIP security problems can be solved through virtual private network. Virtual private network (VPN) refers to the safe and secure network set up that can be used by some people, like company employees. It is typically encrypted for security purposes.
There are many advantages in using VPN. It lets you modify your VoIP phone systems from just about everywhere. With the use of this dramatic feature, you can browse websites that can only be accessed by a single country. When you use VPN, you can actually bypass the regional restrictions like firewalls and any related web filtering.
Another benefit that comes with using VPN is it doesn’t allow other people to track your online whereabouts. For this reason, it is considered the security guard for your data transference on the web, be it audio, video or text data. This is actually possible, considering with VPN, they could not locate you. This is beneficial, and it lets you go over even publicly without worrying about hacking issues or any other security threats. Your IP address will always be hidden. Only your VPN IP address can be seen by the public. Nonetheless, to be precise you’re on the safe side, you must always ensure the security of your VPN along with that of the private server that you will be connecting with.
VPN will enhance the quality of your VoIP calls very efficiently, for that matter. With VPN, you can make more affordable VoIP calls than the leading VoIP service providers.
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Q&A: How many phones can be used on a VOIP Line?
Question by : How many phones can be used on a VOIP Line?
If someone has a business or office, how many VOIP lines on a single internet connection can they have? Considering that they don’t have their own PBX system?
Best answer:
Answer by VoIPtalk
Technically speaking, VoIP can accomodate as many lines (channels) and numbers (or DID’s) as you want.
You can have many different phone numbers (DID’s) that ring to one line.
And/Or, you can have one phone number that will ring to many lines. But, this scenario likely requires that you have an IP-PBX in the office.
With VoIP, simultaneous call are handled over separate “channels”. Some VoIP carriers will allow you as many channels as you want for as many simultaneous calls you need.
If you don’t have or want to install your own IP-PBX to handle many simultaneous calls, you can subscribe to a VoIP service that provides “Hosed Virtual PBX” service. In this case, the VoIP provider takes care of all the IP-PBX functions and forwards all the calls to your office “IP-Phones”.
You can have as many IP-Phones in your office as you like and limited only by the number of “Extension” or Lines that the Hosted Virtual PBX service provider can provide to your office via your Internet connection.
As far as how many simultaneous calls (or channels) your office can receive will depend primarily on your Internet bandwidth speed. Basically, high quality voice calls will be using G.711u or G.722 Codec for voice compression over Internet. On average, this means each channel of a call will consume between 90 – 110 Kbps bandwidth. So if your office needed to have a maximum of 5 lines or channels taking calls at the same time, then your Internet “upload” bandwidth will need to accomadate at least 5 x 110 Kbps = 550 Kbps. By the same token, 10 lines or channels will need at least 1.1 Mbps “Upload” speed.
I emphasize Upload speed because this is usually much less than the advertised Download speeds ISP’s advertise. For example, if your ISP is providing you with 10 Mbps download speed, they may only be giving your 1.0 Mbps Upload speed (maximum).
But don’t forget when you calculate your minimum Internet speed requirements, you have to include what your other computers in the office are using for web browsing, file transfers, email, etc, etc.
So, if all your VoIP phones need 1Mbps upload speed you should at least double or triple that number to account for all the other computers in the office using the Internet connections too.
This usually requires you to have Routers on your office network that implement QOS that give top priority to VoIP calls over all other local network traffic in your office.
What do you think? Answer below!