What is Voice over Internet Protocol?
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allows for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks like the Internet. VoIP refers to communication services that are able to be transported through the Internet, instead of through the public switched telephones network, through which regular phone calls are transmitted. VoIP allows for users to send voice, fax, SMS via internet and has been flourishing since 2004. Essentially VoIP has allowed for people to make calls using broadband Internet connections and has made it easier and cheaper for people to talk around the world.
How does it work?
VoIP works through the transformation of telephone signals to digital signals and vice versa. VoIP allows people to make calls from a personal computer, telephone or any internet location. The steps involved this conversion include, “signaling and media channel setup, digitization of the analog voice signal, encoding, packetization, and transmission as IP packets over a packet-switched network.” The same steps take place on the other side but in reverse order – “the reception of the IP packets, decoding of the packets and digital-to-analog conversion reproduce the original voice stream.” There exist three types of VoIPs: IP phones, software VoIP, and Mobile and Integrated VoP.
VoIP Today
Of the VoIP’s the exist, Skype is the most identifiable and common. It is used by most teenagers and college students to communicate freely as well as by companies. It had become a popular form of making long distance calls as well as keeping in touch.. Software VoIP can be further broken down into three subcategories: web calling, voice and video instant messaging and web conferencing. The great thing about VoIP is that it is available wherever internet is available. With smartphones becoming common commodity, smartphones and internet devices can be used for VoIP and calls can often be made free of charge. Portable devices that aren’t smartphones are also able to text and make calls over WIFI and 3G.
With phone apps becoming more popular, many apps have been developed around the idea of VoIP, allowing users to receive and make free calls, texts and picture messages. The app that I have on my phone is called TextFree and I have been using it since I first got my phone. Because it allows for free text messaging, I don’t have to worry about paying $20 a month for unlimited texting or even making calls because the app provides both.
Quality of service
While for the most part VoIP is cheaper than paying for a phone plan, communication on the IP network is inherently less reliable in contrast to the circuit-switched public telephone network, because it does not provide a network-based mechanism to ensure that data packets are not lost, or delivered in sequential order. Some of the drawbacks are that there exist no Quality of Service guarantees and sometimes face problems like jitter and latency.
Adoption of VoIP for the Consumer Market
2004 marked the beginning of VoIP for mass consumers. Broadband internet access began to be used for calls and transfer of communication information. VoIP phone companies began providing inbound and outbound services using Direct Inbound Dialing and offered unlimited calling at a flat service fee.
Adoption of VoIP for Corporate Use
VoIP provides bandwidth efficiency and therefore companies and business, seeking to lower costs, have begun to implement VoIP systems. Solutions aimed at businesses have taken on two forms, one for small to medium businesses and one for medium to large enterprises. These solutions have brought together all forms of communication (texts, faxes, phone calls, etc) to be transmitted through any form of internet connection. One of the benefits of VoIP to companies and businesses is that voice and data communication can be transmitted over one network. Thus, less infrastructure is needed for communication.
Benefits
As aforementioned, some of the benefits of VoIP include a reduction in infrastructure and therefore lower infrastructure costs, lower operational cost. In addition, VoIPs are intuitive and easy to use for all users and allow users to multitask while using VoIP, whether on a call over the computer or on a WIFI/3G phone. In addition, VoIP allows for phone calls to be routed over data networks already in place, instead of creating a need for new ones. Special features that normally have a small fee are also free under VoIP.
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