VOIP:

Voice over Internet Protocol, also called VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet telephony,
Broadband telephony, Broadband Phone and Voice over Broadband is the routing of
voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network.

Companies providing VoIP service are commonly referred to as providers, and protocols
which are used to carry voice signals over the IP network are commonly referred to as
Voice over IP or VoIP protocols. They may be viewed as commercial realizations of the
experimental Network Voice Protocol (1973) invented for the ARPANET providers.
Some cost savings are due to utilizing a single network - see attached image - to carry
voice and data, especially where users have existing underutilized network capacity that
can carry VoIP at no additional cost. VoIP to VoIP phone calls are sometimes free, while
VoIP to public switched telephone networks, PSTN, may have a cost that's borne by the
VoIP user.

There are two types of PSTN to VoIP services: -Direct Inward Dialing (DID) and access
numbers. DID will connect the caller directly to the VoIP user while access numbers
require the caller to input the extension number of the VoIP user.

Functionality:

VoIP can facilitate tasks that may be more difficult to achieve using traditional networks:

• Ability to transmit more than one telephone call down the same broadband-
connected telephone line. This can make VoIP a simple way to add an extra
telephone line to a home or office.
• Many VoIP packages include PSTN features that most Telco’s
(telecommunication companies) normally charge extra for, or may be unavailable
from your local Telco, such as 3-way calling, call forwarding, automatic redial,
and caller ID.
• VoIP can be secured with existing off-the-shelf protocols such as Secure Real-
time Transport Protocol. Most of the difficulties of creating a secure phone over
traditional phone lines, like digitizing and digital transmission are already in place
with VoIP. It is only necessary to encrypt and authenticate the existing data
stream.
• VoIP is location independent, only an internet connection is needed to get a
connection to a VoIP provider; for instance call center agents using VoIP phones
can work from anywhere with a sufficiently fast and stable Internet connection.
• VoIP phones can integrate with other services available over the Internet,
including video conversation, message or data file exchange in parallel with the
conversation, audio conferencing, managing address books and passing
information about whether others (e.g. friends or colleagues) are available online
to interested parties.
Implementation:

Because UDP does not provide a mechanism to ensure that data packets are delivered in
sequential order, or provide Quality of Service guarantees, VoIP implementations face
problems dealing with latency and jitter. This is especially true when satellite circuits are
involved, due to long round trip propagation delay (400 milliseconds to 600 milliseconds
for geostationary satellite). The receiving node must restructure IP packets that may be
out of order, delayed or missing, while ensuring that the audio stream maintains a proper
time consistency. This functionality is usually accomplished by means of a jitter buffer.

Another challenge is routing VoIP traffic through firewalls and address translators.
Private Session Border Controllers are used along with firewalls to enable VoIP calls to
and from a protected enterprise network. Skype uses a proprietary protocol to route calls
through other Skype peers on the network, allowing it to traverse symmetric NATs and
firewalls. Other methods to traverse firewalls involve using protocols such as STUN or
ICE.

VoIP challenges:

• Available bandwidth
• Delay/Network Latency
• Packet loss
• Jitter
• Echo
• Security
• Reliability
• Pulse dialing to DTMF translation

Many VOIP providers do not translate pulse dialing from older phones to DTMF. The
VoIP user may use a VOIP Pulse to Tone Converter, if needed.

Fixed delays cannot be controlled but some delays can be minimized by marking voice
packets as being delay-sensitive (see, for example, Diffserv).

The principal cause of packet loss is congestion, which can be controlled by congestion
management and avoidance. Carrier VoIP networks avoid congestion by means of
teletraffic engineering.

Variation in delay is called jitter. The effects of jitter can be mitigated by storing voice
packets in a buffer (called a play-out buffer) upon arrival, before playing them out. This
avoids a condition known as buffer under run, in which the playout process runs out of
voice data to play because the next voice packet has not yet arrived, but increases delay
by the length of the buffer.
Common causes of echo include impedance mismatches in analog circuitry, and acoustic
coupling of the transmit and receive signal at the receiving end.

Reliability

Conventional phones are connected directly to telephone company phone lines, which in
the event of a power failure are kept functioning by back-up generators or batteries
located at the telephone exchange. However, household VoIP hardware uses broadband
modems and other equipment powered by household electricity, which may be subject to
outages in the absence of a uninterruptible power supply or generator. Early adopters of
VoIP may also be users of other phone equipment, such as PBX and cordless phone bases
that rely on power not provided by the telephone company. Even with local power still
available, the broadband carrier itself may experience outages as well. While the PSTN
has been matured over decades and is typically extremely reliable, most broadband
networks are less than 10 years old, and even the best are still subject to intermittent
outages. Furthermore, consumer network technologies such as cable and DSL often are
not subject to the same restoration service levels as the PSTN or business technologies
such as T-1 connection.

Quality of Service

Some broadband connections may have less than desirable quality. Where IP packets are
lost or delayed at any point in the network between VoIP users, there will be a momentary
drop-out of voice. This is more noticeable in highly congested networks and/or where
there are long distances and/or interworking between end points. Technology has
improved the reliability and voice quality over time and will continue to improve VoIP
performance as time goes on.

It has been suggested to rely on the packetized nature of media in VOIP communications
and transmit the stream of packets from the source phone to the destination phone
simultaneously across different routes (multi-path routing). In such a way, the temporary
failures have less impact on the communication quality. In capillary routing it has been
suggested to use at the packet level Fountain codes or particularly raptor codes for
transmitting extra redundant packets making the communication more reliable.

A number of protocols have been defined to support the reporting of QoS/QoE for VoIP
calls. These include RTCP XR (RFC3611), SIP RTCP Summary Reports, H.460.9 Annex
B (for H.323), H.248.30 and MGCP extensions. The RFC3611 VoIP Metrics block is
generated by an IP phone or gateway during a live call and contains information on
packet loss rate, packet discard rate (due to jitter), packet loss/discard burst metrics (burst
length/density, gap length/density), network delay, end system delay, signal / noise / echo
level, MOS scores and R factors and configuration information related to the jitter buffer.

RFC3611 VoIP metrics reports are exchanged between IP endpoints on an occasional

basis during a call, and an end of call message sent via SIP RTCP Summary Report or
one of the other signaling protocol extensions. RFC3611 VoIP metrics reports are
intended to support real time feedback related to QoS problems, the exchange of
information between the endpoints for improved call quality calculation and a variety of
other applications.

Difficulty with sending faxes

The support of sending faxes over VoIP is still limited. The existing voice codec’s are not
designed for fax transmission. An effort is underway to remedy this by defining an
alternate IP-based solution for delivering Fax-over-IP, namely the T.38 protocol. Another
possible solution to overcome the drawback is to treat the fax system as a message
switching system which does not need real time data transmission - such as sending a fax
as an email attachment (see Fax) or remote printout (see Internet Printing Protocol). The
end system can completely buffer the incoming fax data before displaying or printing the
fax image.

Emergency calls

The nature of IP makes it difficult to locate network users geographically. Emergency

calls, therefore, cannot easily be routed to a nearby call center, and are impossible on
some VoIP systems. Sometimes, VoIP systems may route emergency calls to a non-
emergency phone line at the intended department. In the US, at least one major police
department has strongly objected to this practice as potentially endangering the public.[1]

Moreover, in the event that the caller is unable to give an address, emergency services
may be unable to locate them in any other way. Following the lead of mobile phone
operators, several VoIP carriers are already implementing a technical work-around. [citation
needed]
For instance, one large VoIP carrier requires the registration of the physical address
where the VoIP line will be used. When you dial the emergency number for your country,
they will route it to the appropriate local system. They also maintain their own emergency
call center that will take non-routable emergency calls (made, for example, from a
software based service that is not tied to any particular physical location) and then will
manually route your call once learning your physical location. [citation needed]

Integration into global telephone number system

While the traditional Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) and mobile phone networks
share a common global standard (E.164) which allocates and identifies any specific
telephone line, there is no widely adopted similar standard for VoIP networks. Some
allocate an E.164 number which can be used for VoIP as well as incoming/external calls.
However, there are often different, incompatible schemes when calling between VoIP
providers which use provider specific short codes.

Single point of calling

With hardware VoIP solutions it is possible to connect the VoIP router into the existing
central phone box in the house and have VoIP at every phone already connected. Software
based VoIP services require the use of a computer, so they are limited to single point of
calling, though telephone sets are now available, allowing them to be used without a PC.
Some services provide the ability to connect WiFi SIP phones so that service can be
extended throughout the premises, and off-site to any location with an open
hotspot.[2]However, note that many hotspots require browser-based authentication, which
most SIP phones do not support.[3]

Mobile phones & Handheld Devices

Telcos and consumers have invested billions of dollars in mobile phone equipment. In
developed countries, mobile phones have achieved nearly complete market penetration,
and many people are giving up landlines and using mobiles exclusively. Given this
situation, it is not entirely clear whether there would be a significant higher demand for
VoIP among consumers until either public or community wireless networks have similar
geographical coverage to cellular networks (thereby enabling mobile VoIP phones, so
called WiFi phones or VoWLAN) or VoIP is implemented over legacy 3G networks.
However, "dual mode" telephone sets, which allow for the seamless handover between a
cellular network and a WiFi network, are expected to help VoIP become more popular.[4]

Phones like the NEC N900iL, and later the Nokia E60, E61 have been the first "dual
mode" telephone sets capable of delivering mobile VoIP. With more and more mobile
phones and handheld devices using VOIP, the nicknames of "MoIP" and MVoip (Mobile
VoIP) have been attributed to these mobile applications.

Handheld Devices are another type of medium whereby you can use VoIP services. Since
most of these devices are limited to using GSM/GPRS type of communication mediums,
almost all of the handheld devices use WiFi of some sort.

Another addition to handheld devices are ruggedized barcode type devices that are used
in warehouses and retail environments. These types of devices rely on "inside the 4
walls" type of VoIP services that do not connect to the outside world and are solely to be
used from employee to employee communications.

Security

The many consumer VoIP solutions do not support encryption yet, although having a
secure phone is much easier to implement with VoIP than traditional phone lines. As a
result, it is relatively easy to eavesdrop on VoIP calls and even change their content.[5]
There are several open source solutions that facilitate sniffing of VoIP conversations. A
modicum of security is afforded due to patented audio codecs that are not easily available
for open source applications, however such security through obscurity has not proven
effective in the long run in other fields. Some vendors also use compression to make
eavesdropping more difficult. However, real security requires encryption and
cryptographic authentication which are not widely available at a consumer level.[6] The
existing secure standard SRTP and the new ZRTP protocol is available on Analog
Telephone Adapters(ATAs) as well as various softphones. It is possible to use IPsec to
secure P2P VoIP by using opportunistic encryption. Skype does not use SRTP, but uses
encryption which is transparent to the Skype provider.

The Voice VPN solution provides secure voice for enterprise VoIP networks by applying
IPSec encryption to the digitized voice stream.

Pre-Paid Phone Cards

VoIP has become an important technology for phone services to travelers, migrant
workers and expatriate, who either, due to not having a fixed or mobile phone or high
overseas roaming charges, chooses instead to use VoIP services to make their phone calls.
Pre-paid phone cards can be used either from a normal phone or from Internet cafes that
have phone services. Developing countries and areas with high tourist or immigrant
communities generally have a higher uptake.

Caller ID

Caller ID support among VoIP providers varies, although the majority of VoIP providers
now offer full Caller ID with name on outgoing calls. When calling a traditional PSTN
number from some VoIP providers, Caller ID is not supported.

In a few cases, VoIP providers may allow a caller to spoof the Caller ID information,
making it appear as though they are calling from a different number. Business grade VoIP
equipment and software often makes it easy to modify caller ID information. Although
this can provide many businesses great flexibility, it is also open to abuse.

VoIM

Voice over Instant Messenger, like popular Skype, Voice over MSN, Yahoo, QQ in China
and Google Talk. VoIM is one kind of general VoIP that was based on an IM. VoIP,
specifically, usually is referred as traditional SIP or H.323 IP phone, as opposed to VoIM
as newly emerged Skype-like services/phones.

Adoption

Mass-market telephony

A major development starting in 2004 has been the introduction of mass-market VoIP
services over broadband Internet access services, in which subscribers make and receive
calls as they would over the PSTN. Full phone service VoIP phone companies provide
inbound and outbound calling with Direct Inbound Dialing. Many offer unlimited calling
to the U.S., and some to Canada or selected countries in Europe or Asia as well, for a flat
monthly fee.

These services take a wide variety of forms which can be more or less similar to
traditional POTS. At one extreme, an analog telephone adapter (ATA) may be connected
to the broadband Internet connection and an existing telephone jack in order to provide
service nearly indistinguishable from POTS on all the other jacks in the residence. This
type of service, which is fixed to one location, is generally offered by broadband Internet
providers such as cable companies and telephone companies as a cheaper flat-rate
traditional phone service. Often the phrase "VoIP" is not used in selling these services,
but instead the industry has marketed the phrases "Internet Phone", "Digital Phone" or
"Softphone" which is aimed at typical phone users who are not necessarily tech-savvy.
Typically, the provider touts the advantage of being able to keep one's existing phone
number.

At the other extreme are services like Gizmo Project and Skype which rely on a software
client on the computer in order to place a call over the network, where one user ID can be
used on many different computers or in different locations on a laptop. In the middle lie
services which also provide a telephone adapter for connecting to the broadband
connection similar to the services offered by broadband providers (and in some cases also
allow direct connections of SIP phones) but which are aimed at a more tech-savvy user
and allow portability from location to location. One advantage of these two types of
services is the ability to make and receive calls as one would at home, anywhere in the
world, at no extra cost. No additional charges are incurred, as call diversion via the PSTN
would, and the called party does not have to pay for the call. For example, if a subscriber
with a home phone number in the U.S. or Canada calls someone else within his local
calling area, it will be treated as a local call regardless of where that person is in the
world. Often the user may elect to use someone else's area code as his own to minimize
phone costs to a frequently called long-distance number.

For some users, the broadband phone complements, rather than replaces, a PSTN line,
due to a number of inconveniences compared to traditional services. VoIP requires a
broadband Internet connection and, if a telephone adapter is used, a power adapter is
usually needed. In the case of a power failure, VoIP services will generally not function.
Additionally, a call to the U.S. emergency services number 9-1-1 may not automatically
be routed to the nearest local emergency dispatch center, and would be of no use for
subscribers outside the U.S. This is potentially true for users who select a number with an
area code outside their area. Some VoIP providers offer users the ability to register their
address so that 9-1-1 services work as expected.

Another challenge for these services is the proper handling of outgoing calls from fax
machines, TiVo/ReplayTV boxes, satellite television receivers, alarm systems,
conventional modems or FAXmodems, and other similar devices that depend on access to
a voice-grade telephone line for some or all of their functionality. At present, these types
of calls sometimes go through without any problems, but in other cases they will not go
through at all. And in some cases, this equipment can be made to work over a VoIP
connection if the sending speed can be changed to a lower bits per second rate. If VoIP
and cellular substitution becomes very popular, some ancillary equipment makers may be
forced to redesign equipment, because it would no longer be possible to assume a
conventional voice-grade telephone line would be available in almost all homes in North
America and Western-Europe. The TestYourVoIP website offers a free service to test the
quality of or diagnose an Internet connection by placing simulated VoIP calls from any
Java-enabled Web browser, or from any phone or VoIP device capable of calling the
PSTN network.

Corporate and telco use

Although few office environments and even fewer homes use a pure VoIP infrastructure,
telecommunications providers routinely use IP telephony, often over a dedicated IP
network, to connect switching stations, converting voice signals to IP packets and back.
The result is a data-abstracted digital network which the provider can easily upgrade and
use for multiple purposes.

Corporate customer telephone support often use IP telephony exclusively to take

advantage of the data abstraction. The benefit of using this technology is the need for
only one class of circuit connection and better bandwidth use. Companies can acquire
their own gateways to eliminate third-party costs, which is worthwhile in some situations.

VoIP is widely employed by carriers, especially for international telephone calls. It is

commonly used to route traffic starting and ending at conventional PSTN telephones.

Many telecommunications companies are looking at the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)

which will merge Internet technologies with the mobile world, using a pure VoIP
infrastructure. It will enable them to upgrade their existing systems while embracing
Internet technologies such as the Web, email, instant messaging, presence, and video
conferencing. It will also allow existing VoIP systems to interface with the conventional
PSTN and mobile phones.

Electronic Numbering (ENUM) uses standard phone numbers (E.164), but allows
connections entirely over the Internet. If the other party uses ENUM, the only expense is
the Internet connection. Virtual PBX (or IP PBX) allow companies to control their
internal phone network over an existing LAN and server without needing to wire a
separate telephone network. Users within this environment can then use standard
telephones coupled with an FXS, IP Phones connected to a data port or a Softphone on
their PC. Internal VoIP phone networks allow outbound and inbound calling on standard
PSTN lines through the use of FXO adapters.

Use in Amateur Radio

Sometimes called Radio Over Internet Protocol or RoIP, Amateur radio has adopted VoIP
by linking repeaters and users with Echolink, IRLP, D-STAR, Dingotel and EQSO.
Echolink and IRLP are programs/systems based upon the Speak Freely VoIP open source
software. In fact, Echolink allows users to connect to repeaters via their computer (over
the Internet) rather than by using a radio. By using VoIP Amateur Radio operators are
able to create large repeater networks with repeaters all over the world where operators
can access the system with actual ham radios.
Ham Radio operators using radios are able to tune to repeaters with VoIP capabilities and
use DTMF signals to command the repeater to connect to various other repeaters, thus
allowing them to talk to people all around the world, even with "line of sight" VHF
radios.

Click to call

Main article: Click-to-call

Click-to-call is a service which lets users click a button and immediately speak with a
customer service representative. The call can either be carried over VoIP, or the customer
may request an immediate call back by entering their phone number. One significant
benefit to click-to-call providers is that it allows companies to monitor when online
visitors change from the website to a phone sales channel.

Legal issues in different countries

As the popularity of VoIP grows, and PSTN users switch to VoIP in increasing numbers,
governments are becoming more interested in regulating[7] VoIP in a manner similar to
legacy PSTN services, especially with the encouragement of the state-mandated
telephone monopolies/oligopolies in a given country, who see this as a way to stifle the
new competition.

In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission now requires all VoIP operators
who do not support Enhanced 911 to attach a sticker warning that traditional 911 services
aren't available. The FCC recently required VoIP operators to support CALEA wiretap
functionality. The Telecommunications Act of 2005 proposes adding more traditional
PSTN regulations, such as local number portability and universal service fees. Other
future legal issues are likely to include laws against wiretapping and network neutrality.

Some Latin American and Caribbean countries, fearful for their state owned telephone
services, have imposed restrictions on the use of VoIP, including in Panama where VoIP is
taxed. In Ethiopia, where the government is monopolizing telecommunication service, it
is a criminal offense to offer services using VoIP. The country has installed firewalls to
prevent international calls being made using VoIP. These measures were taken after
popularity in VoIP reduced the income generated by the state owned telecommunication
company.

In the European Union, the treatment of VoIP service providers is a decision for each
Member State's national telecoms regulator, which must use competition law to define
relevant national markets and then determine whether any service provider on those
national markets has "significant market power" (and so should be subject to certain
obligations). A general distinction is usually made between VoIP services that function
over managed networks (via broadband connections) and VoIP services that function over
unmanaged networks (essentially, the Internet).
VoIP services that function over managed networks are often considered to be a viable
substitute for PSTN telephone services (despite the problems of power outages and lack
of geographical information); as a result, major operators that provide these services (in
practice, incumbent operators) may find themselves bound by obligations of price control
or accounting separation.

VoIP services that function over unmanaged networks are often considered to be too poor
in quality to be a viable substitute for PSTN services; as a result, they may be provided
without any specific obligations, even if a service provider has "significant market
power".

The relevant EU Directive is not clearly drafted concerning obligations which can exist
independently of market power (e.g., the obligation to offer access to emergency calls),
and it is impossible to say definitively whether VoIP service providers of either type are
bound by them. A review of the EU Directive is under way and should be complete by
2007.

In India, it is legal to use VoIP, but it is illegal to have VoIP gateways inside India. This
effectively means that people who have PCs can use them to make a VoIP call to any
number, but if the remote side is a normal phone, the gateway that converts the VoIP call
to a POTS call should not be inside India.

In the UAE, it is illegal to use any form of VoIP, to the extent that websites of Skype and
Gizmo Project don't work.

In the Republic of Korea, only providers registered with the government are authorized to
offer VoIP services. Unlike many VoIP providers, most of whom offer flat rates, Korean
VoIP services are generally metered and charged at rates similar to terrestrial calling.
Foreign VoIP providers such as Vonage encounter high barriers to government
registration. This issue came to a head in 2006 when internet service providers providing
personal internet services by contract to United States Forces Korea members residing on
USFK bases threatened to block off access to VoIP services used by USFK members of as
an economical way to keep in contact with their families in the United States, on the
grounds that the service members' VoIP providers were not registered. A compromise was
reached between USFK and Korean telecommunications officials in January 2007,
wherein USFK service members arriving in Korea before June 1, 2007 and subscribing to
the ISP services provided on base may continue to use their U.S.-based VoIP subscription,
but later arrivals must use a Korean-based VoIP provider, which by contract will offer
pricing similar to the flat rates offered by U.S. VoIP providers. [1]

IP telephony in Japan

In Japan, IP telephony (IP 電話 IP Denwa ?) is regarded as a service applied VoIP

technology to whole or a part of the telephone line. As from 2003, IP telephony service
assigned telephone numbers has been provided. There are not voice only services, but
also videophone service. According to the Telecommunication Business Law, the service
category for IP telephony also implies the service provided via Internet, which is not
assigned any telephone number. IP telephony is basically regulated by Ministry of
Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), as a telecommunication service. The
operators have to disclose necessary information on its quality, etc, prior to making
contract with customers, and have obligation to respond to their complaints cordially.

Many Internet service providers (ISP) are providing IP telephony services. The provider,
which provides IP telephony service, is so-called "ITSP (Internet Telephony Service
Provider)". Recently, the competition among ITSPs has been activated, by option or set
sales, connected with ADSL or FTTH services.

The tariff system normally applied for Japanese IP telephony tends to be described as
below;

• The call between IP telephony subscribers, limited to the same group, is mostly
free of charge.
• The call from IP telephony subscribers to fixed line or PHS is mostly fixed rate,
uniformly, all over the country.

Between ITSP, the interconnection is mostly maintained at VoIP level.

• As for the IP telephony assigned normal telephone number (0AB-J), the condition
for its interconnection is considered same as normal telephony.
• As for the IP telephony assigned specific telephone number (050), the condition
for its interconnection tends to be described as below;
o Interconnection is sometimes charged. (Sometimes, it's free of charge.) In
case of free of charge, mostly, the traffics are exchanged via P2P
connection with the same VoIP standard. Otherwise, certain conversion is
needed at the point of VoIP gateway, which needs running costs.

Telephone number for IP telephony in Japan

Since September 2002, the MIC has assigned IP telephony telephone numbers on the
condition that the service falls into certain required categories of quality. Highly qualified
IP telephony is assigned a telephone number. Normally the number starts with 050. But,
when its quality is so high that customer almost could not tell the difference between it
and a normal telephone and when the provider relates its number with a location and
provides the connection with emergency call capabilities, the provider is allowed to
assign a normal telephone number, which is a so-called "0AB-J" number.

Technical details

The two major competing standards for VoIP are the IETF standard SIP and the ITU
standard H.323. Initially H.323 was the most popular protocol, though in the "local loop"
it has since been surpassed by SIP. This was primarily due to the latter's better traversal of
NAT and firewalls, although recent changes introduced for H.323 have removed this
advantage.[citation needed]

However, in backbone voice networks where everything is under the control of the
network operator or telco, H.323 is the protocol of choice. Many of the largest carriers
use H.323 in their core backbones [citation needed], and the vast majority of callers have little or
no idea that their POTS calls are being carried over VoIP.

Where VoIP travels through multiple providers' softswitches the concepts of Full Media
Proxy and Signaling Proxy are important. In H.323, the data is made up of 3 streams of
data: 1) H.225.0 Call Signaling; 2) H.245; 3) Media. So if you are in London, your
provider is in Australia, and you wish to call America, then in full proxy mode all three
streams will go half way around the world and the delay (up to 500-600 ms) and packet
loss will be high. However in signaling proxy mode where only the signaling flows
through the provider the delay will be reduced to a more user friendly 120-150 ms.

One of the key issues with all traditional VoIP protocols is the wasted bandwidth used for
packet headers. Typically, to send a G.723.1 5.6 kbit/s compressed audio path requires 18
kbit/s of bandwidth based on standard sampling rates. The difference between the 5.6
kbit/s and 18 kbit/s is packet headers. There are a number of bandwidth optimization
techniques used, such as silence suppression and header compression. This can typically
save 35% on bandwidth usage.

VoIP trunking techniques such as TDMoIP can reduce bandwidth overhead even further
by multiplexing multiple conversations that are heading to the same destination and
wrapping them up inside the same packets. Because the packet header overhead is shared
between many simultaneous streams, TDMoIP can offer near toll quality audio with a
per-stream packet header overhead of only about 1 kbit/s.

==============================================
4.2.1 Types of VoIP
VoIP services differ depending on whether:

• The service provides a competitive alternative to conventional telephone services,

• A conventional telephone can transmit and receive calls,
• Subscribers need to acquire and install additional equipment on their premises,
• Traffic routes into or from the PSTN, and
• Users pay for service.

This section describes three broad categories of VoIP service: Internet telephony via
computer; Internet telephony that is partially accessible from and to the PSTN; and
Internet telephony that is fully accessible from and to the PSTN.

Internet Telephony via Computer

Internet telephony via computer offers a variety of voice communications services. These
include:

• Person to person voice calls,

• Electronic commerce Internet sites that offer a “push to talk” icon that provides an
opportunity to talk to a customer service representative,
• Video games that enable players to talk to other players.

Computer-to-computer Internet telephony services, such as Skype and Pulver.com require

users to download software. Users can then set up free voice conversations with other
subscribers through the Internet. Calls are routed using a peer-to-peer arrangement that
uses the computer of any logged on subscriber as an intermediary for routing traffic on to
the intended call recipient.

An end-to-end Internet telephony connection via computer requires that parties have
personal computers equipped with:

• Compatible software,
• A sound card or similar device, and
• Access to the Internet.

Figure 1: Internet Telephony via Computer

Internet telephony via personal computer has several drawbacks:

• Typically, calls do not access the PSTN (unless one of the computers accesses the
Internet via a modem and conventional dial-up telephone line),
• Subscribers must log onto the service in order to make and receive calls,
• The service does not provide caller identification and location information needed
in emergencies,
 • Finally, the service does not offer the same sound quality and reliability as
conventional circuit switched telephony.

For these reasons, most countries treat Internet telephony via computer as an unregulated
information service, largely free of traditional telephone carrier responsibilities.

Internet Telephony Partially Accessible from and to the PSTN

This category of VoIP calls includes:

• Long distance telephone calls originated by subscribers of incumbent carriers, and

by users of calling cards who call from payphones and mobile phones. In both
cases calls originate and terminate over the PSTN, but transit the Internet for all
or a portion of the long haul,
• Internal corporate VoIP traffic that originates and terminates over an enterprise
network. Some enterprise networks can route traffic into the PSTN,
• VoIP services that enable customers to make calls over the Internet. Such calls
typically originate over a broadband Internet link and terminate at the call
recipient’s end without ever traversing the PSTN (see Internet Telephony via
Computer). However, these services can also deliver traffic to non-subscribers
over the PSTN and a normal telephone handset (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Internet Telephony Partially Accessible from and to the PSTN

Source: ITU

The Internet and conventional circuit switched telephone numbering systems use
different addressing systems. Thus VoIP services in this category must provide call
processing software that can “map” Internet Protocol addresses to call recipients with
conventional telephone numbers. The software routes the call as far as possible through
Internet networks, to a “gateway” or “point of presence” as close as possible to the
intended call recipient. At that point, the service converts the call to telephony traffic and
hands it off to a conventional telephone network.

To access this category of VoIP services, users need:

• A subscription to a VoIP service,

• Broadband Internet access,
• A modem, and
• An Analog Terminal Adapter, to configure VoIP onto the user’s DSL or cable
modem link. This device converts the call signal from analog to digital (and vice
versa).

The ability of subscribers to access service from conventional telephones, or alternatively

to call conventional telephone numbers, makes this form of Internet telephony more
attractive to customers (and therefore more commercially attractive) than Internet
telephony via computer.

Internet Telephony Fully Accessible from and to the PSTN

Many telephone companies already use Internet carriage to handle long distance calls
(see Figure 3). The customer making the call may not even be aware of this.

Most current VoIP services do not use the PSTN for both call origination and termination.
In the future, almost all VoIP services will require a broadband, digital Internet access
link. Telephone companies and cable television companies will replace copper networks
with optical fibre. This will enable voice services to ride over a ubiquitous broadband
digital network as a software application.

Figure 3: VoIP Fully Accessible from and to the PSTN

VOIP Transmission in a Nutshell
In order to use VoIP, both parties need a broadband connection. This is a high-speed
Internet, or broadband connection usually provided by a cable or DSL modem.
Broadband modems are usually used to connect computers to the Internet, but in the case
of VoIP, computers are not necessary.

The simplest form of VoIP is a computer-to-computer voice connection. All that is

required for this type of connection is a computer, a headset consisting of earphones and
microphone, and VoIP software. Most software packages are free and allow you to
connect to any computer running the same software. There is no charge for this type of
connection and calls can be made to anywhere in the world.

VoIP software can also be used to connect to land-line phones — that is, phones which
are not connected directly to the Internet. This type of call is usually not free but the cost
is quite a bit lower than what your telephone company charges. Some VoIP services also
allow you to make calls to cellular phones.

The only time that both parties need a particular VoIP software package is when they are
making computer-to-computer calls. Parties receiving land-line or cellular calls do not
need any extra equipment or software.

VoIP Transmissions

VoIP is based on digital data transmission. The first step in any VoIP call is to convert the
analog signal of the human voice into digital data. This is done within an Analog-to-
Digital Converter (ADC) that divides an analog signal into discrete steps which are
represented by numbers. The next step is to compress the audio data using a codec
(enCOder/DECoder) which significantly reduces the amount of digital data while
maintaining audio quality.

The compressed digital data can now be sent over the Internet. The data stream must be
divided into packets which, besides containing the audio data, also have information
concerning their destination and their place in the data stream.

All data that is sent over the Internet is encapsulated in ‘layers’ which aid in its proper
delivery. For example, web pages may use the Internet Protocol (IP) network layer to
specify destination and origin addresses, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
transport layer to create a connection between two computers and the Hyper Text
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) as an application layer to allow the Web browser to display the
web page correctly.

Most VoIP uses a transport layer called User Datagram Protocol (UDP) which is faster
than TCP. A commonly used application layer is Real-time Transmission Protocol (RTP)
— originally developed for delivering audio and video over the Internet. RTP provides
information about the sequence of the data packets so they can be reconstructed in the
correct order at their destination.

RTP also has the ability to drop packets if they do not arrive within a certain amount of
time. This is necessary for telephone conversations because if the telephone software
waited for every packet of information to arrive before reassembling it there would be
unacceptable delays in the audio stream.

Even though some of the packets are dropped, there is usually still enough information to
make the conversation legible. The number of packets that will be dropped depends on
the speed of your Internet connection in the distance between the two parties.

Once the voice data has arrived at its destination, it is reassembled in the correct order
and converted back from digital to analog.