how does voip work - a guide for non-techies

HOW DOES VOIP WORK: AGUIDE FOR NON-TECHIES

This paper is written and presented by VoIP Spear, a global call service monitoringservice that provides 24/7/365 VoIP service testing and monitoring.

Stay on top of your digital telecommunications with VoIP Spear.

© Toepoke Software Inc. and VoIP Spear http://voipspear.com

If you haven't been hiding under a rock for the last decade, then you probably know about VoIP – if not by name, by its use.Call it what you may: V-O-I-P, voyp, Skype, internet calling.... You know that it is probably the best thing to happen to telecommunications. You can talk cheap, with just an internet connection as requisite.

Purpose of this Paper

So, if it's been a decade and most everyone uses VoIP one way or another, why write this whitepaper? Well, knowing the name and use of VoIP does not mean people know it well enough to make the most of it. You need to know the workings ofdigital telephony if you want to optimize its use.

VoIP Spear is a VoIP call monitoring service with strategically located global testing servers. We provide your first line of VoIP security by monitoring your service's performance and alerting you if there are potential issues that can affect your connection.

We put together this whitepaper so you know what to expect from VoIP and how you can make the most of the technology.

WHAT IS VOIP VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is exactly that: yourvoice transmitted across a digital network. This is donethrough protocols (or set of rules), similarly used for theinternet. Internet protocols (IP) are at the core of networking– it is what has made the world wide web possible. Theseare rules that enable enhanced and organized connectionsbetween private, public and wireless networks.

Thus, VoIP enables so much more than just talking. Sincevoice travels the network as data packets, it can beintegrated with other forms of communication and data. This is referred to communications convergence.

Because communication is within the digital realm, location is no longer a consideration. Talk then truly becomes cheap. You can be anywhere, and it won't matter in terms of price and your accessibility.


A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORYTelephony and the internet have come a long way. To a degree, VoIP is the child of the two technologies. And it stilluses elements from each: the telephone switches of POTS (orplain old telephone); and, as we said earlier, internet protocol.

For the longest time, we had relied on the public switchedtelephone network (PSTN), which is an actual physical systemthat connects phone switches all over the world. Location-centric physical systems made this type of communicationsexpensive. And, anything you want on top of this, such asvoicemail and call forwarding, would add to the cost.

VoIP improves on POTS in ways that its infrastructural limitations and massive investment requirements cannot – where calling from and to anywhere is drastically cheaper, some features are not extras but basics, and location is no longer as relevant.

WHERE IS VOIP NOW?It is always a good time to switch to VoIP. It is not about joining the bandwagon, even though many home owners, small- tomedium-sized businesses, and even big players have done so.

It really is about practicality. Here, you have a telecommunications technology that affords you cheap talk, and perks that you once had to pay a lot for. You can take advantage of communications convergence, and easily manage voice and data communications using a single platform. You are available from anywhere, as long as there is internet connection. The technology is reliable and continues to improve. There is very little reason to limit yourself to traditional telephony.

You have several VoIP applications available for free, on top of the ever-popular Skype. This includes Kakao, Viber, and WeChat. Traditional telecommunications companies, such as T-Mobile, have stopped hindering the growth of their once-reviled competition. Instead, they've incorporated VoIP into their service, and have made money off it.


VoIP is the next stage of telecommunications. And you should get on it.

VOIP BENEFITSThe best thing about VoIP is, of course, its benefits. On top here is yourcost saving. VoIP is cheaper than traditional telephony by a mile. This isthe biggest thing about VoIP – how it has made talk more accessible toanyone with access to the internet. In a way, it has madetelecommunications within reach of practically everyone in today'shighly digitalized world.

This has implications for big and small businesses, as well as residentialVoIP users, when it comes to how much they now spend oncommunication. Depending on your choice of service, features andpackages, this can range from zero to perhaps $40 (maximum) eachmonth for residential VoIP users.

On top of this, you get mobility and portability, in which your line ornumber can be used from anywhere and across different devices. Thismakes you so much more accessible than traditional wireline ever could.

Integration and rich media are also highlights of VoIP. Voice data can be integrated with different social media applications,email, instant messaging, browsing, office applications and others.

VoIP treats voice as data. Thus, there is practically no limitations when it comes to manipulating it to suit your needs.


HOW DOES VOIP WORKThere are several layers of technology that are put to work whenever you make a VoIP call.

You start with your device. You can make a VoIP call from your computer, your old traditional landline phone that's attached to an ATA (analog telephone adapter), an IP phone, and your mobile phone.

Regardless of your device, your voice ends up being converted into data packets, which then travel to the recipient via the IP network. How do these packets find their intended recipient? Through soft switches.


A soft switch maps the endpoints, phone numbers and IP addressesin an IP network. This is run with a central call processor, which isa hardware/server that houses soft switches. When a soft switch'sdatabase does not contain the call recipient's information, therequest is passed downstream to other soft switches and callprocessors until the call recipient is found.

Now, the recipient can be anywhere. They can be “behind” theircomputers, mobile phones, IP phones or traditional landlinephones. Through protocols used in VoIP calls, these differentdevices – the source of the call and its recipient – are able to “talk”to each other, back and forth, without any problem.

Codecs Voice can only travel through an IP network in a compressed digital format. This format is unintelligible to people and needs to be converted back to its original voice format. Both processes are done through codecs.

Codec simply means coder-decoder. It codes and compresses voice, and then decodes and decompresses it back to its original format.

There are several VoIP codecs that are commonly used. The best codecs depends on how much voice and data quality loss is acceptable to you. You may opt for zero loss or lossless codecs if you do a lot of video conferencing; or if you have a big bandwidth allotment and can afford to dedicate some of this to voice. Or, you can choose based on bandwidth requirements and use.

If bandwidth is an issue for you, choose the G.729 codec. This provides good audio quality even with little bandwidth. It scores a 4.0 in MOS (mean opinion score) rating, a grading standard for VoIP call quality with 5.0 as the highest possible score.

If voice quality has to be superior, choose the G.722 codec. The quality possible with this codec is even higher than the quality of traditional telephony. It is the perfect choice for use with bandwidth-heavy applications, such as video conferencing. It has a 5.0 MOS score.

In between these two popular codecs is the G.711 codec. It has an MOS of 4.2, and a minimal 1:2 compression. One way, it uses up only 64K bitrate. This makes it a good option for bandwidth-conscious people who want above-average call quality.


Circuit Switching Versus Packet SwitchingA key component of the technical mechanisms that make VoIP cheaper and as effective as traditional landlines is its use of packet switching. This process has come a long way since the establishment of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which makes use of circuit switching.

Calls through circuit switching is expensive, such that its use is dedicated. A call between two locations requires a copper wire to run in between. A one minute call between these locations uses this copper wire for one minute. Thus, you end up renting that hardware for a minute, each time you make the call.

This improved a little bit after the 1960s, when fibre optic cables were introduced and calls became digitalized. However, you still need to have cables that run between call locations. And you still rent the use of these cables, each time you make acall.

Packet-switching, in contrast, relays voice as packets through a medium that can simultaneously run several sessions. Thus, you don't end up paying for a dedicated copper wire or fibre optic cable whenever you make a call. If your call spans 10 minutes, you don't necessarily pay the equivalent of 10 minutes, like you used to in traditional telephony. If your 10-minute call ends up using only 2 minutes of actual transmission time and a fourth of the bandwidth available, then that's what you pay for.

Packet-switching has drastically lessened the cost of telecommunications. It has also increased its efficiency and reliability.


WHAT DOES IT MEAN TOYOU

VoIP has made leaps and bounds when it comes to its robustnessas a primary means of telecommunications. There is little doubtthat it is the future of the industry. But what should it be to you?Does it have implications in how you communicate now – whatyou use and how you use it?

This brings to mind old technologies that have been eclipsed.Email, for instance, has all but made letter writing obsolete.People still send correspondences via post for the nostalgia of it,sure. But, for day-to-day textual communications, especiallytime-sensitive ones, no one's going to do it via post. Email hasbecome the way we write to each other.

It is the same way with VoIP. Whether you choose to or not, thetechnology is seeping into our modern internet-dependent smart-phone-using lives. You may have installed Skype in your computer. You may have even made calls through it while you surf the web. You may have it on your mobile phones too. Infact, big mobile phone companies have began to package VoIP into their service.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The affordability and reliability of VoIP are bound to render traditional telecommunications obsolete. It's only a matter of time.

Your adoption of VoIP should start today – if you haven't already.


GET STARTEDReady to leap into modern communications? Here's how to get started:

Check with your internet service provider. Ask them about your bandwidth capacity. Is your broadband service suitable for VoIP? In some cases, internet service providers partner with VoIP service providers. Ask them for leads.

Choose the best VoIP service, based on your needs and location. This is a good place to start: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers

Get the gear that you need. You might opt for an IP phone or ATA device. Or, you can just install VoIP applications on your computer or smart phone.

Monitor your VoIP service. Through VoIP Spear (http://voipspear.com), stay on top of your digital telecommunications. Guarantee at least a 99% uptime by catching potential issues before these affect your service. Call testing is done consistently and persistently 24/7/365. You get alerts should your service performance fall below the normal range.

VoIP Spearvoipspear.com

© Toepoke Software Inc.


http://voipspear.com/

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers

how does voip work - a guide for non-techies

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