| |
| |
|
VoIP Information |
|
|
|
VoIP Phone Home?
The movie Extra Terrestrial (ET) coined the phrase "phone home" and each year American's look for more cost effective ways to do just that. The past 10 years have seen the development and growing popularity of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies to achieve cost savings over the traditional circuit-switched telephone networks. The two dominate technologies used for VoIP are: (1) the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and (2) Peer-2-Peer (P2P). For business and educational institutions SIP VoIP solutions have produced substantial savings. For home voice users, however, SIP VoIP is still value challenged. A typical circuit-switched landline phone costs about $19.95 per month (plus tax). The good old American landline phone should be graphically depicted beside the word "reliable" in the dictionary. Not only does it keep working, even when all electrical power fails, but it can even provide you with a light to dial with. At $15 dollars per month SIP VoIP is still value challenged due to the lack of full support for E9-1-1 emergency services and of course the reliability issues inherent with using a real time application over a "best effort" network like today's Internet. Although few VoIP articles still reference Internet Request For Comments (RFC) 3714 "IAB Concerns Regarding Congestion Control," the technical challenges associated with VoIP are widely known. Further, even with the recent dubious edict by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that VoIP service providers will provision support for E9-1-1 within 90 days, this still leaves the reliability issues unresolved. The use of adaptive rate CODEC's to prevent congestion collapse is a swell idea if it applies to my neighbor's service but not my own. Using adaptive rate CODEC's to elicit voluntary user preemption has no appeal in the modern world. Technology is supposed to be getting better and it is clearly not better that users receive disconnects or degraded service quality in order to constrain network bandwidth consumption. Quality of Service (QoS) has been the four letter word of the Internet for a very long time. Yet, we know that real time applications such as video and voice are a mismatch for "best effort" service models. Cost savings are important, but not if they require users to accept backward technology leaps. After 9/11 the United States should have begun standardization efforts to insure that VoIP QoS levels would be equivalent to circuit-switched networks, especially where emergency E9-1-1 calls are concerned. The recent FCC order only requires that E9-1-1 call center traffic be properly routed. It does nothing to insure QoS of the connection once the call is completed. As for SIP VoIP in the home, there is too little incentive for savvy consumers to part with more of their hard earned communications dollars for an industry offering that simply does not meet the needs of the user. Until something concrete can be done to move SIP VoIP forward, service based on P2P such as Skype seems to be the only sensible choice on the kitchen table. Why should home users pay $15 or more per month for less reliable communications than they already have with their land line? Skype gives users the ability to experience "best effort" voice over the Internet for FREE. Could this be the reason why more than 125 million copies of Skype's P2P software has been downloaded? And for the occasions where interconnection with the existing circuit-switched telephone networks is required, Skype offers a very competitive 2 cents per minute interconnection rate. With Skype you can talk for 12 ˝ hours interconnected to the phone system for the same cost as a basic rate SIP VoIP service. Until genuine changes are made to support SIP VoIP QoS there does not appear to be a convincing or compelling reason today for users to choose anything other than P2P VoIP services such as Skype to render Internet "best effort" home phone services. You can read the complete article and view associated graphics online at: http://canon.org/VoIP_Phone_Home.html. © 2005 Peach ePublishing, LLC Jason Canon has authored numerous technical research papers including: photonic switching, gigabit networking, VoIP E9-1-1 and others. He is an expert author for EzineArticles.com. E-mail: Jason Canon at jmc@canon.org.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Take Advantage of Internet Phone Calls (VOIP) Voice Over IP (VOIP) is a relatively new technology. Voice Over IP allows people to leave behind the old and very traditional analogue phone networks and now adapt in favor of the very new and very progressive Internet-based calling system infrastructure. Making PC to Phone VoIP Calls over Dial-Up Internet Connections There's a lot of hype these days surrounding Internet-based voice communications (VoIP) replacing traditional telephone service. Most of this revolves around companies such as Vonage who coin themselves as the 'Broadband Phone Company'. Try VoIP for Free - No Commitment, No Hardware Try VoIP Before BuyingSo you like the concept of 'cutting' your phone service in favour of VoIP but are hesitant to take the plunge and abandon your 'Landline' without trying it out for yourself first. Perhaps the advertised features and rates all sound a little 'too-good-to-be-true'. Take Your Home or Business Phone With You When You Travel Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service uses a broadband Internet connection (DSL or cable) instead of the Bell System circuits to carry your voice to any telephone in the world via the Internet. If you're not familiar with VoIP phone service, you'll be interested in this new technology that's giving traditional phone companies a run for their money. Faxing over VoIP As far as VoIP has come in Voice telephone calls, faxing over VoIP still has a lot of room to improve.Have you ever tried to fax on your residential VoIP line? I have, and it didn't go well. 6 Important Things You Should Consider When You Are Selecting A VoIP Provider The following are 6 very important factors to consider when you are selecting a VoIP provider. Educate yourself and be informed before you choose. Voice over IP (VoIP) Features Because with VOIP you can make calls from anywhere you have access to a broadband connection, users can take their IP phones or ATA's with them on trips and still have access to what is essentially their home phone.Some people use a softphone to access their VOIP service. How VoIP Will Affect Every Household and Business in the World Seattle venture capitalist, Greg Gottesman, calls it "?one of the most important changes in communications in the past 100 years."The Boeing Company announced plans to move its 150,000 employees to an internet-based phone system, and several Seattle area residents are using internet telephones to get cheap rates or, in some cases, free international phone calls. Voip Providers Review--- Choose The Best One For Your Business Making phone calls applying a broadband Internet connection,known as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), is becoming so popular with corporations of each size. The prospect of paying a flat fee for unlimited long-distance phone calls is attractive to each company that has struggled to balance the want to conduct business phone calls with the cost of those calls. Will VoIP be a Mass Market Product? A common thinking among "Marketing people " is that for every product that enters the market there must be a path, a target, a need ( real or created) that decides how the product must enter the consumer's life, which part of the population is more likely to go for it, which niche it is going to fill and, most important ".. Instant Menaces or Instant Messengers? Many vendors offering Instant Messaging (IM) services have added new capabilities such as voice messaging and file sharing. Among others, AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo offer these IM services. Why VoIP is not Going to Fail VoIP is an almost constant topic in our daily dose of business and tech-related news. VoIP, or Voice over Internet/IP is really an old technology re-emerging with a new face and marketing spin. How Much Bandwidth is Required for VoIP Phones? A long-standing question for potential VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) consumers is "How much bandwidth does a VoIP phone require to make quality telephone calls?"First of all, Bandwidth is defined as the ability to transfer data (such as a VoIP telephone call) from one point to another in a fixed amount of time. The higher the bandwidth speed you have, the more data you can send over your Broadband Internet connection. Lower Videophone Prices Allow Individuals Accessibility VoIP service providers are now offering videophone at the lowest price we've seen on the VoIP service market. The tremendous drop in prices will see more individuals and SMB's investing in this affordable futuristic way of communicating. Why Over 90% of VoIP Services Are Vulnerable to Attack John Ashcroft, Attorney General, in remarks at the High Technology Crime Investigation Association 2004 International Training Conference held on September 13, 2004 stated, "We have seen worms and viruses attack?disrupting basic services?And with the increased use of the Internet and especially peer-to-peer networking, we have seen malicious code spread more quickly and infect more personal computers than ever before. The cost of these worms, viruses, and denial-of-service attacks?reaches into the billions of dollars. VoIP - A Laymans Look - Should You Or Shouldnt You? "As business people we manufacture shin pads, or we distribute cat food, or we evangelize, but should we be considering VoIP? Will it make us more money, or save us time?" -Dennis SchooleySo what's all this VoIP hype anyway? I mean we all know that our voice can be delivered to the four corners of the globe over telephone lines. (Actually, I missed that part of second grade math where they taught us that a ball has corners, but everybody says it, so I'll accept it). VOIP: A Basic, Basic Intro What is it?Most people are familiar w/ NetMeeting and other software that let you talk to others over the internet. VOIP is similar. Using a Bluetooth Headset with your PC BluetoothFor those of you not familiar with the term, Bluetooth refers to a wireless protocol (or set of rules) designed for short range electronic applications (usually less than 30 feet in distance). Although the technology has been around for several years, Bluetooth support for PC users has been limited due to hardware manufacturers focusing on the more traditional 802. Security, Stability, and Interoperability Issues on VoIP Implementation Now we have accepted that VoIP is no longer just a phone service, it has become feature rich as it merges with computer configurations. The VoIP's existence has changed considerably over the last few years, coupled with the availability of broadband connection to the Internet, plus leaps in multimedia technology in which virtual operations with remote sites becomes more enhanced, makes VoIP service a viable alternative to traditional communication offerings. Telecom Industry Transition: WiFi, VoIP, WiMax - The Wireless Age is Already Here VoIP on WiMax will make the latest 3G technologies obsolete before they are completely installed. The reason is because 3G cell phone technology is capable of 2Mbs while WiFi is at 11Mbs in bursts and WiMax will be even greater therefore 3G is not needed as VoIP over WiMax is going to provide more data, faster speeds and greater numbers of users.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 ITapestry LLC |
