TELEPHONY FUNDAMENTALS

jueves, 29 de julio de 2010

TELEPHONY FUNDAMENTALS

What is VoIP?

For the past 50 years companies have been using conventional PBX systems which require separate networks for voice and data communications. But with the new VOIP telephony revolution, businesses are quickly migrating to VOIP PBX systems, which offer the huge advantage of converging data and voice networks.

VOIP, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, is basically the transmission of voice traffic over IP-based networks. Initially designed for data networking, the Internet Protocol (IP) was adapted to voice networking following its successful positioning as the global standard for data networking.

With VOIP phone systems users are not limited to making and receiving calls through the IP network, traditional phone lines can be used to guarantee a higher call quality and availability. With the use of a VOIP gateway incoming PSTN/telephone lines can be converted to VOIP/SIP. This way the VOIP gateway allows the user to receive and place calls on the regular telephony network.

VOIP PBX systems provide mobility to employees, flexibility when a business expands as they are much easier to manage than the traditional PBX, and can also considerably reduce telephony administration costs.

What is SIP?

SIP is the Internet standard for real time voice and video communication. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) was developed by the IETF and published as RFC 3261.

SIP is an Internet protocol for live communications used in setting up and tearing down voice or video calls. It is a signaling protocol used to create, modify, and terminate sessions with one or more participants in an IP network. A session can be a straightforward two-way phone call or it can be a multi-media conference session with many persons participating. SIP has made possible an array of services that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago: Internet conferencing, IP telephony, instant messaging, presence, voice and video communication, data collaboration, online gaming, application sharing, and much more.

SIP is doing for real-time communications what HTTP did for the web and SMTP for email. It is the main driver in the acceleration of the IP Telephony revolution. With SIP Telephony, a viable alternative to traditional PBX has emerged. SIP telephone systems deliver features that enhance users' mobility and productivity, while securing substantial cost-saving advantages. This is making proprietary hardware based PBXs obsolete.