Internet telephony
Summary Description Newswire's 5 Minute Guides
looks into the evolution of voice over IP.
Author
Publication
Roullas Top10 Simon Vandore
Newswire
No
Editorial InformationArticle Location
Article Topic 5 Minute Guides
Story Order
Story Group 001112
Post Date 06/11/2000 08:10 AM Status Posted Entered by Simon
Vandore on 03/11/2000 11:49 AM
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Content
Introduction
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What's all this about making phone calls over the
Internet?
Internet telephony, also known as voice over IP (VoIP or V/IP) or
IP telephony, is aimed at using the Internet protocol (IP) to
carry calls that would otherwise use ordinary public phone
networks. The calls are digitised, carried as packets of data and
routed just like other IP traffic.
What types of IP telephony exist?
It's important to make a distinction between computer-to-computer
Internet calls, using software installed on each user's PC in the
manner of two-way radio, and the commercial wave of VoIP
development where Internet protocol is used to carry large
numbers of calls that would otherwise use regular telephone
lines.
The PC-to-PC variety is a small-time affair where quality varies
and users require compatible software (such as those using
technology from Net2Phone, Dialpad and PhoneFree). Large-scale
VoIP, conducted by businesses and telecommunications companies,
can provide call quality that is indistinguishable from those
using the everyday phone network.
Today's VoIP products are usually integrated in some way with the
traditional phone system, allowing a user to make a voice call
from their computer to a regular telephone number, via a company
which provides a gateway between the two networks.
Why make calls over the Internet when you could just make
a normal phone call?
It's cheaper. Calls over public telephone networks attract tolls
which are usually based on duration and distance, while charges
for Internet traffic are usually not affected by these factors.
If you already have an Internet connection or a private IP
network between you and the person you want to call, using it for
voice communication will not attract any additional charge.
At the PC-to-PC end of the scale you can access the Internet at
local call rates and conduct international conversations which
are invisible to your telephone service provider. If both parties
are comfortable with this method and experience adequate
performance, it is ideal when regular communication is required.
Large-scale VoIP opens up opportunities for Internet service
providers (ISPs), cable TV companies, wireless communication
providers and networking companies to compete with established
telephone networks.
Why is Internet telephony controversial?
Obviously the powerful, established international telephone
companies are worried about VoIP. It undercuts their traditional
revenue sources and threatens to shake up the telecommunications
market. They want governments to regulate it as they do other
phone services, but often the authorities refuse to do so,
favouring as much competition as possible. In the US, to howls of
protest from VoIP companies, legislation has been passed which
theoretically allows the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
to impose fees on IP telephony. However, the authority says it
has no plans to do so.
The alternative for existing phone companies is to beat their
rivals to the punch and make their own investments in VoIP.
Companies such as Telstra, AT&T and MCI WorldCom have all
conducted VoIP trials.
What are the major problems with VoIP?
The first VoIP application was Internet Phone, released in early
1995 by Vocaltec. It offered scratchy sound quality and, like a
CB radio, it was half-duplex meaning sound could not be sent and
received at the same time.
However, today's VoIP is full duplex and sounds much better. The
technical challenge is to provide a dependable service comparable
with old-fashioned telephone traffic. Latency (lag) is a problem
on the Internet, causing transmission delays for international
calls which are more significant than those experienced on
regular phone calls. Latency affects the time between the sender
speaking a word and the receiver hearing it. The solution is to
give it priority over less time-critical traffic (such as email)
on routers, but outside private networks this is easier said than
done.
The biggest problem for the future of VoIP is compatibility
between technologies, as it is only recently that efforts towards
interoperability have begun. Various standards bodies will be
involved, such as the DSL Forum, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Forum, the Internet Engineering Taskforce (IETF) and the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU). For example, the
IETF developed SIP (session initiation protocol) last year as a
common means of initiating a connection.
What's happening in Australia and Asia?
Newswire has covered various local VoIP developments in the past
12 months. For example, Telstra is working on a project called
DMO (data mode of operation) to integrate services based on IP,
frame relay and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) into its
network. The technology has also proved useful to franchised
Internet cafes which offer cheap international calls to
backpackers at much lower rates than other phone companies.
In Asian countries where the telecommunications infrastructure is
still in development, such as China, companies are actively
trying to implement VoIP as a means of expanding
telecommunications availability. There is also speculation about
a VoIP boom in India if that country deregulates its phone
system.
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