A Phenomenon Referred To As VoIP

Posted by Cappadonna on Tuesday, September 14, 2010

By Kristin Wood

The majority of us have made overseas calls, and as time passes a lot of development has been made for making this better and cost-effective. Now there's a remarkable new way for us to speak, through VoIP or Voice over IP. In the most basic essence, VoIP converts analog audio signals into digital data, transmits it over the web, then converts it back to whoever the intended receiver is.

You can find different types of VoIP calling methods that are available. The first is the ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor) which may serve as a converter/adaptor for our standard phone. It enables our phones to connect straight into our computers Internet connection. Another would be the IP phones. These look a lot more like your standard telephone set. The sole difference is that rather than plugging it into your telephone jack, it has Ethernet jacks that can be connected directly into your router. Lastly the most frequent and popular would be the computer to computer call. All that's necessary for this is the voice calling software, microphone, headset, and an Internet connection. It is usually a free service provided by popular chat and instant messaging software providers like Skype and Yahoo.

Now how does VoIP differ from traditional telephone lines? The answer lies in how they transmit voice to and from the calling parties. With the phone line, voice is transmitted through circuit switching. This circuit is "switched on" whenever all parties are using the telephone. This might be very wasteful since it is always open whether or not the speaker is talking. In VoIP, voice is transmitted through packet switching. In this method, voice is transmitted in "packets". These packets carry data (in our case voice) over the Internet. No matter which path these packets take through the Internet because it is going to end up with the receiver. The receiving computer will reassemble these packets and convert it back to voice. In such cases the connection is not always on, it will just turn on if it sends and receives packets. This is certainly very efficient because the packets are transmitted over the least congested and cheapest lines in the network.

Obviously, the glaring advantage of VoIP over traditional telephone service is the expense of setting up a call. This is so because telephone companies need to build up physical infrastructure to support their services. Unlike VoIP which revolves round the connected virtual world that is the web. VoIP offers flexibility since you could literally make a call around the globe as long as you have an Internet connection.

On the flip side, VoIP is vulnerable to disruptions with your connection to the Internet, and this is surely an ordinary occurrence in our everyday connected lives. The bottom line is, no connection to the web no VoIP. Also voice clarity is a problem; this is brought about by instability in Internet data transfer. It is also vulnerable to power outages as it usually draws power from your wall outlet.

VoIP will never replace the standard telephone anytime soon. But if the kinks and hiccups could be addressed it might go mainstream and become our telecommunication standard of the future.

About the Author:

{ 0 comments... read them below or add one }

Post a Comment