Analysis of The Technology Voice Over IP

Though communication have been existing for a long time, changes in method have been taking place all the time, so that costs are reduced and one of the latest methods is to communicate through IP or Voice over IP – VoIP. The technology of sending voice is already over a hundred years old, but earlier there had been less important developments in technology over the earlier systems of PBX and key system technologies which had been developed for many years. The new technology that has now been developed is of sending voice over IP which is replacing the earlier TDM products and now with the development of technology the changes in technology of voice can have an important role to play in organizations.

The change is more important than just converting the earlier used system of time division multiplexing or TDM to Internet Protocol or IP. This is the first step of companies to solve difficulties regarding costs and achieving business goals of the organization. Apart from voice the architecture that is used with IP communications include “video, messaging, contact centers and business process enablement”. (Voice over IP is the first step to an enabled, converged environment)

What is being stated is very simple and that is voice will not be sent as a separate type of communication, but will be sent in the form of an Internet Protocol based communication. This is being transmitted for quite some time now and dependable channels have already been developed. The costs of this method are also viewed to be quite low, and that will naturally reduce costs of transmitting voice.

At this stage it is important to understand what Internet is. This is a method of communication which can be carried over many media like cable, radio, wireless, etc. The difference that it has with other media is that this causes a series of fluctuations for the message to be carried, somewhat like a pulsating signal. At the same time, the pulses provide a certain code for passing on messages and this is like digital communication which transfers information regarding scripts and also on the computers.

This had originally started of with 8 bits which now form a byte and even the storage capacity of computer items like hard disks are stated in billions of bytes. (IP Communications: A Wealth of Innovations Begins to Deliver New Value to Business) Apparently the numbers required are high as even this article will contain some 30 thousand bytes, but the method of transmission is simple as the information just consists of yes or no and the method used is of binary logic.

The logic of Internet protocol is over 32 pieces and this has now spread over all networks – wired or wireless, public Internet or service provider networks and corporate LANs. For communication to be enabled, what was required was the enabling to IP of all communications and computing equipment. (IP Communications: A Wealth of Innovations Begins to Deliver New Value to Business) The advantage of using these methods is it permits an organization to reach the next level of communication services and not confine itself to have special systems designed for its own use. This will naturally save it sizeable amounts of capital expenditure as also the regular costs of maintenance and operations.

According to a recent Forrester study, IP videoconferencing and unified messaging are becoming very popular in North American and European enterprises, though the majority of enterprises in this are not purchasing these applications during the current year. In the course of the study, it was found that 29% among North American and 17% among the European enterprises which have at least a 1,000 employees are already using or presently upgrading IP videoconferencing. The full methods of unified messaging is being fully used or being upgraded in only 15% of North American enterprises and in 14% of European enterprises.

This shows clearly that there is a rapid change going on in this area. Considering that both applications are now reasonable mature, it was surprising to find that full-scale deployments are still found in less than 30% of companies that were surveyed. At the same time, there is a reasonable potential for growth of both unified messaging and IP videoconferencing, since the enterprises will now upgrade to Session Initiation Protocol based platforms.

Most enterprises that were surveyed plan to use these applications in-house, yet, several companies, mainly in Europe, stated that they would consider unified messaging applications and IP videoconferencing to be provided as a managed service. After the standalone applications become integrated, the market for these applications is expected to grow at a faster rate.

What industry can do to insure that service?

Before we talk about the insurance of service for IP based phones let us look at the benefits as if there are no benefits, there are no advantages in switching to the new technology. There can be substantial savings and those can vary from $9,600 per site to $28,000 per site over a full year for large organizations and from $4,800 to $9,600 for medium sized organizations and these results are taken from a study that was carried out last year. The second advantage is that it enables organizations to increase their total telephone systems along with the growth of the organization. Even the growth when it takes place can be flexible and without gaps or stoppages.

There are programs like Microsoft Outlook which enables the user to know immediately who is calling along with the ring of the telephone. Even for the management there is a benefit and they do not have to depend on the supplier of the system for any changes that they want to make (Is Your Network Ready for IP Telephony?) In terms of insurance, the service is now available from a number of manufacturers and thus in the case of dissatisfaction, one can always change suppliers and that is probably the best sort of insurance that one can get.

How can IP makes the vision of any device to any device over any network possible?

Before VoIP started all organizations had two separate infrastructures and one was used for transmitting voice and the other was for transmitting data. When VoIP is used, there is only one integrated infrastructure. At the outset, it will seem that without the PSTN infrastructure the cost infrastructures can be justified easily for the system. At the same time, this cannot be removed totally since it has to handle the call overflows and any calls which are not targeted for the remote site. There are models available which will enable the calculation and justification for these network integration projects. (VoIP: How to plan for the bandwidth and calculate cost savings) This has made it clear that many new devices will be made to work over the Internet for human benefit.

To conclude, it could be said that at certain levels of technology, it is difficult to understand the technical points and one should look at the entire question from a requirement point of view.