Internet Telephony - Essay Example

Vivek Lahoti 16th December 2008 Internet Telephony Man's yearning to communicate using wires could be d back to when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you" with these historic words Mr. Bell called his assistant Thomas Watson over the so-called 'telephone' and a revolution was born. "The Place: 5 Exeter Place, Boston, Massachusetts. The Time: Evening, March 10, 1876." (FoT, 2) Then came the 'Plain Old Telephone System', which allowed local calling but was very expensive, which later evolved into 'Public Switched Telephone Networks' with global connectivity. History of 'Voice over Internet Protocol' (VoIP) can be dated back to 1973, when the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPAnet), the predecessor of today's 'Global Internet', used 'Packet Switching' for voice communication. By the late 1990s it evolved into a standard telephone hooked up to an internet connection. Today, with the introduction of 'Broadband Internet' and improvement in 'Quality of Service', traditional phone lines are slowly being phased out as businesses and households around the world embrace the benefits and features that VoIP technology has to offer. How VoIP works: In existing telephone systems, which use 'circuit switching', when a call is made between two parties, the 'connection' between them is maintained for the duration of the call. This is the basic foundation of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Earlier, every call had to have a dedicated wire stretching from one end to the other for the duration of the call. So, if suppose you wanted to call from Washington DC to San Francisco, you actually owned a cable that long for the duration of the call. Later, with digitalization, your voice along with thousands of others was combined onto a single fiber optic cable for most of the distance, yet there was a dedicated copper wire going through each house. "For more than a hundred years, the PSTN was the only bearer network available for telephony." (PSTN, par.5) In VoIP, you do not maintain a constant connection with whom you are talking. VoIP uses the technology called as 'Packet Switching'. When you talk to someone using VoIP, the sending computer converts your 'voice' into 'data' which is then chopped into 'payloads'. Each 'payload' is then packed in a 'packet' with an address on each one telling the network devices where to send them. The 'packet' is then 'routed' through the internet to the receiving computer, which retrieves the 'payload' and reassembles the 'data' in its original state, which is, in the last networking stage, converted back to 'voice'. Each 'packet' may follow an entirely different path to the destination computer. This makes VoIP very efficient since it lets the network route the packet along the least congested lines. Also, since there is no need for any continuous connection, "it minimizes the time that a connection is maintained between two systems, which reduces the load on the network." (HPSW, par.3) So, if given the liberty to define, we could call VoIP as the 'process of converting voice into data and then sending it via a network'. VoIP Requirements: The things you would need to get started are: A 'High Speed' Internet Connection: Depending upon availability, your budget and the amount of telephone traffic, you can choose between many different products. A VoIP Box: An adaptor that lets you connect your phone to the network. An Account with a VoIP Provider: That provides real-time two-way voice communication using the Internet Protocol. An Audio I/O Device OR A Stunning Gizmo: Although to use some of the basic services, you could just get away with your PC with a Speaker and a Microphone, most users are accustomed to a soft phone loaded on a laptop. Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones today provide additional features like multi-call conferencing, video conferencing, internet faxing, web browsing, etc. Advantages of Using VoIP: One major advantage of the 'Packet Switching' technology used in VoIP is that it allows multiple phone calls. Instead of the usual switchboard and hundreds of lines, VoIP provides a relatively simpler solution as it is able to transmit more than one call over the same connection and phone line. Usually, internal VoIP to VoIP calls are free. So, although each terminal can have a different phone number (eliminating the need for a PBX or an operator), calls to other office departments are at no cost. Also there are handsets available which are portable, so you can make a free call to an employee who is not at his desk. Also, extensions can be controlled using software, enabling to monitor calls. Added functionality, as mentioned above, is also a major driver as more and more individuals and organizations get techno-savvy and realize its benefits. Most importantly, VoIP gets internet into your phone allowing you to use technology to its limit. You can be sitting at home, managing your office desktop, even making and receiving calls from your office. Or, you could be in your office, managing the washing machine at home. Concerns and Measures: One major concern with VoIP was the 'Quality of Service' (QoS) it provided. "Guaranteeing QoS is not easy. The main reason is that even though 'Internet Service Providers' (ISPs) are using the common TCP/IP protocol, they are different in terms of backbone capacities, network architectures, routing protocols, business models etc. Furthermore, there is no single entity to coordinate the internet industry any QoS assurances are only as good as the weakest link in the chain between the sender and the receiver." (Maeda, 364) However, the internet infrastructure seems to be getting better by the day. With the introduction of high speed broadband connections, the problem that 'data packets would occasionally need to be "dropped" if they don't arrive in time', have disappeared. An even more serious concern is that of call traceability. In a traditional phone a 911 call is quickly traced to its origin and routed to the nearest call center where the operator will be able to see your location on his or her computer screen. This is not the case with VoIP. It is not possible to determine where a VoIP call is originating from. To tackle this, there is an emerging standard known as "VoIP E911" (FCC 1, par.4) that should satisfactorily address this issue. Any James Bond fan could tell you that computer systems can be hacked. You may face the "Denial of Service" (Curran, par.3) attack, where your system would be jammed by mal-formed packets by some troublemaker. Or, the famous 'Man-in-the-Middle' attacks, like 'Data Interception', where your conversation could be heard by someone without your knowledge, OR 'Packet Injection', which is "altering the contents by injecting speech, noise or delay into the call and forwarding the modified packets to the original recipient." (Curran, par.10) To avoid such issues, your systems should be 'Secure', have 'Firewalls', 'Data Encryption', etc. Government Regulations: From the very beginning of the telecommunications industry, government saw the need to impose standards and regulations on suppliers. Without standards and regulations, customers would not have fully realized the potential of the technology. In the US, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates interstate and international communication. Some specific regulations for VoIP providers include "FCC imposed 911 obligations on providers of "interconnected" VoIP services" (FCC 2, par.13) or the e911 service we talked about. In another regulation, the FCC "requires interconnected VoIP providers and telephone companies that obtain numbers for them to comply with Local Number Portability (LNP) rules." (FCC 2, par.16) So that even if the subscribers changed their service providers, they could still retain their old phone numbers. Conclusion: As VoIP is getting widespread consumer acceptance, it is definitely the thing of the future. Works Cited Fundamentals of Telecommunication. (FoT) The International Engineering Consortium 16 December 2008. PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) NetworkDictionary.com 16 December 2008 How Packet Switching Works (HPSW) VoIP-Voice-over-IP.com 16 December 2008 Gibson, Amar and Maeda Impact of Wireless Telecommunications Standard and Regulation on the Evolution of Wireless Technologies and Services over Internet Protocol Telecommunications Policy 30 (2006). 16 December 2008. VoIP and 911 Service (FCC 1) Federal Communications Commission Consumer Advisory. 17 September 2008. 16 December 2008 Curran, Paul. Just How Risky Is a Phone Call Over the Internet Microsoft Business and Industry. 16 December 2008. Voice Over Internet Protocol (FCC 2) FCC Consumer Facts. 16 October 2008. 16 December 2008. Read More