VoIP Has Evolved Into a Significant Advantage in Enterprise Communications

"Internet Voice, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line."

VoIP is a packet technology—analog waves of spoken words are converted to digital signals and then packetized. Packets are sent over the IP network to the end point for reassembly and conversion to sound.

For starters, VoIP has had to signal intent to deliver voice communication in the way users expect by making the telephone ring. Then, once the call is accepted and service performance parameters are negotiated (security, billing, quality, recording, and other options for example), the VoIP infrastructure delivers an intelligible audio stream across the IP network.

In enterprises, this infrastructure is organized into three basic components:

• The VoIP Call Controller (call manager or location server) knows where every device is (all call requests are forwarded here and then passed to the target device) and once a call is accepted the location server drops out of the packet flow, allowing the endpoints to communicate using the fastest, shortest paths.
• The VoIP Device (phone, gateway, or computer) is an intelligent device because it has an IP address, is sending and receiving packets, and in many designs can include data services such as global directory, network time, local weather reports, news streaming and the like.
• The VoIP Network has a large role in ensuring the quality of the audio transmitted. Quality of Service features in the network can allow voice packets to earn priority transit through network bottlenecks and avoid congestion, packet loss, and jittery sound.

Hybrid connectivity to legacy implementations and the public telephone network are still required, so there is a role for both digital and analog media gateways that provide the interface to the public network and to legacy PBXs.

VoIP promises to deliver an entirely new set of applications beyond dial tone. These have been promised for the past five years and are only now emerging in the enterprise market. These new applications enable business productivity and new levels of customer interaction.

VoIP applications offer services that specialize in such capabilities as voice mail, instant messaging, service management, and presence management, and deliver these services with the uniformity, features, and performance expected from enterprise-wide applications.

Find out more about 3Com VoIP offerings or call us at 1-800-638-3266.