What is VoIP and How Does it Work?

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol denotes a general term for a group of methodologies, transmission technologies and communication protocols for the allocation of the voice communication session over the IP networks like as the Internet. Besides this, many other terms often encountered with VoIP are Internet telephony, IP telephony and voice over broadband as well.

Session control protocols are employed by VoIP systems to control over the set-up and tear-down of voice calls along with the audio codec that performs encoding of the speech to transmit over an IP network as the digital audio through an audio stream. The usage of codec can be varied depending on the implementations of Voice over IP technology. Some implementations may support high fidelity stereo codec while others may support narrowband and compressed speech as well.

VoIP can be implemented in various ways using open protocols and standards and proprietary as well. Here are some technologies that are generally used to implement Voice over IP.

• IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)
• H.323
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
• Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)
• Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP)
• Session Description Protocol (SDP)

Voice over IP technology has the potential to rework the World's phone systems entirely. This can easily alter an Internet connection into a way that can facilitate free calls. The most practical upshot of Voice over IP is that one can entirely bypass the phone companies to make free Internet phone calls by using some available VoIP software. That is really unbelievable!

Nowadays, there are three common but different ways to make a call through VoIP. Here are they:

ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor) - It is the most common and simplest way to make a call. The ATA will allow you to connect a phone to your Internet connection or your computer to use VoIP. Generally, ATA is a device that works as the analog-to-digital converter. When an analog signal is generated from your traditional phone, it will then convert it to a digital signal to transmit it over an IP network. The thing you need to do for establishing a VoIP call is just split the ATA out of the box and then plug the cable of your traditional phone into the wall socket of ATA. In some cases, you may need to install some additional software to configure the host PC.

Computer-to-Computer - It is one of the easiest ways to make Voice over IP calls. The best thing about this method is that you do not even have to pay for a long distance call. Lots of software are available in the market and most of them are free or charged very little. For establishing VoIP calls, the things you will require are a software, speakers, a microphone, a sound card and an Internet connection preferably the first one like the DSL modem. You only have to pay the monthly ISP fee and nothing for the Voice over IP calls whatever the distance is.

IP Phones - Apparently there is not any major difference between a traditional phone and an IP phone. However, an IP phone uses a RJ-45 Ethernet connector instead of RJ-11 connector like as the traditional phone. This will directly connect the IP phone to the router. There are all sorts of necessary software loaded in an IP phone to handle a Voice over IP call. On the other hand, Wi-Fi phone allows the users to make a VoIP call from any Wi-Fi hot spot as well.

So, what are you waiting for? Just go and search the free VoIP software in online to download into your PC and then enjoy the gift of Voice over IP technology!

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