Voice over IP vs. Traditional Solutions

Jan 13
09:09

2013

Bipasha Bhatia

Bipasha Bhatia

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Voice over IP for small businesses can help them to move to the next level. Getting the benefits of VoIP solutions is a vital process for today’s business.

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Voice over IP driven networks come with their own advantages, as well as disadvantages. Knowing what they are can help you make a smart decision on what system is best for you.

Traditional vs. Voice Over Internet Protocol Solutions

Traditional networks require that the users set aside circuits or channels for every call with a 64 kb bandwidth in use for the channel. This traditional system worked quite well,Voice over IP vs. Traditional Solutions Articles although with some downsides. Some of the disadvantages include the high expense of equipment purchase and installation, as well as maintenance. Competition led to the lowering of prices and some trends, such as home agents, have made dedicating a line to calls quite prohibitive.

VoIP was the solution that makes the network resource use more efficient. Users can use broadband Internet in voice and data. This additionally offers the capacity to compress audio, thereby enabling the reduction of bandwidth needed in making calls.

Audio Coders

The typical audio codec that’s non-compressed is G.711, while the audio codec that’s compressed is the G.729. While the differences between the two may not be very noticeable, the G.729 works quite well. One of the noticeable differences is the processing of music of G.729 compared to that of G.711. The G.711 phone network has inadequacies in passing music that’s high fidelity.

The G.729, that compresses audio, may sometimes result in the music sounding slightly distorted. For instance, on-hold music where the audio codec used is G.729 may sound garbled or broken, but as once the music ceases and one begins speaking then all is well. Therefore, the complaints are not anything that can be amended, as its how the coder was designed.

Questions and Solutions

With the increased use of VoIP and it becoming more popular with individuals and businesses, there has been an extensive knowledge base developed by experts and providers to answer questions that many have.

Some of these questions include how voice over internet protocol affects call security, the workings of voice over VPN, questions on soft phones, SIP phones, SRTP or encrypted audio, SIP over MPLS, SIP trunks and a whole range of questions on voice over internet protocol technology. This body of knowledge also includes implementation and secure design of some complex VoIP services and other more traditional DS3 and T1 solutions.

Each technology has its benefits, strengths and limitations, and users should be aware of all these so that they can make informed choices. Complete packages for businesses should be able to give a competitive advantage uniquely to the specific company and address security concerns and other voice over IP communication issues.