In today’s world we can say that communication is everything. Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. [1] In the past there was only direct communication but things have changed today. Now we have various means for communicating like phones, the internet and IP phones as well.
Basics:
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams (packets) across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. Responsible for routing packets across network boundaries, it is the primary protocol that establishes the Internet. The Internet Protocol is responsible for addressing hosts and routing datagrams (packets) from a source host to the destination host across one or more IP networks.[2]
IP telephony (Internet Protocol telephony) is a general term for the technologies that use the Internet Protocol’s packet-switched connections to exchange voice, fax, and other forms of information that have traditionally been carried over the dedicated circuit-switched connections of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Using the Internet, calls travel as packets of data on shared lines, avoiding the tolls of the PSTN. The challenge in IP telephony is to deliver the voice, fax, or video packets in a dependable flow to the user. Much of IP telephony focuses on that challenge.
[3]
The use of IP phones:
People pick up a telephone attached to the global public switched telephone network (PSTN) when they want to talk to someone else, and sit down at a computer attached to the global public Internet when they want to send e-mail to someone else. Few people would imagine using the Internet to make a telephone call. After all, these are two different networks, aren’t they?
So why not use IP for telephone calls over the Internet or some other IP-based network? If the Internet can be used to transfer video and audio between a server and client computer, then why not voice? Voice is just considered to be interactive audio in this case. And modern voice digitization techniques actually make it difficult to distinguish packet streams with voice bits from packet streams with data bits. “Bits is bits,” as the saying goes, and it has never been truer. [4]
IP telephony technology has become a reliable communication option that has well-established standardized communication protocol. IP Telephony systems have many low cost devices and software application development tools available compared to proprietary telephone systems and services. The use of IP Telephony products and software allows companies to cost-effectively upgrade and eventually replace existing (legacy) telephone systems with more cost effective and easy to use telephone equipment.
Not all IP Telephony systems and services are the same. There are cost and quality tradeoffs along with common problem areas and risks. There are many ways IP Telephony systems can reduce telecommunication costs along with the ability to create new revenue producing services. [5] Be careful to chose properly. Cisco IP phone takes full advantage of converged voice and data networks, while retaining the convenience and user-friendliness you expect from a business phone.[6]
Conclusion:
IP phone is a revolutionary discovery which makes to communication easier, simpler and cheaper. In modern world with the great need for fast and secure ways of communicating IP phones could be just the right solution.
Resources:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol
[3] http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/definition/IP-telephony
[4] IP Telephony by: Walter Goralski and Matthew C. Kolon
[5] IP Telephony Basics, Author: Lawrence Harte, David Bowler, and Robert T. Flood
[6] http://www.ciscocentral.com.au
