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VoIP vs. Traditional Telephony |
If you've been researching VoIP, no doubt you will have run into all sorts of sources claiming that VoIP is vastly superior to traditional telephony. VoIP will save you money, you've read. VoIP will increase your productivity and cut down overheard, you've been told again and again. Alright, it's new, it's the latest thing, but how does it really accomplish all these things? We hope this article will be of use in putting the relative advantages of VoIP into plain, intelligible English.
To begin with, let's discuss what VoIP is. If you already know a little about it, this will be a review, but bear with me for just a moment. VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. Basically, VoIP is a way of transmitting voice data (phone calls) via the same equipment (both hardware and software) that sends the digital information used for emails, websites, and networks. Without getting into undue detail, it works like this: voice data is translated into digital information (packets) using an ATA, VoIP(Media) Gateway, or directly with an IP telephone. These packets travel in much the same way as an email, moving from station to station over a network or the Internet until they reach their destination, and are once again translated into voice data at the other end.
Why is this better? To begin with, let's look at how a traditional telephone network sends information. Traditional telephony sends signals directly along physical equipment. It relies on a concept called circuit switching to ensure that data reaches the correct endpoint. Think of it like the plumbing in your house, or a train on a set of tracks. It's dependable as long as the tracks are in place: the train can go anywhere the tracks lead. The problem is that it can't go anywhere else. If the tracks are broken, the train simply can't get through.
VoIP on the other hand, works differently. As already mentioned, VoIP translates data into information bundles called packets. These packets contain their own routing information, a small piece of information attached to the rest that identifies both the source and the destination of the packet. If circuit switched telephony is like a train, think of VoIP like a series of motorists in their own cars. Cars can use any road so long as it exists. In the same way, packets travel via any route they can in order to reach their destination. This means that if one route goes down or is removed, they will simply find another way around. There does not need to be a single, connected physical wire between two VoIP endpoints in order for them to communicate, and several VoIP signals can use the same section of network to communicate just like several computers.
This translates into the much touted cost savings. Instead of dedicated wiring and circuit switching hardware for a phone system, all a company needs is routers on either end, and the same equipment that is already being used for computer networks. It allows you to do away with the ungainly circuit switched network used by traditional telephony and transmit all data via one converged network – computer and voice alike.
And there's another benefit of the application of computer routing to phone data. In a traditional phone network, every call takes up essentially just as much signal space, or bandwidth, as every other call of the same quality. In a converged network using VoIP, that is no longer true. A packet that is only going across the office and which stays within a LAN (local area network) needs many fewer directions than one which is going, say, across the country. This means that intra-office calls (which are often the highest volume for any given company) use smaller packets and therefore much less bandwidth than those which need to travel beyond the LAN.
So, what are the advantages of VoIP over a traditional, circuit-switched network? Better routing and lower network cost. Lower bandwidth usage and decreased upkeep fees. Implementing VoIP means taking care of (and paying for) only one network instead of two. And that's not even mentioning all of the increased capabilities which VoIP offers as a result of digitizing its data. So, next time you're thinking about updating your company's phone system, consider VoIP, and think about how it can benefit your business.
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Definity Systems
