Building the Converged Network 2
Voice Over IP Technologies, Internet Telephony: Building the Converged Network
| Book Title: | Voice Over IP Technologies: Building the Converged Network |
| Author: | Mark A. Miller |
| Publication: | John Wiley & Sons March, 2002 |
| ISBN: | 0764549073 |
The old fashioned telephone line saw a big improvement when it was discovered that signals could be sent in digital fashion, attenuating noise and making them more robust and suitable for features such as caller ID, error control and so on. The accession of the Internet and mobile telecommunications however have downed its usefulness – up until the idea that the two technologies could be combined.
Called Voice over IP, the new technology aims to digitize voice signals, send them over the existing internet infrastructure and reconvert them to analog at the destination – all the while benefiting from the advantages of using digital and computers: encryption, compression, error control and almost null costs of transport across huge distances. The advantages are evident: the old PSTN line could only connect two callers at one time, had greater costs and could not benefit from the media capabilities of today’s computers: any other form of communication (graphics exchange, video feed, etc.) would have to be done separately.
The integration of VoIP with the internet is not problem-free, however. The architecture of today’s Internet infrastructure means that packets of data have little to no control over the route they take and the order they arrive in at the destination, which is not suitable for real-time conversation. Thus changes had to be made and technologies exist that can make a VoIP solution suitable for corporate needs, even though the time VoIP is as readily available as regular phones is not too near.
Voice Over IP Technologies: Building the Converged Network by Mark A. Miller, ISBN: 0764549073 deals with the information required to design and implement a “converged networkâ€, including voice, video, fax (Email Fax) and other media, using the Internet Protocol (IP), and is written to outline the possibilities and disadvantages of technologies in use today.
As usual, there are two sides to this story: for a successful deployment of a VoIP solution, solid knowledge is required on both data and voice networks, and the goal of Voice Over IP Technologies: Building the Converged Network is to bridge the gap between the two areas, all the while keeping an eye on costs and cost-effectiveness.
The book provides information on Comparing Voice over IP to Public Switched Telephone Network (so called PSTN lines), VPN, international telephony, video conferencing, Fax over IP and other multimedia applications, various protocols in use today, such as RTP, RTCP, RSVP and their pertinence in relation to the IP network, various standards such as H.323, SIP and their relation to VoIP gateways and the latest developments in Voice over Frame Relay, ATM and DSL for use in WANs and dedicated networks.
The book also comes with a CD-ROM that includes needed RFC (Request For Comment) documents, eRing Solutions’ itRings! client software (trial version) and Westbay Engineers’ Westplan demo version.
Voice Over IP Technologies: Building the Converged Network benefits from its author’s extensive experience in data and voice networks, as he is regarded as one of the leading experts in LAN and WAN design and management, as well as from his expertise in Frame Relay, TCP/IP and ATM and their practical applications. The book has numerous appendixes and a glossary, its ellaborate index making it useful for future references.
Written in an understandable manner, well organized and carefully researched, Voice Over IP Technologies: Building the Converged Network is 500 pages of pertinent knowledge for the voice and data network proffesional.
