Importance Of VOIP in Company...

For large companies, VoIP also offers some very unique possibilities. Many larger companies have already switched to VoIP or have plans to do so. The cost of a VoIP system compared to a standard PBX system is a fraction of the cost. Whereas a standard PBX systems starts well above $5000, that same VoIP installation, with even more features, can be done in many cases for under $1000. Some companies utilizing the technology by conducting all intra-office calls through a VoIP network. Because if the network is wired properly (including possibly making use of fiber optic connectivity) the quality of sound far surpasses that of analog service. Some international companies are using VoIP to circumvent the high cost of international calling. Included in this is the ability for the company or it's customers to call a local number and have it routed through VoIP to the country where they also have an office and then hoping the call off of the internet onto the public network in that local country. This allows the company and their customers to pay local rates internationally. It also allow companies with multiple office to utilize the VoIP network and have all inter-office calls, no matter what office each person is in to as if they are calling someone in the next cubicle.
       
   While your current long-distance plan covers you for only one location. With VoIP no matter what type of a device you use you can make a call from anywhere where you can get a broadband connection. That is because all three methods mentioned above, unlike analog calls, send the call information via the Internet. Hence, you can make calls from home, on vacation, on business trips and almost anywhere else. With VoIP, you can bring your home phone along with you anywhere you go. In the same way, computer-to-computer connections imply that as long as you have your laptop and a broadband connection, you are ready to go.

There are also some nifty benefits to having your calls transmitted over the Internet. For example, some VoIP service providers allow you to check your voicemail via your e-mail, while others allow you to attach voice messages to your e-mails. As well as in most cases online account management and set-up anywhere anytime. Some services will even let you automatically forward your phone to another phone number or group of phone numbers on-the-fly.

VoIP is quickly gaining popularity as companies and telephone providers make the full switch to VoIP, the potential for VoIP technology's use today is already quite astounding. A report by the Forrester Research Group predicts that by the end of 2006, nearly 5 million U.S. households will be using VoIP phone service. TMCnet reported that the rise of VoIP has foreced telephone companies to either become VoIP enabled or go out of business. It is now being predicted that by the end of 2008 there will be as many as 24 million VoIP subscribers in the US alone. With the savings and flexibility that VoIP technology offers, and new advances coming all the time, we can expect those numbers to escalate further in the future.

Can we do efficient signaling?  Wireless VoIP => Mobility

•      Classic telephony approach:

–      HLR (home) /VLR (visitor)

–      Based on phone number

–      Number = Transport + User identity.

•      VoIP separates network, service

–      Network: IP address

–      Service: DNS name, e-mail, URL

•      Need clean architecture.

The VoIP Protocol Soup More than one choice…

•      H.323

–      ITU standard, implementations

–      Complex, heavy, hard to evolve

•      MGCP

–      Client server, “telephony device”

–      Used in Cable networks

–      Not really adequate for mobility support

–      MGCP / Megaco / H.248 debacle

•      SIP

–      Clean end-to-end architecture

Can the Telco accept VoIP?  Wireless VoIP?

•      Special price for voice, data:

–      Wire line: price of voice is 10 x data bit

–      Wireless: data is “special service.”

•      Bundling of services:

–      Caller-ID, Call-Waiting,

–      Voice Mail,

–      3000 “IN” services

–      911, etc.

Wireless VoIP: loosing control of voice?

•      In the short term, QoS issues

–      Contention on the uplink,

–      Telco can control “voice quality IP”,

–      But “real time” is more than voice (video, games, monitoring.)

•      The end of uplink starvation?

–      High speed wireless LAN, 3GIP?

–      Need adequate “sharing” procedure.

Wireless VoIP: becoming “the” infrastructure

•      Need to be always on, meet the classic 99.999% requirement,

•      Deal with societal issues, such as wiretap, in an end-to-end environment,

•      Provide 911 like services:

–      Special signaling, no hang-up,

–      Location services, route to local 911,

–      “Emergency” level for QoS.

Wireless VoIP: loosing control of services

•      IP signaling is end to end

–      SIP agent “outside” the network,

–      Service independent of transport.

•      State is kept in the device:

–      Local implementation of services,

–      Call waiting, multiparty call in device.

•      Empower users, unleash creativity.

Wireless VoIP Roadmap

•      Solve the uplink issue:

–      QoS on “first hop”, not end-to-end,

–      Independent of payload type (voice, etc.)

–      Security, authorization (DHCP, QoS).

•      Encourage competition:

–      “Secure Wireless DHCP,” Roaming

•      Concentrate signaling work on SIP:

–      Forget the ITU.