Introduction to VoIP

Developed for the Cisco Networking Academy Community

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Content
• Introduction
• Assessment scheme
• VoIP – the big picture
• Standards Organization
• Applications
• Challenges

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Voice Convergence Networks

• Converging means moving towards.

• Ultimately, the objective is to integrate data,

voice, video and Gaming into the IP network.

• IP network includes the dial-up, DSL, cable

modem, wireless, LAN and Internet.

• For it to be successful, it must inter-operate with

the PSTN.

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PSTN vs VoIP
• PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Networks) consists of
landline, GSM, satellite & undersea telephone cable.

• PSTN is governed by ITU-T

• Traditional digital phone (GSM) is TDM (Time Division

Multiplex) based.

• IP phone is digital and packet based

• VoIP (Voice over IP) is the delivery of voice and

multimedia sessions over IP

• VoIP is under IETF

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ITU-T
• ITU-T sets the standards for the PSTN.
• It is affiliated with the UN and considers consensus and
peacekeeping most important
• ITU-T standards go through many iterations, and often
take years to reach an agreement.
• Progress is also slow because of national interest.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).
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IETF
• IETF sets the standards for Internet.

• IETF is much more pragmatic, believing in "rough consensus

and running code,"
– everyone may not agree on all the fine points, but
nevertheless keep moving towards a functional system.

• Based on the model of sharing ideas and results.

• Open access to all documents – readily interoperate with

existing and emerging applications.

• Used 2 document types to get feedback:

1. Internet-Drafts (I-Ds)
2. Request For Comments (RFC)
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VoIP market trend
1. VoIP is attracting more new accounts than PSTN

2. Residential/business customers want voice, video, data

services, game and mobile phone service

3. Potential cost saving: VoIP has unlimited call time while

landline charges for its usage

4. 2015: Singapore – totally wireless and wired country

– Unlimited call time when using IP phone (wireless or
wired)
– Current smart phone can switch between IP/GSM.

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VoIP Evolution
• IP Telephony (IPT)
• Internet telephony
• Computer Telephony (CT)
• Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
• Unified Communication
• Collaboration Networks

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Collaboration Networks
• Unified messaging
– Combine all messaging media such as voice mail, SMS,
e-mail, fax and gaming in one platform

• Video conferencing
– Telepresence: business meetings, medical consultation,
NetRiders’ competition
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x55SKHIrqeU
– Web-Ex

• Social Networks
– Link Dispersed Knowledge Workers

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• Mobile Applications
Call Centers – VoIP Biggest Users

• Call centers handle customers’ inquiries on behalf on a

company.
• Operator can search for required information.

• Auto-Attendant (AA)
– to interact with callers and direct their calls to the
desired person

• Customer care
– Quickly connecting people with the support they need

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2 Types of Call Centers
• Call Center
– A team of people in a particular location handling calls
on a dedicated basis.
– A call center may be inbound (hotel reservation) or
outbound (telemarketing) or both.

• Distributed Call Center

– Working from different locations (even at home).
– Often working across different time zones

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Advantages of VoIP
1) Lower toll charges for overseas calls.
2) One network to purchase and maintain.
3) One system to pay instead of separate systems for
phone & IP.
4) More calls with less bandwidth
– PSTN uses 64 kbps per voice channel
– VoIP typically uses 8 kbps per voice channel
– For the same bandwidth, VoIP can carry more calls.
5) Provide more value-added services

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Smart App

• 2 islands from Changi Village Hotel

• Learn Chinese

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Value-Added Services

• Desktop SMS service

• Staff and government directory services
• MOTD
• Information Services (weather, news, stocks,
flights, traffic, currency, etc)
• Book Cab e.g. SMRT Taxi
• Dial by voice

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Value-Added Services
• Simultaneous ringing
– Never miss another important call. Any incoming call will
ring at the same time on, say, mobile, land and IP phone.
The first phone to answer connects to the caller.
– Cisco Unified Mobility application
• Link a single phone number to multiple devices

• Speed dial – one button dialing

• Power dialing – alert telemarketer only if call is successful

(someone picks up the phone).

• Call accounting applications

– track information about individual calls
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Value-Added Services
• Dial by name instead of by number
• Auto dial -- re-try when callee is available
• Auto re-dial
• Call Park

Do Not Disturb (DND)

DND via soft
key
Message:
"Ring out DND" DND Enabled

call

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Call from Internet
• Ability to convert Internet-based visitors into potential
customers
– Click-to-callback
enables to leave a phone number to which a
representative can return the call
– Click-to-call
offers immediate voice connectivity in real time

• Information Retrieval
– Voice processing solutions that allow callers to retrieve
information
• e.g. area code to call Dalian
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Caller ID Spoofing
• Allows a caller to masquerade as someone else by
falsifying the number that appears on the recipient's
caller ID display.
• Similar to e-mail spoofing

• Users:
– Collection agencies, law enforcement officials,
and private investigators.

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Challenges
1. Loss of voice quality Any deterioration in that quality is
perceived as very disruptive.

2. Loss of reliability. Data networks are not yet as reliable

as voice networks (99.999%).

3. Being prematurely "locked-in" to a given vendor's

architecture.

4. Open and standards-based

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Canadian Toddler Dies after VOIP 911 call
• Ambulance dispatched to wrong city

• By Cade Metz in San Francisco

• Posted in VoIP, 6th May 2008 19:39 GMT

• A Canadian toddler has died after a VOIP-based 911 call sent an ambulance to
the wrong address.

• Last week, as reported by the CBC, a Calgary family dialed 911 via their
internet phone service when 18-month-old Elijah Luck went into medical
distress. Their VOIP provider, Comwave, then dispatched an ambulance to the
family's former home in Mississauga, Ontario, more than twenty-five-hundred
miles away.

• After waiting over half an hour, the family said, they made another emergency
call from a neighbor's land line phone. An ambulance arrived within six minutes,
but the toddler was later pronounced dead at the Alberta Children's Hospital.

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References

• Exam CRAM, CCNA Voice

- David Bateman, William Burton
- QUE Certification

• CCNA Voice Study Guide

- Andrew Froehlich
- SYBEX

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Thank you

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