Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) is a remarkable technology that lets us talk to one another from our home computers. It provides an efficient and flexible way for us to communicate at work and at home, and the cost savings versus conventional telephone services are incredible. It requires little upfront investment, and you have the ability to travel with your phone number all over the world. It is a technology that almost seems too good to be true. As with any relatively new technology, though, there are technical kinks with VOIP that continue to need refining and development in order for the technology to reach its fullest potential as a replacement for the current telephone systems that we are accustomed to using.

At the beginning of a VOIP phone call, there is an analog phone (in use with an ATA), an IP phone, or software that converts data from analog to digital and routes the call to an endpoint. Along with these pieces of equipment, there are protocols that are employed to get the job done efficiently. A protocol is a set of rules that control data transfer between two points, in this case, from the placement of a phone call to the destination. Protocols are put into use by any combination of hardware and software to define real-time communications performance.

There are several VOIP protocols used at this time that mark out which programs (that transform the data) connect with one another along with the network. The most common protocol being used for VOIP is know as H.323, which was created by the International Telecommunication Union for the purposes of videoconferencing. This protocol is actually a group of several specific protocols that provide provisions for videoconferencing, data sharing, and audio transmission (VOIP). However, since it was not expressly designed for VOIP, there are often compatibility issues with its use.

A newer protocol has come out known as Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP. SIP was developed specifically for VOIP, and it is less complex than H.323. Yet another protocol used for VOIP is known as Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP). It focuses on destination control, and is intended to be used for supplemental features such as Call Waiting. A big problem arises because these three protocols do not always work together very congruently. This is often a problem when placing VOIP calls between different networks that use different protocols. And since there has not been yet developed a uniform set of standards for protocols to use for VOIP, problems are likely to continue until they are established.

Despite the technical glitches that can be encountered in using the technology to place phone calls, VOIP is still far more efficient, accommodating, and cost effective to what we are used to in telephone communications. The direction in which VOIP is heading hints that it is poised to one day replace our traditional telephone technology altogether. As with any technology-driven product or service, developers of VOIP will likely continue to improve upon current standards of VOIP and its protocols, further improving the technology for widespread use. This will provide users of VOIP even greater efficiency and reliability when they want to make a telephone call.

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Mark Woodcock

Learn the essential information for picking the Voip provider / services at http://www.voip-services-provider.com/voip-protocol.html

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Emmanuel Proulx is a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) developer who has written an excellent tutorial on the signaling protocol that is widely used in VoIP to initiate communications sessions between callers and respondents.

If you want to learn the basics of SIP but don’t want to take a course or invest in a book full of diagrams and equations, then maybe Emmanuel’s newly posted piece,”An Introduction To SIP, Part 1: Meet SIP” would be a great place to start.

After defining SIP and then describing the protocol’s benefits, Emmanuel dissects a “typical SIP call” in which one user wishes to call another.

He begins this section with a set-up diagram. Here it is:

Emmanuel then proceeds to offer an explanation of each of the above steps. To his immense credit, his explanations are quite understandable as well as technical. He accomplishes this by means of a two-framed presentation: basics on the left, code on the right.

I don’t want to give away the whole store here, but I do think it would be useful to provide an example of why I am so enthusiastic about Emmanuel’s work here.

As an example, I cite the way he describes INVITE, which is the first stage of a SIP call:

Check out the rest here.

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On his Rational Rants blog, fellow ZDNet Blogger Mitch Ratcliffe writes a post he calls NSA Eavesdropping: Deep Inefficiency.

“President Bush like to argue for the NSA’s warrant-less eavesdropping by saying ‘If you’re calling al Qaeda, we want to know why,’ ” Mitch writes. “It was a key argument during the State of the Union address. But now NSA sources are admitting that the program is yielding few or no terrorist connections.”

Yes, but what if the program really worked?

Well, on the Huffington Post Contagious Festival, an animated entry entitled Al Qaeda Caller I.D. depicts the results of an apparently successful NSA (National Security Agency) intercept of a VoIP call to Al Queda.

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Leading mesh network vendor BelAir Networks has formed a technical advisory board consisting of cable system broadband Internet service providers. The goal is to involve these operators into BelAir’s future mesh network development plan.

Planning for mesh networks that would look similar to the mesh at the top of this post.

Once a reality, mesh networks provided by broadband Internet and communications service providers could be used to introduce a substantial broadband cable industry presence into this technology has already begun. This is nothing less than a huge step on the part of cable broadband - more of a rethink with a potential for a significant system architecture shift.

Before we consider why this is so important we need to review what mesh networks are and why they are so important.

In a mesh network - such as the Microsoft-supplied prototype illustration you see just below this graf - peer network nodes can supply backhaul services to other nodes in the same network. The effect is that because all nodes in the network can share the full network, a de facto network is formed because the component parts of the mesh can connect with each other.

As Microsoft’s Networking Research Group notes:

Community-based multi-hop wireless networks is disruptive to the current broadband Internet access paradigm, which relies on cable and DSL being deployed in individual homes. It is important because it allows free flow of information without any moderation or selective rate control. Compared to the large DSL and cable modem systems that are centrally managed, mesh networking is organic — everyone in the neighborhood contributes network resources and cooperates.

To me, such a mesh network could be set up and managed by a broadband service provider over an entire metro area. It could be sold as an additional component of a service bundle, or even marketed as an extended service to multi-location enterprises with need for extensive, two-way graphical collaboration.

Universities, scientific research institutions, advertising agencies and their in-town clients.

“BelAir’s move serves further to underscore that cable MSOs could become a very significant component in mesh networking in North America,” says Sam Lucero, ABI Research senior analyst for wireless connectivity research.

“It’s still early days for mesh, particularly when it comes to cable MSO involvement,” Lucero adds, “but there are good reasons for MSOs to get involved. He predicts real deployment by cable broadband providers within the next 12 to 18 months.

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CableLabs, the research arm of the U.S. cable television industry, is preparing an updated standard that would enable its members to enhance their current VoIP offerings with video telephony, TV-based instant messaging, and integration of VoIP service with wireless.

This would be done via the forthcoming PacketCable 2.0 communications standard,an upgrade of the PacketCable 1.5 standard now in effect.

Considering that most cable companies are CableLabs members, the effect of the new 2.0 standard on VoIP and broadband services is likely to be huge.

Cable Digital News editor Alan Breznick notes that CableLabs director of PacketCable Architecture Eric Rosenfeld’s described these upgrades at the recent Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Emerging Technologies Conference.

Breznick notes that Rosenfeld said that PacketCable 2.0 would incorporate support for SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). SIP support would be a welcome enabler for wireless and video telephony applications.

PacketCable 2.0 would also facilitate support for dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi handsets, as well as call handoffs between VoIP/WiFi and cellular networks.

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I’m posting this from the Sands Exhibition Center, which is the Consumer Electronics Show’s overflow exhibition and conference facility here in Las Vegas.

Just had demos of the new softphone from NetZero Voice, as well as Packet 8’s new softphone.

Unlike more familar softphones such as Skype - these softphones are, in a word, pretty. The dialpad, especially on NetZero Voice, is far larger than Skype’s ugly product, with large keys that are easy to read.

I even talked to a NetZero tech manager about this. Since very few of their existing customers also are already set up with VoIP, and their demos tend to skew toward older users with less technical experience (and I might add, maybe a bit less visual acuity, having a big honking interface with easy-to-read buttons is far from an arbitrary choice. It’s knowing who your customers are - or who you hope they are.

Then, you design products that will appeal to them. Simple navigation, clearly marked control icons and keys, numbers and letters that can be read by those for whom small, busy print and a cluttered, feature-rich bunch of icons are a challenge to read.

Sounds like Marketing 101, people. And it is. Amazingly, though, not all companies know this. Corporate cultures that foster innovative technology at the risk of going over people’s heads- and eyes- deserve to be flogged in this blog.

But when a company gets it right - like NetZero Voice has done with their softphone, then they will be praised.

Which is what you have just read.

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I’m a big believer that it’s when, not if, that we will see Mobile VoIP and true Mobile IP phones very soon.

I’ve talked previously about the phones coming from Kyocera that will work with both 3G and WiFi networks that Boingo will be deploying. Skype is also making noises like they will be in that camp soon, as I expect Yahoo and AOL. It’s too logical and a needed extension for all.

Where Mobile Meets VoIP

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Are you sensing a trend? Not only are other bloggers writing it, they’re all pointing to the signs of the VoIP to Mobile and Mobile to VoIP convergence occuring. This is a bandwagon I have been on for some time and really feel like eurovoip writes here that this is the year it starts to grab hold.

Much of the noise around this will come out of the upcoming 3GSM Conference in Barcelona, Spain in February and then get propelled at CeBIT in Germany in March. CeBIT makes CES look like a walk in the park. It’s more days. Has more booths and the meetings never seem to end. Then CTIA will come along here in the USA and the chatter will get louder, but remember, when it comes to advances in mobile the USA carriers are never first with anything, other than Sprint at promising. I actually think the last first from a USA mobile carrier was Nextel with Direct Connect. Anyway, VoIP to Mobile and Mobile to VoIP will start to take shape really soon here via the MVNO’s. I expect Helio to be one of the first in that space with a dedicated marketing effort around that, along with the smart folks at Boingo.

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VON (Voice On the Net) is the Cadillac of VoIP conferences. It’s on my short list of things I must do this year with Astricon and O’Reilly’s inaugural Emerging Telephony Conference, at which I’ll be presenting some VoIP Hacks with the distinguished Jim Van Megellen, author of Asterisk: The Future of Telephony. Rounding out the annual VoIP tradeshow circuit is TMC’s Internet Telephony Expo. Incidentally, the I.T. Expo and the VON events are somewhat in competition with each other, but it’s very healthy sort of competition that gives occasion to the best thought in the industry. Distinguished voices always breed more beneficial consensus.

But VON is really is the Cadillac, as it will play host to a dazzling series of keynotes from heavy hitting executive thinkers at Nokia, Cisco, CounterPath, Telio, AT&T, and Ericsson. The Spring VON is billed as the largest Voice over IP expo in the world. One look at the list of speakers confirms that. Of course, the VON show is sponsored by Pulvermedia, the publishing and trade exposition company founded by Jeff Pulver, perhaps the namest VoIP luminary of all.

This spring’s VON 2006 will be held March 14 through the 16 in San Jose, CA at the McEnery Convention Center, accesible from the Norman Mineta airport. I hope to see you there!

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Om has a great rant about failure to embrace open standards and platform interoperability as new VoIP products and services are rolled out at this year’s CES. Announcement after announcement from Skype, Philips, Microsoft, Netgear, and a host of others all seem designed to build walled gardens, guard revenue, and prohibit customer exposure to competing services. Om is right when he says this kind of stuff is bad for consumers and bad for VoIP companies, too.

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