In the
conclusion of our first Back to School series, Private &
Wireless Broadband is covering one of the
most technically confusing, yet highly anticipated topics in telecommunications
today: IP Telephony.
As always, so that we can meet the needs of our diverse readership, we encourage comments, corrections or criticisms about each article in this series. We also encourage suggestions for our next Back to School beginning early next year. Please send comments, corrections, criticisms and questions to comments@privatebroadband.com.
Joel Schofield
Executive Editor
Finally, you can stop pretending you really know what
it means.
By Larry Kessler
Regardless of race, religion or creed most every American celebrates the Thanksgiving Holiday. It is the Olympic starting block for the official Holiday Season. Marking this grand occasion, both the National Football League and Macy’s Parade spend weeks in preparation to provide the entertainment. In the preparation for the great feast, thousands of unsuspecting turkeys go marching to the chopping blocks where their feathers are soon to be more than simply ruffled. But in the world of providing competitive telephone service as a Private Broadband Operator, the big game is already underway and a few turkeys are already visited the chopping block.
The Fundamentals
Despite countless efforts at making the subject of telephone technology easier to understand, the number of new acronyms and incoherent definitions continue to grow. Fortunately, there are only a handful of either that are necessary for understanding the subject of IP Telephony (tel-lef-unee).
The acronym IP stands for Internet Protocol. Internet Protocol means nothing more than the technology used to send conversations between two people, e-mail or pictures over the Internet. And at this point, it is necessary to understand the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web (www).
Internet vs WWW
The Internet is simply a global network connecting millions of computers (and now telephones and television sets), that all work together to exchange information. As an analogy, the Internet can be thought of as a mass transit system, with a few main subway lines that intersect at certain points. Connecting to the subway lines are commuter rails, bus lines, and ferry boats that spread out and crisscross the metropolitan area." This global association of computers (telephones and TVs) allows us to access and disseminate information from virtually any computer in the world connected to the Internet.
The World Wide Web, or the “Web” as it is most often referred to is a system of Internet servers connected to the Internet that support a collection of documents collectively called web sites. Therefore, as you now see, the Internet is the global network that connects everything. The World Wide Web is simply one of the things the Internet is capable of connecting. Could the Web exist without the Internet? No. Could the Internet exist without the Web? Sure, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.
Telephone System vs Internet
With IP Telephony, the Internet as opposed to the traditional telephone system is being used to connect two people holding a verbal conversation. But the Internet’s ability to expand far beyond voice and into the realm of finally seeing friends, family and colleagues during these conversations is immense on a the telephone, as opposed to the traditional telephone network.
IP Telephony is also referred to as Voice Over IP (VoIP). PSTN is the acronym for Public Switched Telephone Networks. Today, most consumers talk on the telephone through PSTNs. These are the telephone systems through which American’s have been holding conversations for decades. And for most consumers, the PSTN is how they connect to the Internet as well, using dial-up modems and connecting to services such as America Online.
With the telephone system used currently for talking, faxing or connecting to the Internet, a dedicated communication path is required between the sender and receiver, along which all information “data packets” must travel. Data is nothing more than sounds (your voice), images (pictures, video) and text (e-mail) traveling from a sender to a receiver over the Internet. As such, a packet of data is nothing more than a voice on the phone, an e-mail message or a television show. The tools used to hear or see the data packets once they arrive are telephones, computers and televisions.
The traditional telephone system functions in the same way as if every individual traveling to work in the morning were to be assigned a specific lane in which to travel, waiting his or her turn to advance. In time, the growing number of commuters creates traffic jams for hours. And it is the added traffic of businesses and consumers accessing the Internet, gaining access to the World Wide Web that is creating these traffic jams. This results in slow connections, broken connections, busy signals and much more. Most experts agree that the only solution to this problem is to transfer voice communications, video and data from the existing telephone network (the PSTN) to the IP network, the Internet.
IP To The Rescue
The existing telephone network which requires a dedicated connection between the sender and receiver. A connection, a conversation must follow a fixed path from point A to point B. And if this path is blocked by traffic, the result is busy signals, disconnects or simply bad quality connections. It is this need for a separate, dedicated connection that is causing massive communication traffic jams and many other problems with the traditional telephone network (witness an Internet connection during peak use).
IP Telephony does not require a dedicated connection. Basically, IP is a connectionless way to talk on the phone, send e-mails or surf the Net. It is this connectionless way of sending information that makes IP networks far more efficient than traditional telephone networks.
With IP networks (once again, simply the Internet), information can travel from sender to receiver over different, non-dedicated routes. Essentially, what the IP network provides is a series of backcountry roads or multiple short cuts for telephone conversations, e-mail and faxes. It is this flexibility that provides the promise of IP Telephony. By using alternate (better, faster) routes between sender and receiver, traffic jams can be relieved. Ultimately, this leads to a far more efficient use of the entire communications network. And as expected, with greater efficiencies come new services, better services and better pricing.
Technically Speaking
The primary technical difference between the IP network (the Internet) and the local telephone network (PSTN) is the way the connection is made between the sender and receiver. The normal, everyday telephone network requires all communications between sender and receiver to first travel from the sender to a central collection point. From here, it is routed to the receiver. All of this is controlled by geographic telephone numbers. Two static (sitting still, non-moving points) between sender and receiver, connected through defined central points managing the connection.
The IP network does not depend on static numbers and can therefore connect a sender and receiver through multiple pathways. Which again, creates the many advantages that is resulting in billions of dollars being spent on growing the IP industry.
The PSTN network dedicates a fixed amount of bandwidth for each conversation (taking place on the phone or Internet) and thus quality is guaranteed, in theory. Bandwidth is simply the size of the straw through which one can drink a milkshake. If the amount of bandwidth is fixed, so too is the capacity to get something from point A to point B and back again. With the PSTN network, when the caller places a typical voice call, she picks up the phone and hears a dial tone. She then dials an area code and local telephone number. A central office will establish the connection, allowing the conversation can take place.
When the caller places an IP telephony call, she picks up the phone, hears a dial tone and dials a number that is forwarded to the nearest IP telephony gateway located between her and the receiving party. The gateway turns the voice into data packets and sends them on their way over the network (and not all in the same direction if it decides going several different directions is the best way to travel). The gateway finds a route through the Internet that reaches the called number using the most efficient route. Upon receiving these voice packets, the IP telephony gateway located in the vicinity of the person receiving the call reassembles the voice packets from their current digital form to the analog form needed to understand the caller’s voice. Of course, all of this takes place in absolute fractions of a second
So basically, IP by itself is something like the postal system. It allows you to address several packages to a single person, dropping them anywhere into the U.S. postal system. In the end, they will all end up at the same destination (or so they say).
Private Broadband Telephone Service
The communication industry is going through a period of explosive change. The use of traditional telephone system by computers connecting to the Internet is becoming a more significant proportion of the traffic compared to telephone conversations and faxes. The system was not designed to perform at this level. It has a fixed amount of bandwidth and therefore, a fixed capacity. So the “computer industry” has adapted by creating modems, software and other tools to maximize the use of the telephone system. Only, the capacity is being tapped out. Although, DSL technology promises to relieve much of this problem by allowing the telephone network to function closer to the capacity of the IP network (the Internet).
Today, IP is considered the most promising platform on which to build new services as it opens up the Internet highway, adding more lanes and better managing traffic flow. As such, IP telephony service shapes the Internet for real-time services such as talking on the phone or video conferencing with family, friends and colleagues.
Private Broadband Operators specializing in either the commercial or residential multi dwelling unit (MDU) marketplace, the competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) offering voice and data services, the Internet service providers (ISPs) and Private Cable Operators (PCOs) offering digital video can all benefit from IP telephony in several ways.
The ability to offer lower priced telephone service by bypassing the current public switched network (PSTN) enables price discrimination as well as entirely new business opportunities. The ability to offer video telephone calls, video conferencing, between friends, family and colleagues gives private operators a tremendous edge over the local franchise cable operator of Bell company. These and other facts make IP telephony the answer to the voice, video and data bundle for Private Broadband Operators.
How To
There are three methods in which two people can hold a telephone conversation using IP telephony. The first is where two individuals are speaking from computer-to-computer, using microphones and speakers. In this scenario, both individuals are using a computer attached to the Internet. The sender’s voice is compressed into data packets by software installed on the computer, and decompressed by the same software in the receivers computer. This method of IP telephony requires both parties participating in the call to have a personal computer with sound card, microphone, loudspeaker, and some version (of the many in existence) of IP telephony software. This form of IP telephony is becoming rapidly popular as computer-to-computer conversations are free.
The second method is where one of the individuals is using a computer (with the above mentioned hardware and software) calling a person on a normal telephone, or vice-versa. In this scenario, a gateway on the IP network takes care of the voice compression and decompression between the two individuals. This is the second most popular form of IP telephony as computer-to-phone (or vice-versa) conversations usually cost three or four cents per minute.
The third method is where two individuals are using conventional telephones and the IP network is used for the long distance connection. This is considered by many to be the best point of entry into providing IP telephony service for Private Broadband Operators. In this scenario, IP gateways on both ends are taking care of the traffic flow and the necessary voice translations between two individuals. The cost savings over traditional long distance calling are substantial. So substantial in fact, that the name brand long distance providers (AT&T, MCI Worldcom, etc.) are discussing getting out of the long distance business, giving it to the local Bell companies and moving strictly into selling space on their networks for data transport. Because remember now, with IP, “data” is people talking on the phone as well as e-mail, electronic documents, e-commerce, streaming broadband video, digital music and much more.
Broadband Promises
While sound quality is currently an issue with IP telephony, the advent of “broadband” is rapidly changing this. Technologies like cable broadband and DSL (digital subscriber line) access are increasing sound quality by increasing the speed with which voice is transmitted over the Internet. By facilitating a broadband connection directly or through a strategic alliance with a broadband access service provider, Private Broadband Operators are able to finally offer the promise of high quality, dependable local and long distance telephone services. This promise makes it imperative for all private operators and MDU property owners to begin learning more about this rapidly emerging and evolving technology. Because it is only a matter of time before you are either playing in the broadband game as a pro, or marching off to the chopping block like a turkey.
Larry Kessler is CEO of InteliCable Group, a national firm exclusively representing residential and commercial multidwelling unit property owners, developers and management firms in researching, developing and negotiating digital video and broadband infrastructure, service and contracts. He may be reached with questions and comments via e-mail at lkessler@intelicable.com.
SIDE BAR
Web sites to visit for interesting information about current IP telephony services are: