Voice Over Internet Protocol - VoIP

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a process of sending voice telephone signals over a packet data network (such as the Internet). VoIP is also called IP Telephony.

If the telephone signal is in analog form (voice or fax) the signal is first converted to a digital form. Packet routing information is then added to the digital voice signal so it can be routed through the Internet or data network.

IP telephone systems provide voice or multimedia communication services through the use Internet protocol (IP) networks. These IP networks initiate, process, and receive voice or multimedia communications using IP protocol. These IP systems may be public IP systems (e.g. the Internet), private data systems (e.g. LAN based), or a hybrid of public and private systems. When IP Telephony is performed over the public telephone network it is called Internet Telephony.

This diagram shows how an Internet network (public or private) can be used to provide telephone service. In this example, a calling telephone or multimedia capable computer dials a telephone number. This telephone number is provided to a voice gateway. The voice gateway decodes the dialed digits and determines the destination address (IP address) of the gateway that can service the dialed telephone number. The remote gateway signals the caller of an incoming call (rings the phone or alerts a multimedia computer). When the user answers the call, a message is sent between the gateways and a virtual path can be created between the gateways. This virtual path takes the audio, converts it to digital form, compresses and packetizes the information, adds the destination gateway address to each packet, routes the packets through the Internet to the destination gateway, and converts the digital audio back to its original analog form.

Voice Over Internet Protocol - VoIP System Diagram

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