Travis Luther
IT242
Week 2 VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line. The technology was introduced in 1995, and has developed into an enormous enterprise since then. I will be presenting an overview of the technologies that brought VoIP to fruition, the methods of connecting, benefits, and drawbacks. IP Telephony allows organizations to reuse their existing network infrastructure. With IP Telephony, employees can use IP handsets or softphones anywhere on the corporate network. Generally only a single Ethernet port is required to provide both desktop and IP Telephony (voice) services. Power over Ethernet using the 802.3af standard or pre-standards based power can be used with great advantage throughout an IP Telephony environment to power other network appliances such as 802.11a/b/g wireless access points, IP video surveillance cameras and IP phones. IP Telephony systems also provide the advantage of lower cost moves/adds/changes administration allowing employees and departments to more easily move from location to location without the burdens of administration and service interruption.

Because IP Telephony works with packet networks, the model of support used for IP Telephony can be the same as the one used for the desktop, thereby reducing and simplifying staffing requirements. Since the IP phone or softphone is an intelligent endpoint on the network, it has the intelligence to seek out communications services from one or many IP Telephony call processing services. In addition, clustering and high availability networking technologies provide for a much more business resilient environment at a far lower overall cost.

VoIP is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for voice communications over the internet. Other terms