Introduction

Voice over IP (VoIP) is considered by many to be the “killer app” of the next generation network.  The next generation network will be Internet Protocol (IP) based.  Depending on your definition of the next generation network, it could mean VoIP over wireless or VoIP over wireline networks.  In reality it does not matter.

VoIP is voice over an Internet Protocol (IP) based network.  All networks will be supporting IP.  There are two ways of looking at VoIP: regulatory/business and technical.  We are going to address the technology.  The regulatory and business perspective will provide a framework by which VoIP will be provided.  However, the regulatory and business view is far too complex to discuss in a white paper.

Before we leap into what VoIP is, engineers need to understand voice.  As a service, voice is a basic necessity.  Despite the preponderance of email, people prefer to talk to one another rather than email one another.  Declining minutes of use in the wireline network is due to the existence of wireless communications and email.  As a mass market service, voice is the basic service of all services.  Without voice a telecommunications service provider is not meeting the needs of all of its customers.  If one looked at every Internet Service Provider (ISP) today you would find that all of them are working towards providing voice.

The Internet was not originally designed to carry audio communications.  In fact the Internet protocol could not meet the exacting requirements of the voice service customer.  Furthermore, there were many engineers involved in the Internet who did not believe the Internet had to provide voice in a manner equal in quality to that of the circuit switched network.  The lack of business and the need to make money changed all of that.  Market realities in the end dictate how technology will be provided.  Voice is the most sought after service across the entire telecommunications marketplace.  Despite the various data tools and services available, people need to communicate verbally.  Once an ISP is capable of providing voice it will be able to take advantage of providing e-commerce and m-commerce to the customer.

At one time, VoIP was provided as a best effort service just as other Internet services had been.  The Internet Protocol is a “best effort” protocol.  The focus on the moving of data in the Internet world is on flexibility in interconnection not the reliability of the data at the destination point.  Until recently the only thing that the Internet had guaranteed is that a “best effort” would be made to ensure the data arrived intact.  This is probably not a fair statement to make today.  The Internet community is working at meeting the needs of voice.