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How Voice over Internet Protocol Works
October 27th 2010
Voice over Internet Protocol is a communications technology allowing people to conduct normal voice conversations over the Internet instead of the traditional telephone network. Whereas in the past voice conversations were almost always carried over standard phone lines, the arrival of Internet technology has opened up a whole new world of alternatives for not only local calls, but long distance ones as well.
Conceptually speaking, Voice over Internet Protocol is simple to understand. Your voice is recorded via a microphone connected to your PC, which is then digitized by your PC’s sound card. These digitized sounds are compressed by special software, known as codecs, for faster delivery over the Internet. The compressed data is broken up into packets and sent to your desired recipient. These packets are reassembled on the receiving end, decompressed, and played over your recipient’s speakers or headphones via their PC’s sound card.
In practice, Voice over Internet Protocol software is more complicated than this, as it must also handle connection establishment, management, and disconnection. An architecture must also exist for managing users in a global directory if callers are to be able to find each other easily.