Internet Telephony

1. Introduction: Internet telephony involves conducting a teleconference over the Internet or a Wide Area Network. One key technology in this area is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Voice over IP (VoIP) is a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. Other terms commonly associated with Internet telephony are IP telephony, VoIP, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service.

2. Development of Internet Telephony: First generation providers of voice-over-IP services offered business models and technical solutions that mirrored the architecture of the legacy telephone network- public switched telephone network (PSTN). Second-generation providers, such as Skype, have built closed networks for private user bases, offering the benefit of free calls and convenience while potentially charging for access to other communication networks, such as the PSTN. This has limited the freedom of users to mix-and-match third-party hardware and software. Third-generation providers, such as Google Talk, have adopted the concept of federated VoIP.

3. Importance of Internet Telephony: The advantages of Internet telephony over PSTN are as follows-

a) Cheap: Many Internet telephony service provider offer unlimited domestic calling or sometimes international calls to certain countries for a nominal flat monthly subscription fee. Because of the bandwidth efficiency and low costs that VoIP technology can provide, businesses are migrating from traditional copper-wire telephone systems to VoIP systems to reduce their monthly phone costs.

b) Low Infrastructure: VoIP allows both voice and data communications to be run over a single network, which can significantly reduce infrastructure.

c) Simple and Intuitive: VoIP devices have simple, intuitive user interfaces, so users can often make simple system configuration changes.

4. Examples: Popular software that can be used for Internet telephony includes Skype, Google Voice, and WhatsApp.

Sl. No.	Name	URL
1)	Google Voice	(https://voice.google.com)
2)	Skype	(http:// www.skype.com)
3)	WhatsApp	(http://web.whatsapp.com)
4)	Cloud Telephony from REVE Systems	(https://www.revesoft.com/)

Table: Internet Telephony Service Providers

5. Conclusion: The term Internet telephony specifically refers to the provisioning of communications services (voice, fax, SMS, voice-messaging) over the public Internet, rather than via the PSTN. The steps and principles involved in originating VoIP telephone calls are similar to traditional digital telephony and involve signaling, channel setup, digitization of the analog voice signals, and encoding. Instead of being transmitted over a circuit-switched network, however, the digital information is packetized, and transmission occurs as IP packets over a packet-switched network.

How to Cite this Article?

APA Citation, 7^th Ed.:  Barman, B. (2020). A comprehensive book on Library and Information Science. New Publications.

Chicago 16^th Ed.:  Barman, Badan. A Comprehensive Book on Library and Information Science. Guwahati: New Publications, 2020.

MLA Citation 8^th Ed:  Barman, Badan. A Comprehensive Book on Library and Information Science. New Publications, 2020.

Badan Barman at present working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014, Assam, India. He is the creator of the LIS Links (http://www.lislinks.com) - India’s most popular social networking website for Library and Information Science professionals. He also created the UGC NET Guide (http://www.netugc.com) and LIS Study (http://www.lisstudy.com) website.