Switching to VoIP

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

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Foreword

This is the year of VoIP! So was last year, and the year before that, and the year

before that.... Okay, so what’s the real story? Is VoIP really going to happen? The

answer is that VoIP has been slowly happening all this time. Bit by bit, industry by

industry, this technology has been creeping into homes and businesses everywhere.

As a technology, VoIP is a pretty simple idea—use packet-switched data encapsula-

tion instead of the tried-and-true time-division multiplexed (TDM), circuit-switched

methods that telephony has used since its creation. Since its creation? Is that an exag-

geration? TDM telephony today is essentially just an electronic version of the “cord

board” that the old-time operators used to connect one caller with another.

Advances in packet communication technologies are now making that model obso-

lete, permitting more efficient use of bandwidth resources while providing mobility

and the integration of voice, presence, and other information.

If VoIP is so great, why has it been so slow to catch on? First, as currently standard-

ized, VoIP is more complicated to administer and set up than a traditional telephone

line. Second, while VoIP’s technical merits are impressive, TDM technology is glo-

bally deployed. “Copper may be buried, but it’s not dead,” the saying goes. In order

to be successful, VoIP must be interoperable ...