Understanding VoIP And How It Saves You Money On Your Long Distance Phone Bill

VoIP Gateway Information

	Top VoIP Gateway Sites

	Understanding VoIP And How It Saves You Money On Your Long Distance Phone Bill

Understanding VoIP And How It Saves You Money On Your Long Distance Phone Bill

If two parties wish to communicate via VoIP, they both need to have a broadband connection. Broadband is a high-speed internet connection, and is generally provided by DSL modem or cable. Most of the time broadband modems are used to connect computers to the internet, but it's possible to use VoIP without a computer.

VoIP at its simplest level involves a computer-to-computer voice connection. For this, each participant simply requires a computer, a headset with earphones and a microphone, and VoIP software. It's easy to find a free VoIP software package, and it's possible to connect to any other computer running the same software. Skype is one of the most popular, but is certainly not the only package available. This type of VoIP connection is free, and you can call another user anywhere in the world.

You can also use VoIP software to connect to landline or regular phones, even though they're not connected to the internet. Generally you will have to pay a call charge to do this, but it's still often a lot cheaper than standard phone company charges. It's even possible to call cellular phones through some VoIP services. In this situation, the person receiving the call doesn't need any special equipment or software to receive your call.

VoIP uses digital data transmission. Initially, your human voice is changed from an analog signal into digital data. The analog signal is split up into pieces, each one represented by numbers. This audio data is then compressed for transmission, reducing the amount of digital data without losing audio quality. This compressed version is then sent over the internet. The stream of data is broken up into packets, and each one is sent individually based on the destination already coded into the data.

Data travels over the internet in layers, with each layer having a specific purpose. With VoIP services, the data has a transport layer known as the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) that creates a connection between the sender and receiver. Another application layer is the Real-time Transmission Protocol (RTP) that is specifically for delivering audio and video over the internet. The RTP keeps information about the correct sequences of the data packets, so that when they reach their destination they can be reassembled into the right order.

If packets don't arrive at the destination within a set amount of time, RTP drops those packets. This is important, because data packets do sometimes get lost along the way, and if the RTP waited for every single one to arrive, there could well be huge gaps in the audio stream. Generally, even with the occasional missing packet, the conversation contains enough information to be legible. The speed of your internet connection and the distance between the two parties have the biggest impact on how many packets are dropped along the way.

Once the data arrives, it's reassembled back into the correct order, converted from digital back to analog, and the conversation continues.

Looking for more valuable information on how VoIP works? Try visiting UnlimitedLongDistanceWithVoIP.com for more VoIP service providers that will save you money on your long distance phone bill.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_Gorman