Voice over IP Fundamentals

Amazon.com
The authors of Voice over IP Fundamentals--three packet-voice specialists at Cisco Systems--initiate their exploration of next-generation technologies for supporting conversations across large distances: the switched telephone network as implemented on large (intercontinental) and small (building and enterprise) scales. They then point out problems with the old way of doing things and illuminate the standards and regulatory conditions that have made Internet telephony attractive. Signaling System 7 (SS7) gets particularly insightful coverage, with ample graphical support for the clear, fact-rich, example-laden prose.

The authors do a great service for readers by breaking packet telephony into its component technologies and explaining each one carefully. Coverage of the various protocols that enable voice over IP, particularly H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), is simultaneously clear and deep. The same goes for media gateway protocols and various schemes for translating sounds into digital signals and back again, while retaining maximum clarity. There's even some practical material; concluding chapters diagram Cisco router configurations for voice traffic and flesh out solutions with case studies.

You'll like this book if you need to implement a voice over IP system and know more about IP than you do about traditional voice telecommunications. The patient and detailed explanations of traditional telephony concepts and voice over IP protocols will mesh nicely with your existing data communications knowledge, enabling you to make wise design and product decisions. --David Wall

Covered topics: The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), signaling specifications (including Bell System, ISDN, and Signaling System 7), the basics of Internet Protocol (IP), modulation and compression of voice, Quality of Service (QoS), H.323, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and gateway protocols. Business considerations of Internet telephony are also addressed.


Book Description

A systematic approach to understanding the basics of Voice over IPUnderstand the basics of PSTN services and IP signaling protocols, including SS7Learn how VoIP can run the same applications as the existing telephony system, but in a more cost-efficient and scalable mannerDelve into such VoIP topics as jitter, latency, packet loss, codecs, quality of service tools, and mean opinion scoresLearn about the functional components involved in using Cisco gateways to deploy VoIP networks

Voice over IP (VoIP), which integrates voice and data transmission, is quickly becoming an important factor in network communications. It promises lower operational costs, greater flexibility, and a variety of enhanced applications. Voice over IP Fundamentals provides a thorough introduction to this new technology to help experts in both the data and telephone industries plan for the new networks.

You will learn how the telephony infrastructure was built and how it works today, the major concepts concerning voice and data networking, transmission of voice over data, and IP signaling protocols used to interwork with current telephony systems. The authors cover various benefits and applications of VoIP and how to ensure good voice quality in your network.

This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press, which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.


Book Info
Provides a through introduction to this new technology to help experts in both the data and telephone industries plan for the new networks. Covers various benefits and applications of VoIP and how to ensure good voice quality in your network.


From the Back Cover
A systematic approach to understanding the basics of Voice over IP* Understand the basics of PSTN services and IP signaling protocols, including SS7* Learn how VoIP can run the same applications as the existing telephony system, but in a more cost-efficient and scalable manner* Delve into such VoIP topics as jitter, latency, packet loss, codecs, quality of service tools, and mean opinion scores* Learn about the functional components involved in using Cisco gateways to deploy VoIP networksVoice over IP (VoIP), which integrates voice and data transmission, is quickly becoming an important factor in network communications. It promises lower operational costs, greater flexibility, and a variety of enhanced applications. Voice over IP Fundamentals provides a thorough introduction to this new technology to help experts in both the data and telephone industries plan for the new networks.You will learn how the telephony infrastructure was built and how it works today, the major concepts concerning voice and data networking, transmission of voice over data, and IP signaling protocols used to interwork with current telephony systems. The authors cover various benefits and applications of VoIP and how to ensure good voice quality in your network.This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press, which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.


About the Author

Jonathan Davidson, CCIE No. 2560, is the manager of service provider technical marketing for packet voice at Cisco Systems. He focuses on working with service provider and enterprise customers to develop solutions that are deployable in the new infrastructure of data and voice convergence.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Once, deploying new telecom services was a highly-specialized, complex, painful process best left to a few carrier-class switch providers and a few large service providers. Suddenly, thanks to deregulation, there are thousands of service providers. And thanks to VoIP, service providers can leverage the power and ubiquity of the Internet to deploy virtually any imaginable service — faster, and at lower cost. It's a revolution — and with Voice Over Ip Fundamentals from Cisco Press, you can get in on it.

Written for both data and voice networking professionals — even those without lengthy experience — the book covers all you'll need to know to get started. The authors start by demystifying the existing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), including key elements such as SS7 — and showing why it isn't meeting the needs of a data-centric world. Next, they introduce VoIP, explaining how it can run the same applications as the PSTN, but more cost-effectively and with greater scalability. You'll review the functional components of a VoIP solution, and how they fit together. There are also candid discussions of the serious challenges associated with implementing VoIP, including jitter, packet loss, latency, and quality of service.

Next, the authors focus on the key protocols associated with VoIP, including H.323 for videoconferencing, SIP, gateway control protocols, and how Cisco's Virtual Switch Controller (VSC) wraps them all together. You walk through setting up calls, tearing down calls, and offering services — the bread-and-butter ofanytelephony network.

Some important VoIP standards are still in flux, and this book certainly takes a Cisco-centric view of the world. But those are two small caveats for an excellent introduction to VoIP that will serve most technical professionals extremely well.

—bncom editor

ANNOTATION

Provides a through introduction to this new technology to help experts in both the data and telephone industries plan for the new networks. Covers various benefits and applications of VoIP and how to ensure good voice quality in your network.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A complete resource for data networking and telecommunications professionals to learn the basic concepts and new terminology of integrated voice and data networks.

Understand the basics of PSTN services and IP signaling protocols, including SS7Learn how VoIP can run the same applications as the existing telephony system, but in a more cost-efficient and scalable mannerDelve into such VoIP topics as jitter, latency, packet loss, codecs, quality of service tools, and mean opinion scoresLearn about the functional components involved in using Cisco gateways to deploy VoIP networks

Voice over IP (VoIP), which integrates voice and data transmission, is quickly becoming an important factor in network communications. It promises lower operational costs, greater flexibility, and a variety of enhanced applications. Voice over IP Fundamentals provides a thorough introduction to this new technology to help experts in both the data and telephone industries plan for the new networks.

You will learn how the telephony infrastructure was built and how it works today, the major concepts concerning voice and data networking, transmission of voice over data, and IP signaling protocols used to interwork with current telephony systems. The authors cover various benefits and applications of VoIP and how to ensure good voice quality in your network.

SYNOPSIS

Voice over IP (VoIP), which integrates voice and data transmission, is quickly becoming an important factor in network communications. It promises lower operational costs, greater flexibility, and a variety of enhanced applications. Voice over IP Fundamentals provides a thorough introduction to this new technology to help experts in both the data and telephone industries plan for the new networks.