Friday, December 5, 2008

VoIP: A New Telecommunication Mantra

What is VOIP?

In the coming years, voice over internet protocol (VOIP) is going to dominate the communication world with its technological advantages. In fact, many communication companies have started using VOIP technology for their long distance calls. You may have used this service unknowingly since many companies use VOIP to route long distance calls through a circuit switch into an IP phone, and another IP phone at the other end receives calls for another local circuit switch.

For a novice it is must to know what VOIP is and how it works. A device converts large amount of analogue signals to be compressed and transmitted, then uncompressed and delivered into digital data. It is cheaper then a traditional land phone, especially if you want extra facilities such as call forwarding and caller ID.

How it works?

VoIP is a unifying stand for treatment and supporting modified, intelligent, and strategic uses of voice communications. What makes it so effective is that it turns speech into digital data that can be stored, browsed, copied, combined with other data, and distributed to any device that connects to the Internet. VOIP has a few features that provide different technical modes such as Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Transfer, Repeat Dialing and Return Call. These features enable you to give the caller a busy signal, send the call directly to voicemail, and forward the call to a particular number. Soft phone is another distinguishing feature of VOIP service. It is specially developed software that installs the VOIP service into your computer.

Others majors are:

Analogue telephone adaptor: It is also called gateway and works with your already existing phone. You have to attach your phone to this device then this is connected to computer. Computer carries VOIP calls over internet. This system changes analogue signals of your phone into digital signals. Some time software is required to be installed on your computer before it is ready to be used.

IP phone- this type of phone is different from traditional phone in a manner that it has an Ethernet connector instead of Jack connector. It allows you not to install any software as is required in ATA.

Computer to computer: Easiest and cheapest way to use VOIP service. Usually even for long distance calls the only charge you pay is the monthly charge for your internet service. It only requires microphone, speakers, a sound card and a software.

With VOIP's technical advantages now, let us see a few problems that are still at its way.

The biggest problem is VOIP exist in the form of digital phone and if your power goes out, you service get disconnected. Second, right now you cannot have an access to emergency service. Voice over IP calls often have a buzzing tone in the background and it has delay up to 400 milliseconds, means that users cannot hear each other with normal conversation flow. For better use of VoIP, you need to have a high-speed Internet connection; otherwise, you have to pay quite more than what you are currently paying.

By: Ajay Singh

The Little Known History Of Fiber Optic Telecommunication

1792 - The first practical optical telecommunication system - Claude Chappe's semaphore system

French inventor Claude Chappe demonstrated a practical semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. His system was a series of semaphores mounted on towers, where human operators relayed messages from one tower to the next. It beat hand-carried messages hands down.

1854 - Total internal reflection - the technology foundation for fiber optic communication

One theory slowly took root which would ultimately solve the problem of optical communication. This phenomenon was named total internal reflection.

British physicist John Tyndall demonstrated total internal reflection by guiding light in a jet of water flowing from a tank. In the 1890s, inventors realized that bent quartz rods could carry light, and patented them as dental illuminators.

1880 - Alexander Graham Bell's optical telephone system

Alexander Graham Bell patented an optical telephone system, which he called the Photophone. He dreamed of sending signals through the air, but the atmosphere didn't transmit light as reliably as wires carried electricity.

1920 - The patent of using arrays of hollow pipes or transparent rods to transmit images

During the 1920s, John Logie Baird in England and Clarence W. Hansell in the United States patented the idea of using arrays of hollow pipes or transparent rods to transmit images for television or facsimile systems.

1930 - Heinrich Lamm demonstrated image transmission through a bundle of optical fibers

Munich's medical student Heinrich Lamm was the first person to have demonstrated image transmission through a bundle of optical fibers. In a 1930 paper, he reported transmitting the image of a light bulb filament through a short bundle.

1954 - Van Heel invented fiber cladding

All earlier fibers developed were bare and lacked any form of cladding, with total internal reflection occurring at a glass-air interface.

Dutch scientist Van Heel made the crucial innovation of cladding fiber-optic cables. He covered a bare fiber or glass or plastic with a transparent cladding of lower refractive index. This protected the total reflection surface from contamination and greatly reduced cross talk between fibers.

1960 - The invention of laser

The July 22, 1960 issue of Electronics magazine introduced its report on Theodore Maiman's demonstration of the first laser.

1964 - The critical and theoretical specification of optical fiber identified by Dr. Charles K. Kao

After a long, hard look at fiber attenuation, Dr. Kao concluded that the high losses of early fibers were due to impurities, not to silica glass itself. He forecasted that fiber loss could be reduced below 20 dB/km for long-range communication devices. Dr. Kao also illustrated the need for a purer form of glass to help reduce light loss.

1970 - Corning Glass's invention of low loss single mode fiber

Robert Maurer, Donald Keck, and Peter Schultz at Corning Glass announced they had made single-mode fibers with attenuation at the 633-nanometer helium-neon line below 20 dB/km.

1977 - The first live traffic fiber optic system

General Telephone and Electronics tested and deployed the world's first live telephone traffic through a fiber-optic system running at 6 Mbps.

Soon in May 1977, Bell Lab deployed an optical telephone communication system in the downtown Chicago area, covering a distance of 1.5 miles.

By: Colin Yao

Various Telecommunication Services Including Calling Cards

Considering the lifestyle of the global people in the present world, can you ever imagine life without telecommunication networks or telecommunication services? Yes, it is really tough since the telecommunication services have already come to be an integral part of the lives of even the common people in the world. If you feel interested about telecommunication services of various types, this page will be of immense importance to you informing you all about various telecommunication services including calling cards.

The telecommunication services are made to function by a strategic arrangement of the telecommunication links. The arrangements are made in such a way that massages are carried over a number of nodes and links from one part of the telecommunication network to the other. The telecommunication systems in the modern times take into account various types of telecommunication techniques and technologies. Some of these technologies are computer networking, internet, radio networks, mobile communication, broadcasting and public telephone networking.

Among the telecommunication services mentioned above, computer-networking services are thought to have brought about drastic changes in the world of communication. Different kinds of computer applications like web conferencing or video conferencing have served a lot in helping people in various parts for the world communicate with each other. Video conferencing has become immensely popular among the people since it allows them not only to communicate with the person at the other end, but also to see the person itself.

Keeping in mind the popularity and the facilities of all the types of telecommunication services, it has to be admitted without any doubt that the public telephone network is obviously one of the most popular forms of telecommunicating. Telephone networking does not demand you to spend much as voice chat or video chat through computer networking does. In fact, there are only a few other telecommunication services that will let you communicate with people at a cheaper price.

The popularity of the public telephone networks as one of the telecommunication services has been sky-rocketed by the advent of the calling cards. The long-distance calling cards let you enjoy the liberty if making a call to any number in the world from any place, irrespective of the location, which you are making the call from. The overseas calling cards and the international calling cards allow the users to make overseas and international calls respectively.

Several companies provide various types of calling cards with lucrative as well as exclusive schemes and facilities. The prices of the calling cards are cheap enough to be within the easy reach of your budget. In the modern times, it has become easier for you to avail calling cards since you need not visit the calling card shops any more in order to avail them. You can book the particular type of calling card by dint of the online calling card booking facility offered by many of the calling card selling companies. So, next time you are traveling abroad, do carry a long-distance calling card with you.

By: Feras Shoukeir