The Next Big Thing: Voip & Ip Technology

The Next Big Thing: VoIP and IP Telephony

VoIP and Internet telephony are on the rise and becoming the next big thing in the technological world. Many people currently use this technology and may not even know what systems are in place to support them. Most likely in the near future they will know and come to use this technology day in and day out. VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol and is a technology that takes a voice signal and digitally transfers it over the IP network. The IP network is in charge of taking information packets, with the voice information, breaking them down, transmitting, and then reassembling the packets. IP telephony, or internet telephony, transmits voice signals over the internet or private networks. Information is now being transmitted over data lines versus voice lines.

The founding of VoIP can be traced back through history with the invention of the telephone. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. This was a huge milestone and was a revolution for communication. People could now communicate quickly and make businesses more efficient. In 1915 the first call across the American continent was made, this was a foreshadow of things to come as it would extend globally. ARPAnet, in 1973, was the first packet switching network, which would play a huge role in VoIP. It was also the predecessor of the internet, which would take on a huge role in the world. It also effected development of internet protocol. In 1995, Vocaltec developed VoIP software and released the first internet phone, which was created for a PC. At this time, it did not catch on as the next big thing because of set backs such as congestion and packets being out of order in transmission, along with other issues. Another problem was that to communicate, both users had to have the same software. In 1997 and 1998 VoIP was introduced and global communication began. Entrepreneurs and manufacturers began working with the technology and creating...