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VoIP Gateway Basics
Translating voice calls between digital for the Internet and analogue for telephone systems is a challenging task, and that is the task that VoIP gateways perform by switching the calls between analogue and digital. These gateways also assist in routing telephone calls to the correct users. And they are able to translate between different VoIP protocols. This protocol translation is important because it enables different VoIP systems to talk to each other. Because of all of these benefits it is easy to see why VoIP gateways are highly recommended for any VoIP service.
With the increase in the popularity of VoIP, more and more gateway products have become available. Leading gateway vendors include Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Mediatrex Telecom.
These gateways can either consist of hardware products or software products. Hardware based VoIP gateways are available as a stand alone box and are more expensive than software based ones. They tend to be viewed as more reliable and do not consume computer power.
Buyers of VoIP gateways can select from products that offer numerous phone, fax machine, PBX and STN support capabilities.
At the lower end of the market, a basic VoIP gateway comes with a phone jack, Ethernet router and firewall can be purchased for under two hundred dollars. To offer basic functionality they have ports for the phone jack, the broadband modem, and the computer or network connection. These low end VoIP gateways targets the home user and small business owner.
At the mid range of gateways, additional functionality such as signal encryption and voice compression is offered to ensure security and efficient bandwidth usage.
At the higher end of the market are VoIP gateways that cost several thousand dollars and are widely used by telephone carriers and large companies. These systems have sophisticated functionality such as interactive voice response systems for automated voice response functions, and they can carry thousands of simultaneous telephone conversations. They also offer other functions like conference calling and call recording.
There are new features and functions for VoIP gateways being built all of the time, such as support for emerging VoIP standards and faster translations. Distribution of these upgrades tend to be very quick and efficient since most of them are sent out over the Internet as software upgrades.
One can expect to see many more enhancements and improvements before VoIP and VoIP gateways can be considered a matured and saturated market. The end user benefits from these improvements because quality and range of services increase while overall call costs tend to be constantly driven downwards.
With the increase in the popularity of VoIP, more and more gateway products have become available. Leading gateway vendors include Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Mediatrex Telecom.
These gateways can either consist of hardware products or software products. Hardware based VoIP gateways are available as a stand alone box and are more expensive than software based ones. They tend to be viewed as more reliable and do not consume computer power.
Buyers of VoIP gateways can select from products that offer numerous phone, fax machine, PBX and STN support capabilities.
At the lower end of the market, a basic VoIP gateway comes with a phone jack, Ethernet router and firewall can be purchased for under two hundred dollars. To offer basic functionality they have ports for the phone jack, the broadband modem, and the computer or network connection. These low end VoIP gateways targets the home user and small business owner.
At the mid range of gateways, additional functionality such as signal encryption and voice compression is offered to ensure security and efficient bandwidth usage.
At the higher end of the market are VoIP gateways that cost several thousand dollars and are widely used by telephone carriers and large companies. These systems have sophisticated functionality such as interactive voice response systems for automated voice response functions, and they can carry thousands of simultaneous telephone conversations. They also offer other functions like conference calling and call recording.
There are new features and functions for VoIP gateways being built all of the time, such as support for emerging VoIP standards and faster translations. Distribution of these upgrades tend to be very quick and efficient since most of them are sent out over the Internet as software upgrades.
One can expect to see many more enhancements and improvements before VoIP and VoIP gateways can be considered a matured and saturated market. The end user benefits from these improvements because quality and range of services increase while overall call costs tend to be constantly driven downwards.
Article Source: www.Content-Syndication.org
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Written by Royce Leathers. At voip.besttipsonline.com you can get Voice over IP information, as well as basic information on what is VoIP.
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