DATA VoIP SOLUTIONS: THE FUTURE TO COME

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Where Am I > Data VoIP Solutions/History of VoIP
 
 
 

The History of VoIP

Telecommunications and data communication met up with what was known as CTI (computer-telephony integration) technology.  However, in the mid to late 1990s the software available was unable to allow the best use to be made of the technology and it was not a popular means of
 
communication.  The only industry which really saw advantages was the call center industry.

 

CTI is best know to the public these days in connection with IVR (Interactive Voice Response), where the caller is taken through a vocal menu system, responding either by pressing a key or answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  This is probably not the best advert for the technology since it has created an aversion due to the time taken to eventually reach a human being.  It is, however, an extremely useful in such activities as internet banking.

 

The first true VoIP software was introduced by the Israeli company VocalTec in February, 1995 ,and was the brainchild of Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty the two co-founders of the company.  It was very important to telecom history in that it was able to handle packet loss and reordering. 

 

Internet files are broken down into small ‘packets’ before being sent over the internet.  When received, these packets are re-ordered in to the correct order by the receiving software.  The problem is, that during transmission, each packet takes the fastest route through the internet possible at any specific instant in time.  Since the packets are passed from computer to computer, each can take a different route so that they arrive at the receiving computer in the wrong order.  Some even get lost along the way.  VocalTec was able to partially handle the losses and get the voice packets into the correct order before replay. However, the system still suffered from some packet loss and ‘out of order’ packets leading to poor quality. There were also delays due to congestion and slow internet transmission rates, all of which prevented it from becoming a popular communications method.

 

This work, however,  helped to make VoIP into a mainstream telephony technology.  Remember that all this was in the 1990s before the internet had really become popular, and there were much fewer software and hardware  possibilities at the time, along with the very slow file transfer rates in comparison to today.

 

Since this, IP telephony has rapidly developed into the mainstream product it is today.  There have been many new and significant developments, the most important of which =has been the gateway interface between IP and PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network – the normal telephone system). This has advanced with more efficient and faster control tools.

 

It is now popular in medium to large corporations as an efficient and inexpensive solution to many communication needs, both internal and external and the history of VoIP is still being written.