The Basics of VoIP Gateways

VoIP gateways act as VoIP network translators and mediators, translating telephone calls that are placed through the 'normal' telephone services into digital data packets that are compatible with a service providers VoIP system. Directing calls to specific users is also a function performed by the gateways. And they are able to translate between different VoIP protocols. This enables compatibility between VoIP systems and devices. These benefits make VoIP gateways an essential part of any commercial VoIP network that must cater for different users and uses.

More VoIP gateway products have become available to customers as the popularity of VoIP as a stable telephone service has increased. Leading gateway vendors include Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Mediatrex Telecom.

VoIP gateways can either be hardware or software based. The hardware gateways tend to cost more than software gateways and can be purchased as a stand alone box. They tend to be viewed as more reliable and do not consume computer power.

There are many functional options available for gateway products, including fax, STN, and PBX enabled products that offer more than just simple call handling.

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. They are suitable for a home or a small office.

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. They support thousands of channels for advanced voice services, such as IVR - Interactive Voice Response - that allows callers to select an option from a voice menu. They also offer other functions like conference calling and call recording.

VoIP gateways are being continuously improved with even faster protocol translation speeds and support for additional VoIP standards and protocols as they become popular in the market. Many of these improvements are software based and therefore can be sent to customers very quickly and cheaper in the form of a software upgrade.

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: http://www.myaddirectory.com

By Armand Mccrea. At voip.besttipsonline.com you can get Voice over IP advice, as well as basic information on what is VoIP.

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