VoIP Technical Terms Explained

September 17, 2013 By The mVoice Team No Comment

Every industry has its own list of TLAs (three letter acronyms) which one must master before feeling confident in the field. The world of the internet and VoIP is no exception. With the list of jargon being quite long, getting a grasp of the language can be a challenge. Here is some of the basic terminology to help you get started.

VoIP

Starting with the most basic, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a system of making voice communication over the internet. This system does not require the telephone lines that have been used for decades but rather utilises the World Wide Web as the platform for communication.

POTS

This imaginative acronym stands for Plain Old Telephone Service and describes the traditional phone network.

IP address

The internet protocol (IP) address is a series of numbers that is unique to a particular device. This enables the network to identify and communicate with each device on the network.

VoIP phone

A VoIP phone is a phone which is able to communicate over the internet, rather than via the telephone network. This may take the form of a regular phone but connects to a router.

PBX (Private Branch Exchange)

The Private Branch Exchange serves the connection between the business or private entity and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The exchange is the sole link between the internal activity and the outside world.

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

This term refers to the public telephone network around the globe. It is via this network that data is transferred around the world. These days, the network has been digitalised.

Router

The router, as the name suggests, is the device that is responsible for directing the data to the correct location, or route. It is through the router that the network is connected together, whether this is wirelessly or via cable.

Softphone

This term denotes a phone system that doesn’t require an actually phone but rather solely involves a computer. This system is quite a common set up in the call centre setting.

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)

A SIP is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard for the initiation and termination of an interactive session of voice or video, such as VoIP.

QOS (Quality of Service)

This relates to the networks ability to guarantee a certain standard of delivery for a specific service. For example, a network can guarantee a certain quality of VoIP by the prioritising of this over other functions of the network. Thereby enabling the delivery of high quality transmission over the network by which the customers are contacted.

Latency

This is a measure of the quality of a network and refers to the time that elapses between the request for data and the actual action to initiate.

Lag

This is another measure of the capabilities of the internal network. Lag measures the time it takes to a package of data to travel from the source to the destination and back again. Increased lag may be the result of an inadequate network or excessive demands placed upon the network.

Whilst the above list is far from exhaustive, the list provides a few of the basic term and definitions to enable you to start your journey into the wonderful world of VoIP.