| More and more businesses today have their receive phone service
through Internet instead of local phone company lines. Many
businesses are also using their internal local and wide-area
network infrastructure to replace legacy enterprise telephone
networks. This migration to a single network carrying voice and
data is called convergence, and it's revolutionizing the world of
telecommunications by slashing costs and empowering users. The
technology of families driving this convergence is called VoIP, or
Voice over IP.
VoIP has advanced Internet-based telephony a viable solution,
piquing the interest of companies small and large. The primary
reason for migrating to VoIP is cost, as it equalizes the costs of
long distance calls, local calls, and e- mails to fractions of a
penny per use. But the real enterprise turn -on is how VoIP empowers
businesses to mold and customize telecom and datacom solutions
using a single, cohesive networking platform. These business
drivers are so compelling that legacy telephony is going the way of
the dinosaur, yielding to Voice over IP as the dominant enterprise
communications paradigm.
Developed from real-world experience by a senior developer,
O'Reilly's Switching to VoIP provides solutions for the most
common VoIP migration challenges. So if you're a network
professional who is migrating from a traditional telephony system
to a modern, feature-rich network, this book is a must-have . You'll
discover the strengths and weaknesses of circuit-switched and
packet-switched networks, how VoIP systems impact network
infrastructure, as well as solutions for common challenges involved
with IP voice migrations. Among the challenges discussed and
projects presented:
-
building a softPBX -
configuring IP phones -
ensuring quality of service -
scalability -
standards-compliance -
topological considerations -
coordinating a complete system ?switchover? -
migrating applications like voicemail and directory
services -
retro-interfacing to traditional telephony -
supporting mobile users -
security and survivability -
dealing with the challenges of NAT
To help you grasp the core principles at work, Switching to
VoIP uses a combination of strategy and hands-on "how-to" that
introduce VoIP routers and media gateways, various makes of IP
telephone equipment, legacy analog phones, IPTables and Linux
firewalls, and the Asterisk open source PBX software by Digium.
You'll learn how to build an IP-based or legacy-compatible phone
system and voicemail system complete with e-mail integration while
becoming familiar with VoIP protocols and devices. Switching to
VoIP remains vendor-neutral and advocates standards, not
brands. Some of the standards explored include:
If VoIP has your attention, like so many others, then Switching
to VoIP will help you build your own system, install it, and begin
making calls. It's the only thing left between you and a modern
telecom network. |
