VoIP

Chapter 6: Introduction
VoIP

Objectives
In this Chapter you will learn:
🠶 VoIP
 Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
🠶 QVoice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a
broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line.
🠶 Some VoIP services may only allow you to call other people using the same service, but others may
allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile, and
international numbers.
🠶 Also, while some VoIP services only work over your computer or a special VoIP phone, other services
allow you to use a traditional phone connected to a VoIP adapter.
 How VoIP / Internet Voice Works
🠶 VoIP services convert your voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet.
🠶 If you are calling a regular phone number, the signal is converted to a regular telephone signal before it
reaches the destination.
🠶 VoIP can allow you to make a call directly from a computer, a special VoIP phone, or a traditional
phone connected to a special adapter.
🠶 In addition, wireless "hot spots" in locations such as airports, parks, and cafes allow you to connect to
the Internet and may enable you to use VoIP service wirelessly.
How VoIP / Internet Voice Works
 How VoIP / Internet Voice Works
🠶 A VoIP service will convert a user's voice from audio signals to digital data, then send that data through the
internet.
🠶 If another user is calling from a regular phone number, the signal is converted back to a telephone signal
before it reaches that user.
🠶 VoIP can also perform routing of incoming and outgoing calls through existing telephone networks.
However, some VoIP services may only work over a computer or VoIP phone
 Homework
🠶 Discuss on the Advantages and disadvantages of VoIP
🠶 Discuss the security challenges associated with VoIP
 Standard VoIP components
🠶 Call server
🠶 Phones register with the call server.
🠶 The call server can handle security and admission control while connecting the phones.
🠶 The voice data for the call, typically carried by the transport protocol, may or may not flow through the call
server.

🠶 Gateway
🠶 This device is typically used to connect an internal network to the rest of the world, or at least a different
system.
🠶 The system to which you are connecting may be a different technology or the same.
🠶 For example, an internal network based on VoIP may connect directly to the PSTN (Public Switched
Telephone Network).
🠶 The PSTN is still largely controlled via SS7.
🠶 The gateway will connect endpoints on either side, translate between the two systems, or provide features.
🠶 On the other hand, a gateway may simply connect companies or providers together
 Standard VoIP components
🠶 VoIP protocols
🠶 There are two types of VoIP protocols: signaling and transport.
🠶 The signaling protocols handle all of the functions normally carried out by traditional protocols, such as the
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).
🠶 The transport protocol is used to encapsulate or carry the actual voice data, and the only protocol universally
used for transport is the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP)
 Standard VoIP components
🠶 Codecs
🠶 This is short for a coder-decoder used for the purpose of converting the analog voice signal to a series of
digital samples at the source and then back again at the receiver.
🠶 Thus, the sending phone encodes the voice data with its codec, and the receiver decodes the voice packet
with its codec. Codecs are present in both traditional and VoIP deployments.
🠶 For a traditional system, the codec can be physically located in the phone or in the PBX, depending on the
type and model deployed. VoIP phones always contain the codec.
🠶 Codecs can also compress the voice data. While there are many different codecs, probably the most common
audio codecs are from the ITU-T G series.
🠶 The ITU-T H series contains the popular video codecs.
🠶 Within the audio and video categories, codecs accomplish encoding and compression in different ways
 Homework
🠶 Examine these Codecs
🠶 G.711—Pulse Code Modulation
🠶 G.722 and G.723—Low bit-rate encoding
🠶 G.726—Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation
🠶 G.729.1—Code Excited Linear Prediction variable bit-rate coder
🠶 H.261—Early video codec for p x 64 Kbps
🠶 H.263—Video coding for low bit-rate communication
🠶 H.264—Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services
 Standard VoIP components
🠶 Desktop phones and softphones
🠶 The phones (also known as endpoints) in a VoIP topology perform the same service that any other phone
does, albeit in a different fashion.
🠶 Early in the evolution of VoIP, there were attempts to get rid of the phone entirely in favor of phone
applications installed on computers.
🠶 However, people were used to the traditional telephone design and didn’t like the change.
🠶 The application also had to compete with whatever was running on the computer at the time.
🠶 Today, we have a mix of desktop VoIP phones and telephony applications, or softphones.
 Standard VoIP components
🠶 Non-VoIP components
🠶 The VoIP system depends on a number of services that are not VoIP specific.
🠶 Many of the services, such as the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), are already part of the
network architecture and can be expanded to include the VoIP components.
🠶 Other services include Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), Domain Name Service (DNS), and Network
Time Protocol, or NTP.
🠶 It is common to see these components listed in the VoIP product requirements, as it may not run without
them.
 Standard VoIP components
🠶 Non-VoIP components
🠶 A typical topology that includes these elements might look like the one shown below.
 VoIP protocols
🠶 The signaling protocols handle the functions derived from the telephone system architecture, and the
transport protocols carry the voice packets generated from the codec.
🠶 Phones use the signaling protocol to register with the call server, set up, and tear down calls.
🠶 Signaling protocols are also used for features such as directory services and screen displays.
🠶 Once a call has been established, the voice data packets are typically sent directly between the phones using
RTP encapsulation 
 VoIP protocols
🠶 Session Initiation Protocol
🠶 Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is used to signal and control interactive communication sessions.
🠶 The uses for such sessions include voice, video, chat and instant messaging, as well as interactive games and
virtual reality.
🠶 The SIP protocol is increasingly being used to provide Voice over IP, Presence and Instant Messaging in
Next Generation Networks, and being mandated for many new applications, including 3G telephony.
 VoIP protocols
🠶 Session Initiation Protocol
🠶 The SIP protocol includes the following features.
🠶 SIP invitations are used to create sessions and carry session descriptions that allow participants to agree on a
set of compatible media types.
🠶 In this way, SIP is not restricted to any particular media type, and can therefore handle the expanding range
of media technologies.
🠶 SIP enables user mobility through a mechanism that allows requests to be proxied or redirected to the user's
current location.
🠶 Users can register their current location with their home server.
🠶 SIP supports end-to-end and hop-by-hop authentication, as well as end-to-end encryption using S/MIME.
🠶 Members in a SIP session can communicate using multicast or unicast relations, or a combination of these.
🠶 In addition, SIP is independent of the lower-layer transport protocol, which allows it to take advantage of
new transport protocols.
🠶 Software implementing the basic SIP protocol can be extended with additional capabilities and is actively
being exploited for many media applications..
 Skinny Client Control Protocol
🠶 The Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), or Skinny, is a Cisco proprietary signaling protocol for VoIP
devices.
🠶 As a signaling protocol, it is used for registration of endpoints; call messages such as off-hook, on-hook,
addressing (dial numbers); and controlling phone display
🠶 One of the nice things about the Skinny messages is that, like SIP, they are very easy to read, at least if you
have an older version or recent dissectors.
🠶 Most Skinny messages are short and to the point.
🠶 However, Skinny is proprietary and does have some behaviors that are not seen elsewhere, such as a limited
or nonexistent use of Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP)
 Transport Protocol
🠶 The Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) is the hands-down favorite for transporting voice packets
containing the voice data.
🠶 While there have been other mechanisms deployed, RTP is widely accepted.
🠶 RTP, defined in RFC 3550, is a simple protocol that uses source IDs to collect packets from the same source,
and it has a field that identifies the payload so that the receiver can determine which codec was used to
create the voice packet.
🠶 RFC 3550 also includes the Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP), which provides information about the flow
of RTP packets.
🠶 Its primary use is to provide feedback on the quality of the voice stream.
 Homework
🠶 The packet list shown depicts the packets generated as a phone starts up and then makes a call.
 Homework
🠶 As can be seen, there are several parts beginning with Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or DHCP.
🠶 After DHCP, the phone contacts a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server to obtain any recent updates
and then moves into the VoIP-specific messaging.
Homework
 Homework
🠶 Explain the functions of these protocols in the two preceding slides
🠶  Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
🠶 Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
🠶 H.225
🠶 RTP
🠶 RTCP
 Peer-to-Peer Architecture
🠶 A peer-to-peer architecture, abbreviated as P2P, defines a network in which each node has the same
capabilities and responsibilities.
🠶 It can be seen as the opposite of a client server architecture, in which some node(s) focus on serving requests
sent by others.
🠶 Peer-to-peer networks are widely used to share information such as video, audio, files, or other documents in
a digital format.
🠶 Specific nodes are not designated as servers, but rather all the nodes work as both servers and clients (often
simultaneously).
🠶 Advantages of peer-to-peer networks
🠶 One of the most important advantages of peer-to-peer networks is that the bandwidth of all the clients can be
used, thus the more users are (and hence clients), the higher the bandwidth available.
🠶 In a client-server architecture all the clients share the bandwidth to and from the server, so the greater the
number of clients is, the lower their share of the limited bandwidth is; thus in this setting the client generally
has a lower average transfer rate
 Homework
🠶 Examine three protocols used in P2P.
 End of the Module

🠶 Revision materials will be shared soon