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Everything you ever wanted to know about VoIP. (But didn’t know how to ask)

What is VOIP? VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. An alternative to the old, circuit-switched telephone system, VoIP refers to telephone calls that can be carried over any IP network, including the Internet. By moving voice calls onto the IP platform, VOIP has the effect of putting voice into the same arena as data. This new architecture (also called a Converged platform), opens up a new world of possibilities for communications – from telephony to video telephony to IP-based television. One powerful benefit of IP-based communications is that once you are connected to the Internet, the transport costs are, theoretically, the same whether you are calling another suburb, interstate or overseas. Therefore, VoIP offers business and residential customers alike the potential to save up to 50 percent on call costs. More importantly, VoIP underpins the delivery of increasingly smart features. Into the future, more services will become available, as the technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. Today, it brings higher end features – from ‘follow me’ to ‘meet me’ telephony – to small to medium enterprises. These features can help small offices mimic the kind of communicativeness that large companies typically have – as well as helping all companies extend the features of the office phone system to remote or mobile workers. How can enterprises take advantage of this new communications world? There are as many options as there are business scenarios. The key is ensuring that

you have the right environment (that is, network, products and backup) to ensure reliable, secure, quality voice communications. This document outlines some of the questions customers can ask, and answer, in order to help ensure a successful outcome.

Typical VoIP offerings today: o Call features such as call hold, call waiting, call transfer. o Call forwarding (such as “Call Forward Always”, “Call Forward on Busy/No Answer”) o 3-way conferencing (including call transfers during 3-way conferencing) o Voicemail (plus enhanced services such as “Find-me” and “Follow-me” features, as well as an End User Web GUI to manage call features) o Backup – quality carriers provide a completely separate backup, eg on PSTN, so that if the IP path fails, the service can be switched to an alternate channel, enabling the end-customer to continue making and receiving calls. o IP-Centrex - Hosted IP PBX with all the features of an enterprise-grade PBX, but without the high upfront cost. o Number porting. Some VOIP providers allow end users to keep their existing telephone numbers when they shift onto IP-based telephony – and once there, to keep that number wherever they happen to be in Australia. o Competitive call rates including free on-net calls

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How can I make sure I get quality service? The challenge for network operators is to ensure that the packets of data travelling over the Internet – that make up a live, ongoing conversation – arrive intact, and in the right order to be reassembled into high quality voice at the other end. One thing the public Internet has not achieved so far is being able to guarantee a consistent quality of service. A number of factors affect this quality – for instance, the number of IP ‘hops’ and the path the information must travel to get from point A to point B, and the amount of congestion at each of the points along the way. This is why many VoIP calls end up being of poor quality – with echoes, patchy voice and even dropouts. In general, cheap Internet services typically have a service level of 99 percent availability or less, compared to the 99.999 percent service level of the old telephone network. The difference is in the quality of calls, and about 6 hours’ availability a year – an unacceptable impost for businesses. For this reason, enterprise-grade IP telephony providers minimise or avoid the public Internet altogether, by establishing their own network or utilising high quality private network tails. iVox Communications, for instance, has built its Telephony infrastructure around a nationwide TDM telephony backhaul network, with presence in all Australian call zones, as well as a nationwide MPLS data network for the fastest and most reliable IP communications available in Australia today. This blend of old-world reliability and new-world efficiency has been engineered to deliver voice call quality equal to if not better than a standard POTS line. The network draws IP bandwidth from multiple carriers which (ensuring that there is dedicated availability for end customers) are monitored continuously according to Quality of Service (QoS) rules to ensure that calls are always delivered via the best routes available. Before signing up with a VoIP service, enterprises will need to ensure that their service provider is able to offer at least this level of quality – and that QoS is explicitly written in to the services agreement.

What options are there for Quality of Service with an iVox service? o iVox can provide VOIP gateways and routers that prioritise voice traffic over data traffic. o iVox is also partnering with national broadband and IP providers to enable broadband services to be QoS controlled end-to-end from the customer to the iVox network. o iVox can provide managed private links to enable service providers to connect directly to the iVox network, bypassing the public internet altogether.

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Is VOIP secure? While there’s much talk about hypothetical threats, to date there have been many more scary ‘maybes’ than actual events. Which is not to say that there are no security risks with VoIP. There are – but the good news is that these risks can be managed with commonsense security measures. The biggest threat to VOIP remains weaknesses in general network security and, as with data security, VoIP security issues can be well managed using robust security protocols. The most common lower-end VoIP services – Skype, for instance – have been shown to share security flaws with their software drivers, in the case of Skype, Windows. These flaws make it easier for hackers to access information sent over the Skype service – and, as the service’s chief level of protection is a proprietary encryption scheme, it is almost impossible for business and residential users to be assured the service is secure. Furthermore, while it provides telephony at nearzero costs, Skype relies on internet peer-to-peer communications, thus facilitating unauthorized or uncontrolled use of internet bandwidth. Which means, in short, that Skype cannot and does not provide the secure environment necessary for business communications. Beyond Skype, there are security concerns that need to be addressed even with implementations running on a carrier-grade network. To begin with VoIP doesn’t always ‘play nice’ with security devices such as network firewalls. Older firewalls in particular may not distinguish voice from data traffic and if voice packets aren’t prioritized, voice quality can suffer as a result. It is vital that customers have an up-to-date firewall that has the ability to recognise VoIP traffic and priorotise it over other less important traffic. Some VoIP equipment includes packet capture features that are useful in tracing packets to analyze network performance. But in the wrong hands a network of devices with this feature could be used to sniff networks for sensitive traffic such as passwords. To head off attacks on their voice networks, your IP network should at the least incorporate privacy and encryption in its architecture. Some VoIP providers now offer encrypted VoIP services as well, meaning that it is less vulnerable to attack if it passes through insecure networks such as the internet.

It also needs to ensure redundancy in the event of a power or IP network failure (in the case of iVox, for instance, this redundancy includes a switchover to the old circuit-switched telephone network).

What’s the deal with 000? The misplaced fear that IP-based calls will not be recognised by the 000 service is based on concerns that VoIP phone numbers are no longer part of the public number database that is used by emergency services This fear can be laid to rest. iVox Communications and other quality IP telephony providers have worked with the regulatory authorities to ensure that calls from VoIP numbers to emergency services are verified, in the same way as calls from mobiles.

What does number portability mean? In essence, once you have your telephone number on the IP network, you can move your premises to a new suburb, city or even State and keep the same number – handy if you, say, want your longstanding or interstate customers to call you on a local number. Until now, though, many VoIP providers have required that you get a new number when you migrate to the IP network – which is a significant disincentive for business and residential customers alike. Recognising this issue, iVox has pioneered a process that lets you keep your existing number when you move onto the IP network. And once on IP, you can take the number with you – anywhere you like.

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What do residential customers need to use the service? Most residential customers will fit into one of three scenarios:

1. A computer with a softphone (that is, a telephone unit that plugs into the computer)

2. New or existing telephone handsets

3. IP telephone handsets Networks such as iVox can provide a list of quality IP telephones capable of connecting wired and wirelessly - between the customer’s PC or LAN and their broadband modem/router.

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What do business customers require to use this service? To service enterprise customers, providers will need to recommend appropriate hardware, based on the equipment the customer currently has and what services they require. Typically, enterprise customers require SIP compatible VOIP gateways, IP PBX’s or IP Phones in one of three scenarios:

1. Using existing (non-IP) PABX or Key system: Network providers should be able to provide VoIP gateways that connect existing telephony equipment (eg routers, PABXs, Key Systems) using analogue ports, ISDN BRI or ISDN PRI.

2. Using PABX or Key System with IP Card Installed: Many PABX or key systems sold in recent years have the capacity to support IP termination with the installation of an IP card which allows the PABX to connect the LAN switch to the broadband router. Some QoS infrastructure is also recommended – please check with your network provider or contact [email protected] for further information.

3. Using a new or existing IP PABX Next generation PABX’s are IP-based, and all connections between the end-user’s desk phone, the PABX and the service provider is transported over an IP network. An ethernet switch supporting QoS is recommended to ensure the integrity of voice traffic. The figure (right) shows a typical example.

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4. Hosted IP PABX (IP Centrex) In addition to these options, leading network providers also offer Hosted IP PABX solutions, which remove the requirement for end customers to make a capital outlay in a new PABX. The functions of the PABX are hosted by the service provider, and the customer only needs IP Phones to connect to the service.

About iVox iVox is Australia’s carrier-grade wholesale VoIP provider. iVox’s national IP network is built on best-of-breed technology, enabling ISPs and other telephony companies to offer quality VoIP telephony that is compliant with requirements for 000, legal intercept and number portability. iVox’s advanced features – from nationwide number portability to quality of service, full IP Centrex and bill rating – bring quality and flexibility in VoIP services for business and residential customers in metro and regional areas. Contact Details iVox Communications 110/330 Wattle Street Ultimo NSW 2007 Australia T: +61 2 8252 0200 F: +61 2 8252 0202 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ivox.com.au