Voip Technology Review

Voice over internet protocol

Done by : Zahra Khalaf Al-Hoqani … 66945 Zainab Said Al-Shidhani …61525

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Definition the technology: (Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)) Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (analog) phone line. Voice over Internet Protocol services allow to call other people using the same service and to call anyone who has a telephone number, including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. Voice over Internet Protocol applications provide important opportunities to increase the accessibility of distance education, due to its additional characteristics. There is number of software can be used to communicate using this technology. Examples for these software are: •

Skype

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Intervoip

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Nice Call back

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Vonage

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The objectives of using the Voice over Internet Protocol in Distance education: •

Voice over Internet Protocol technology offers the opportunity to use or return the voice to distance learning in synchronous and asynchronous communication forms, which allows instructors and students greater social presence.

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Voice over Internet Protocol technology provides cost-effective telephonebased conversations in the learning environment.

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Voice over Internet Protocol technology increases the simplicity and accessibility of the distance learning.

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Specific features/advantages and limitations of the Voice over Internet Protocol. First, we have an expectation that Voice over Internet Protocol has many advantages over regular phone service:

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Low cost. VOIP provide PC to PC phone calls and PC-to-phone connection. PC-to-PC phone calls anywhere in the world for free. If you wish to make a PC-to-phone connection, there's usually a charge for this but probably much cheaper than your regular phone service. You can pay as you go or you can sign up with a VOIP service provider and pay a monthly fee in return for unlimited calls within a certain geographic area. For example, some VOIP

services in the United States allow you to call anywhere in North America at no extra charge. Overseas calls are charged at a relatively small rate. 

Portability: It helps to make and receive phone calls where ever there is a broadband connection simply by signing in to the VOIP account. This makes VOIP as convenient as e-mail. Like in traveling.

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Other features: VOIP comes with a host of advanced communication features without extra charges unlike regular phone service. For example, call forwarding, call waiting, voicemail, caller ID and three-way calling are some of the many services included with VOIP telephone service. It is used also to send data such as pictures and documents at the same time you are talking on the phone.

Second If Voice over Internet Protocol is starting to sound really good, but it also has several disadvantages:

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No service during a power outage: When the power goes out, there is no VOIP phone service opposite during a regular phone is kept in service by the current supplied through the phone line. One solution to this problem is to use battery backups or power generators to provide electricity.

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Emergency calls: VOIP can not attract the emergency calls opposite traditional phone equipment which can trace the location in case the person can't talk. This is because a voice-over-IP call is essentially a transfer of data between two IP addresses, not physical addresses.

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Reliability: The VOIP relies on an Internet connection so the VOIP service will be affected by the quality and reliability of the broadband Internet service and sometimes by the limitations of the PC. Poor Internet connections and congestion can affect voice quality. Also If the computer are using at the same time as making a computer VOIP call, the voice quality may affected.

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Some networks and routers do not allow VOIP.

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Some VOIP phones are not compatible with screen readers specially with people who have limited vision or hearing difficulties

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How is Voice over Internet Protocol used to deliver and support distance learning?

Each new innovation brings about advance in implementing distance learning, early period of time learners were only using text to communicate with others. Nowadays learning is delivered through text, audio and video to be more flexible, accessible and more convenient. Voice over Internet Protocol technology is an innovation mode of communication that attracts many learners to use it. This technology depends on idea of conversion the voice data to digital packets and transmits them over the Internet, so that other people can receive the voice. It may support distance learning in some ways, some examples are as following: •

It can be used in advance conference in which the researchers and the attendees who are not physically present can share and discuss their experience with others.

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Learners in distance learning most of the time need to talk with other students and instructors, so they can use this technology to call others through phones or PCs with few fees and with voicemail if necessary.

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It can be used in virtual courses where the learners need assistance from others. The technology “Voice over Internet Protocol” as alone has limited application in distance education, for the courses designers almost they should consider the needs of assistive hardware so that VOIP can be more accessible. For example, most users of this technology wish to see the partners who speak with him/her for more real time body language transmission which mean they need to use Web-cam as assistive hardware. Also the users with disability sometimes need Braille device for text translation..etc

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The concerns raised by researchers and distance students/tutors about this Voice over Internet Protocol.

Katz goes on to argue that VoIP is one of the technologies that are helping to blur the lines between real and virtual in the context of learning and scholarship, by making collaborative working environments increasingly ‘human’. He states that convergence, in the end, is less a technical exercise than a social one, promising technology-mediated collaboration and community. Foreman (2003) said telephone-based conversations are highly effective and superior to both email and chat for organizing small-team distance learning

experiences and plays to a skill set we have all developed as members of a telephonic culture. . 

Some case studies and examples . •

FlashMeeting31 and Hexagon:

They are a collaborative projects of the centre for New Media, part of the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute (Kmi). They aim project, to provide easyto-use multimedia applications that support collaborative distance learning. So they use Voice over Internet Protocol technology to create an audiovisual instant messaging system, to support small groups of distance learners and provide an alternative to face-to-face tutorials. •

Pepperdine University

Students at Pepperdine University, California, used Skype (a software used to deliver Voice over Internet Protocol ) as a communication device to facilitate peerto-peer interaction to correct misunderstandings over text-based communication, particularly in situations where it was clear that the context was not being fully understood. They set up conferences for up to eight people and found the Skype a valuable tool and a catalyst for the promotion of the virtual ‘real’ personas of the doctoral students involved (Card et, 2006). •

San Jose State University

In 2005, San Jose State University implemented this type of triple play network. It has installed an integrated Voice over Internet Protocol and video over IP network from US supplier IPlay3. Its aim in implementing this network is to create a

platform for future services such as distance learning and video calling (Iplay3, 2005).

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Other Institutions :

Many other institutions used the VIOP technology such as Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada, University of Massachusetts, United States Military Academy at West Point (NY), University of Arkansas, Seton Hall University (NJ), Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, New York University, Oregon Health & Science University, and Ohio State University have adopted variations of VoIP.( SAXENA , Jasola , Sharma)

Resources:

1. Is VOIP Too Good to be True? Weighing the Advantages, Disadvantages of VOIP accessed on: 30/11/2008 http://www.quickstartvoip.com/voipadvantages.html 2. VOIP. May 2008, accessed: 3/12/2008 : http://voip123.wordpress.com/ 3. SAXENA , Jasola , Sharma.Impact of VoIP and QoS on Open and Distance Learning

Retrieved on 3/12/2008 from: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/27/f 6/c3.pdf 4. Avoiper, Marketing through Educating Customers on VoIP, 11/9/2008, accessed on:

3/12/2008 http://avoiper.wordpress.com/ 5. Voice over IP. Retrieved on 3/12/2008 from

http://networks.silicon.com/telecoms/0,39024659,39157300,00.htm?sr=voip 6. Schwartz, August 2004, IRRODLE, Technical Evaluation Report 32: Using Internet

Audio to Enhance Online Accessibility. Accessed: 3/12/2008: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/179/261

7. Voice over Internet Protocol accessed accessed on: 30/11/2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_Internet_Protocol,