Branch Office Application
A wide variety of applications are enabled by the transmission of VoIP networks. This tutorial will explore three examples of these applications.
The first application, shown in Figure 1, is a network configuration of an organization with many branch offices (e.g., a bank) that wants to reduce costs and combine traffic to provide voice and data access to the main office. This is accomplished by using a packet network to provide standard data transmission while at the same time enhancing it to carry voice traffic along with the data. Typically, this network configuration will benefit if the voice traffic is compressed as a result of the low bandwidth available for this access application. Voice over packet provides the interworking function (IWF), which is the physical implementation of the hardware and software that allows the transmission of combined voice and data over the packet network. The interfaces the IWF must support in this case are analog interfaces, which directly connect to telephones or key systems. The IWF must emulate the functions of both a private branch exchange (PBX) for the telephony terminals at the branches, as well as the functions of the telephony terminals for the PBX at the home office. The IWF accomplishes this by implementing signaling software that performs these functions.
A wide variety of applications are enabled by the transmission of VoIP networks. This tutorial will explore three examples of these applications.
The first application, shown in Figure 1, is a network configuration of an organization with many branch offices (e.g., a bank) that wants to reduce costs and combine traffic to provide voice and data access to the main office. This is accomplished by using a packet network to provide standard data transmission while at the same time enhancing it to carry voice traffic along with the data. Typically, this network configuration will benefit if the voice traffic is compressed as a result of the low bandwidth available for this access application. Voice over packet provides the interworking function (IWF), which is the physical implementation of the hardware and software that allows the transmission of combined voice and data over the packet network. The interfaces the IWF must support in this case are analog interfaces, which directly connect to telephones or key systems. The IWF must emulate the functions of both a private branch exchange (PBX) for the telephony terminals at the branches, as well as the functions of the telephony terminals for the PBX at the home office. The IWF accomplishes this by implementing signaling software that performs these functions.
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| Figure 1 Branch Office Application |