In recent years, the corporate world has acquired significant benefits from the applications and products produced by the convergence of voice and data technologies: Internet protocol (IP) telephony; Internet telephone software; and virtual private networks (VPNs).

One of the newer technologies spawned from the integration of voice and data is the ability to transmit voice over data networks. Referred to as Voice over IP (or VoIP, for short), this technology enables voice to be carried over IP-based, packet-switched local-area networks (LANs) and wide-area networks (WANs).

VoIP holds enormous potential that many companies find compelling. Consider, for example, that in a traditional circuit-switched network, establishing a connection creates a dedicated, end-to-end channel for the duration of the communication. As a result, any unused bandwidth remains just that — unused — until the call is released.

By comparison, packet-switched communications allow bandwidth to be shared among various types of communications, filling the available bandwidth capacity more effectively than in circuit-switched networks. Moreover, the ability to combine all traffic onto a single network represents considerable cost savings in the physical enterprise. Another key VoIP advantage attracting significant attention is the ability to conduct long-distance calls while bypassing the public switch telephone network (PSTN) and its associated charges.

The secret to success

For corporations interested in deploying VoIP technology, the success or failure of their venture will depend, in large part, on the performance of the network elements that carry and route the voice packets.

Gateways are required to perform the conversion of voice to IP packets for applications that cross between the PSTN and VoIP networks. In addition to the concern on network element performance, these gateways must process voice reliably under extreme loads.