H.323 Signaling
H.323 is a recommendation from the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) that defines the protocols to provide audio-visual communication sessions on any packet network. The H.323 standard addresses call signaling and control, multimedia transport and control, and bandwidth control for point-to-point and multi-point conferences.
It is widely implemented by voice and videoconferencing equipment manufacturers, is used within various Internet real-time applications such as GnuGK and NetMeeting and is widely deployed worldwide by service providers and enterprises for both voice and video services over IP networks.
It is a part of the ITU-T H.32x series of protocols, which also address multimedia communications over ISDN, the PSTN or SS7, and 3G mobile networks.
H.323 call signaling is based on the ITU-T Recommendation Q.931 protocol and is suited for transmitting calls across networks using a mixture of IP, PSTN, ISDN, and QSIG over ISDN. A call model, similar to the ISDN call model, eases the introduction of IP telephony into existing networks of ISDN-based PBX systems, including transitions to IP-based PBXs.
Within the context of H.323, an IP-based PBX might be a gatekeeper or other call control element which provides service to telephones or videophones. Such a device may provide or facilitate both basic services and supplementary services, such as call transfer, park, pick-up, and hold.
What is IP Trunking?
IP trunking is large-scale, corporate, industrial or institutional use of VoIP. An entire organization hooks into the data world at large via one connection; that connection is then split among all the parties' phones and computers. While VoIP is used in millions of homes, IP trunking is almost exclusively used by businesses because they're the ones that have a need for multiple telephone lines and many telephony services (call waiting, voice mail systems, call forwarding, etc.), which are also carried via certain IP trunking services.
At its core, IP trunking and VoIP is voice on data lines. That means that voices travel over the Internet as bits of data, not "voices" or electrical impulses as they do on a traditional, land-based telephone line
In addition to large data capacity methods like DSL and cable Internet, one of the ways IP trunking can handle multiple phone calls -- as well as Internet data usage coming from multiple places on a forked communications network in one building -- is via cloud computing. This means that the power of multiple computers all comes together to create a virtual, ad hoc "supercomputer" that, by creating a vast capacity to do so, handles the needs of the network, whatever those needs may be at any given moment. This extends to the IP trunking service provider. Its "cloud" of computers and networks powers your call. So the IP trunking consumer doesn't have to necessarily have a superfast computer or even a large computing network to make sure its calls and its data go through. Cloud computing replaces traditional telephony's line-to-line switching methods.
So now you know what IP trunking is and how it's possible to send a phone call out into the ether of the Internet. Read on to find out exactly how your voice turns into a "data packet," and how it's sent through a series of tubes to its destination. And also get an answer to this question: How do the same data networks can send your e-mails at the same time in the same place?
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