An Overview Of SIP Telephony

Telecom Business Review | Friday, April 16, 2021

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol, the communications protocol for signaling and controlling multimedia communication sessions.

FREMONT, CA: We talk daily to telco dealers and IT consultants about SIP trunking. Some of our resellers are experts with SIP and VoIP solutions.

Still, many are just new to the approach and looking for ways to grow their business and hold onto customers looking for digital voice solutions. If you are fresh to SIP, here are some of the most significant things to know.

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What is SIP Trunking?

SIP trunking is a way of delivering telephone and other unified communications services over the Internet. It operates with a SIP-enabled PBX (private branch exchange). SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol, the communications protocol for signaling and controlling multimedia communication sessions. SIP trunking substitutes traditional telephone lines or PRIs (Primary Rate Interface).

Before SIP, voice calls were rolling forward the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the copper phone lines we customarily associate with the “telephone.” The PSTN (physical circuit switch network) requires a physical connection between two points for a call to occur.

On the other hand, SIP trunks are virtual phone lines that allow you to make and receive phone calls over the Internet to anyone with a phone number, whether they are using VoIP or PSTN. SIP trunks employ a packet switch network, where your voice calls are broken down into digital packets and routed across a network to their final destination.

SIP Channels

Each SIP trunk can support several SIP channels. A SIP channel is the capability to endorse one incoming or outgoing call. You can consider SIP channels as the lanes for your highway. Each call takes up exactly one lane. Because a SIP trunk can contain an unlimited number of channels, you only need one SIP trunk. The number of channels you need will be based on how many concurrent calls your business tends to make. SIP channels are occasionally called sessions, lines or concurrent calls. They are the same in practice as a traditional telephone line.

SIP vs. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

Although SIP and VoIP are sometimes interchangeable, they are not the same. The VoIP(Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a broad term that covers any phone calls made over the Internet. In addition, it includes a group of protocol technologies, of which SIP is an instance. In short, SIP is one of the particular protocols that enable VoIP.

Voice Codecs

Codecs transform audio signal (voice) into compressed digital form for transmission. When the signal attains its destination, the codec converts it to an uncompressed audio signal for replay. It’s what makes VoIP possible.

Different codecs have different levels of compression. The greatly compressed signals need less internet bandwidth, while less compression is associated with clear voice quality. The two most popular for SIP trunking is G.711 and G.229. G.711 provides uncompressed high-quality voice, while G.729 is compressed so that it uses less bandwidth at the sacrifice of quality.

Call Quality

Excellent voice quality is important for any business communication system. With a good solution and proper router configuration, SIP calls can be indistinguishable from calls made over traditional telephone lines.

Hence, choosing a provider like SIP TRUNK is essential, which uses only Tier-1 carrier networks. You should also ensure your customer has enough internet bandwidth to support the expected number of concurrent calls.

Quality of Service (QoS)

The data and voice networks become one when using the Internet for voice calls. QoS (Quality of Service) is a router setting that tells the network to prioritize voice calls. Minor delays in the signal achieving the network or a small data loss aren’t even noticeable to users consuming data.

Still, they can create a terrible experience for voice calls. The QoS setting guarantee that audio quality will remain fantastic even while activities that consume a lot of data, like streaming video or downloading large files, are going on.

The Benefits for Customers

While there are many advantages of SIP for your customers, the primary one is lower communications costs. Whether your customer selects an unlimited SIP trunk that includes most local and long-distance calls to the United States and Canada, or they go with a plan that includes a bundle of minutes, you can be sure that they will save money vs. the traditional approach.

We also sell our solution in a much more flexible and customizable way for business. Your customers can purchase only what they require now and easily grow or retract anytime.

Extra benefits include built-in disaster recovery features, network consolidation, and the ability to utilize Unified Communications capabilities such as video, instant messaging, and presence.

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