A systematic approach to understanding the basics of voice over IP

• Understand the basics of enterprise and public telephony networking, IP networking, and how voice is transported over IP networks

• Learn the various caveats of converging voice and data networks

• Examine the basic VoIP signaling protocols (H.323, MGCP/H.248, SIP) and primary legacy voice signaling protocols (ISDN, C7/SS7)

• Explore how VoIP can run the same applications as the existing telephony system but in a more cost-efficient and scalable manner

• Delve into such VoIP topics as jitter, latency, packet loss, codecs, QoS tools, and security

Voice over IP (VoIP) has become an important factor in network communications, promising lower operational costs, greater flexibility, and a variety of enhanced applications. To help you understand VoIP networks, Voice over IP Fundamentals provides a thorough introduction to the basics of VoIP.

Voice over IP Fundamentals explains how a basic IP telephony infrastructure is built and works today, major concepts concerning voice and data networking, and transmission of voice over data networks. You’ll learn how voice is signaled through legacy telephone networks, how IP signaling protocols are used to interoperate with current telephony systems, and how to ensure good voice quality using quality of service (QoS).

Even though Voice over IP Fundamentals is written for anyone seeking to understand how to use IP to transport voice, its target audience comprises both voice and data networking professionals. In the past, professionals working in voice and data networking did not have to understand each other’s roles. However, in this world of time-division multiplexing (TDM) and IP convergence, it is important to understand how these technologies work together. Voice over IP Fundamentals explains all the details so that voice experts can understand data networking and data experts can understand voice networking.

The second edition of this best-selling book includes new chapters on the importance of billing and mediation in a VoIP network, security, and the common types of threats inherent when packet voice environments, public switched telephone networks (PSTN), and VoIP interoperate. It also explains enterprise and service-provider applications and services. 

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 18 Ratings

Cover many topics, but need lots of improvements. - 2009-04-03
Reviewer Rating:
This book covers many topics, which is nice, but it needs much improvements and careful revisions:
1) It has many typos and errors in the books; You can easily find several dozens of them.
2) For the SIP and SS7, seems that the author know little about these topics, so they just get the contents from the ITU recommendations and RFC. they are not explained clearly.
3) The writing is kind of dry.

A good book, but difficult to understand - 2008-06-18
Reviewer Rating:
This is a good book, but not by my standards. After reading I still did not understand some abstract concepts, I have to find some other books to clarify the confusion. It seems to me it was written for those people who already know the subjects quite well.

Not a beginners book - 2008-03-23
Reviewer Rating:
I picked this up on a whim and found it rather hard to read due to the level of plain detail. The first few chapters especially about SS7 were exceptionally dry and a bit of a snoozer. They read more like an RFC rather then a teaching tool.

This book does need some prior knowledge. If you are a beginner and lack knowledge about telephony and networks; you will read it and probably not pickup much.

Even towards the end; I found the chapters didn't explain much. More like a list of features.

I found the case studies a little interesting.

The amount of information the authors were attempting to cover needed more detail. This book should have been at least twice it's size with a little more lesson oriented approach.

Overall, it's an ok book. Again if you are a beginner, you should wait and build your knowledge before attempting this book.

Like eating dry leaves - 2008-03-02
Reviewer Rating:
I've read many certification books, but this one was far and away the driest book I think I've ever read. On every page I'm thinking, "Oh, no - not another page..." The book is great on technical-ese; but the authors don't seem to get it when it comes to readability. No personal notes, no analogies to help keep the reader's interest - only pure technical information, and the more detailed, the better. Woe to you when you get to the SS7 section!

I don't really have anything good to say here, unfortunately. I'm about to order a different CVoice book to study. Anything could only be a step up. If anyone says that this book is easy to read, well, they've been paid by Cisco Press to say it, IMHO.

VoIP Guide - 2008-01-20
Reviewer Rating:
Very well written. I am learning quite a bit about VoIP. Highly recommend it.

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