VoIP Protocols

Session Initiation Protocol

Session Initiation Protocol is a standard for Voice over Internet Protocol that is gaining a lot of popularity. SIP has not yet been ratified as a standard, but that hasn’t stopped many major VoIP providers from adopting it. SIP provides features that make it similar to traditional phone service. These are telephone-like operations such as dialing tones, ringing tones, and busy signals. SIP had the initial goal of being more simplistic than H.323, but has become just as complex as H.323.

H.323

H.323 is a protocol that provides audio-visual communication sessions on computer networks. H.323 is not a ratified standard, but more of a recommendation by the International Telecommunication Union. It is currently implemented by various Internet real-time applications, such as Microsoft NetMeeting, and is used in Broadband Videophones, such as the D-Link i2eye™ Videophone. H.323 is also used in Voice over IP (VoIP, Internet Telephony, or IP Telephony). A drawback of H.323 is the necessary high bandwidth requirements compared to its competitors, such as MGCP.

MGCP

MGCP stands for Media Gateway Control Protocol, and is a protocol used within a Voice over IP (VoIP) system. This protocol is a method of converting audio voice into data packets and sending them over the Internet. Unlike H.323 protocol, MGCP does not require large amounts of bandwidth to transfer data files over the Internet. In this sense, the efficiency rate of the broadband usage becomes greater for other applications.

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