Avaya 4600 User Manual

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Overview of Voice over IP (VoIP) and Network Protocols
22 4600 Series IP Telephone Release 2.2 LAN Administrator Guide
 
- local telephone company practices, 
- internal customer-specific codes. 
In IP communications, dial plans track extension numbers assigned to terminals. No 
fixed connection path is needed.
Routing is related to addressing and allows connections to be established between 
endpoints.
Although these functions are common to data and voice networks, the implementations differ.
Delay and Jitter
Data traffic is usually short and comes in bursts. Data networks like the Internet are designed to 
manage these bursts of traffic from many sources on a first-come, first-served basis. Data 
packets are sent to multiple destinations, often without any attempt to keep them in a particular 
order.
Voice networks are designed for continuous transmission during a call. The traffic is not bursty, 
and the conversation uses a specific amount of bandwidth between the two ends during the call.
Several features of data networks are unsuitable for voice telephony:
Data network design delivers data at the destination, but not necessarily within a certain 
time, producing delay (latency). In data networks, delay tends to be variable. For voice 
messages, variable delay results in jitter, an audible choppiness in conversations.
Variable routing also can result in loss of timing synchronization, so packets are not 
received at the destination in the proper order.
Data networks have a strong emphasis on error correction, resulting in repeated 
transmissions.
Data network concepts include prioritization of traffic types to provide some form of greater 
traffic reliability, for example, for interactive transactions. However, data requirements tend to 
not be as strict as most voice requirements.
Starting with Release 1.1, the 4600 Series IP Telephones include a dynamic jitter buffer. This 
feature automatically smooths jitter to improve audio quality.
Tandem Coding
Tandem coding, also called transcoding, refers to converting a voice signal from analog to 
digital and back again. When calls are routed over multiple IP facilities, they can be subject to 
multiple transcodings. The multiple conversions between analog and digital coding result in a 
deterioration in the voice quality. Avoid tandem coding wherever possible in any compressed 
voice system, for example, by minimizing analog trunking on the PBX.