VoIP Quick start guide

Hi there. Today I found a quick start guide on VoIP written for Cisco 3600 series modular routers- click here to download PDF. I think it could be useful even if you just a newbie and what to learn how VoIP works, so I decided to share it. Please let me know if you think it’s useful and please don’t forget to support us and click on advertising (right column).

List of Terms you will need to know first, at least browse it quickly before start reading that PDF

This section defines some of the terms and concepts used by voice over IP

BRI—Basic Rate Interface.

call leg—a segment of a call path; for instance, between a telephone and a router, a router and a network, a router and a PBX, or a router and the PSTN. Each call leg corresponds to a dial peer.

CIR—committed information rate. The average rate of information transfer a subscriber (for example, the network administrator) has stipulated for a Frame Relay PVC.

destination pattern—the pattern of numbers that identifies the destination of an incoming call; in other words, a phone number.

dial peer—a software object that ties together a voice port and a local telephone number (local dial peer or POTS dial peer) or an IP address and a remote telephone number (remote dial peer or VoIP dial peer). Each dial peer corresponds to a call leg.

E&M—ear and mouth (or recEive and transMit), a signaling technique for two-wire and four-wire interfaces between PSTN central offices or PBXs.

FXO—foreign exchange office, a type of VIC interface. The FXO VIC connects local calls to a PSTN central office or PBX over a standard RJ-11 modular telephone cable. This is the interface a standard telephone provides.

FXS—foreign exchange station, a type of VIC interface. The FXS VIC connects directly to a standard telephone, fax machine, or similar device over a standard RJ-11 modular telephone cable, and supplies ringing voltage, dial tone, and similar signals to it.

IPX—Internetwork Packet Exchange.

ISDN—Integrated Services Digital Network.

local dial peer—a software object that ties together a voice port and the telephone number of a device attached to the port (also called POTS dial peer).

MTU—maximum transmission unit.

Multilink PPP—Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol, a method of splitting, recombining, and sequencing datagrams across multiple logical data links.

PBX—private branch exchange, a private telephone switching system.

POTS—plain old telephone service.

POTS dial peer—a software object that ties together a voice port and the telephone number of a device attached to the port (also called local dial peer).

PRI—Primary Rate Interface.

PSTN—public switched telephone network.

PVC—permanent virtual circuit.

QoS—quality of service, a measure of the level of performance needed for a particular application, such as a voice over IP connection.

remote dial peer—a software object that ties together an IP address and a telephone number at a remote site reached over the IP network (also called VoIP dial peer).

RSVP—resource reservation protocol, a network protocol that enables routers to reserve the bandwidth necessary for reliable performance.

RTP—real-time transport protocol (RTP), a network protocol used to carry packetized audio and video traffic over an IP network.

session target—a remote IP or DNS address specified as one end of a voice connection.

tag—a positive integer in the range 1 to 2³¹ -1 (2147483647) used to identify a dial peer.

UDP—User Datagram Protocol.

VIC—voice interface card. VICs install in a slot in a voice network module, and provide the connection to the telephone equipment or network. There are three types: FXS, FXO, and E&M interface. Each VIC provides two ports of the same type.

voice network module—a network module that installs in a slot in a Cisco  3600 series router, converts telephone voice signals into a form that can be transmitted over an IP network, and provides one or two slots for voice interface cards.

VoIP—voice over IP, a feature that carries voice traffic, such as telephone calls and faxes, over an IP network, simultaneously with data traffic.

VoIP dial peer—a software object that ties together an IP address and a telephone number at a remote site reached over the IP network (also called remote dial peer).