Skip to main content

How it works

IP telephony in the LAN requires several things from the network infrastructure. While VoIP is not a bandwidth-intensive application, it does require that bandwidth always be available, voice traffic be identified as high priority, and that Quality of Service (QoS) be maintained by minimizing latency (delay) and jitter (delay variation).

Telephone users have very high expectations because they are accustomed to the QoS provided by the PSTN and legacy Private Branch Exchange (PBX) based networks. These connection-oriented, circuit-switched networks provide each user with dedicated bandwidth for the duration of each call. The result is extremely low latency and jitter, and minimal disruption due to "noise" on the connections, allowing users to carry on natural conversations.