History of VoIP

Voice over IP began as the result of work done by some hobbyists in Israel in 1995 when only PC-to-PC communication was available. Later in 1995, Vocaltec, Inc. released Internet Phone Software. This software was designed to run on a home PC (486/33 MHz) with sound cards, speakers, microphone, and modem. The software compressed the voice signal, translated it into voice packets, and shipped it out over the Internet. The technology worked as long as both the caller and the receiver had the same equipment and software. Although the sound quality was nowhere near that of conventional equipment at the time, this effort represented the first IP phone.

                 

VoIP came into existence as a result of work done by a few hobbyists in Israel in the year 1995 when only PC-to-PC communication was in vogue. Later on during 1995, Vocaltec, Inc. released Internet Phone Software. This particular software was intended to run on a home PC (486/33 MHz) with:

 

• sound cards
• speakers
• microphone
• modem

The software was used to compress the voice signal, convert it into voice packets, and then finally to ship it out over the Internet. This particular technology worked as long as both the caller and the receiver had the same tools and software. However, the sound quality was not even close to that of the standard equipment in use at that point of time. This attempt can be termed as the first IP phone that came into existence.

 1996

Vocaltec – one of the true pioneers of VoIP – Internet Phone product

It had initial success with Internet Phone, and had a successful IPO in 1996 and was perhaps the first “true” VoIP software application.  It helped lay the groundwork to make VoIP mainstream and was the first VoIP product on the shelves of Compusa and other retail outlets.   

In the old days of VoIP there were full-duplex issues and soundcard full-duplex driver issues.  If you didn’t have the latest sound card driver, you’d get a half-duplex CB/walkie-talkie type experience.  The Internet hadn’t really taken off at that point in history.  You had to download the latest sound card driver to get full-duplex VoIP sound. 

In 1996 they released and officially invented the protocol and today they are leading providers of the latest VoIP solutions. The technology is still fairly new and history is being written right now. 

Historically, VoIP software focused mainly on the DSP (Digital Signal Processors), primarily due to the components’ high representation in the design of VoIP platforms. Not surprisingly, OEMs centered their design decisions on which DSP they intended to use, with the standard considerations of performance, size, and power dissipation following suit. 

The VoIP software vendors responded in kind by supplying the necessary codecs and data packaging components necessary to run on the DSP, however this bottom-up approach left manufacturers to fend for themselves with the most critical design elements, including system management, signaling, call control, gateway control, and control plane interface. Often, the integration of these disparate components was quite a difficult process, requiring the stitching together of algorithms and protocols from many different suppliers. Consequently, system efficiency was sub-optimal, and time to market was painfully slow.

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