When you make a VoIP call or join a UC meeting, you click the “call” or “join” button, and everything just works! You seamlessly communicate with your remote employees, partners, and customers. It seems like magic, but behind the scenes, a vital technology is making all this possible: the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

BGP is the de facto routing protocol that governs and enables data to traverse the worldwide web. For VoIP and UC professionals, understanding BGP matters because it directly affects how voice, video, and messaging traffic reaches its destination. This is true for all communications taking place over the internet, such as that between users, SIP trunk providers, or cloud-based UC and VoIP platforms.

In this article, we look behind the scenes to see what BGP is, how it directs traffic across multiple networks and ISPs worldwide, and how its operation directly affects reliability and service availability for real-time applications.

Have you ever wondered how an IP camera captures video, converts it to a digital format, and sends it on its way? Understanding how IP cameras work is important for understanding datasheet specifications and IP camera capabilities, so you can choose the best devices for your customers' needs. Knowing at least the basics of how this technology works can help you better choose the appropriate hardware based on the application requirements.

In this article, we examine the processes involved in video capture on IP cameras and the various associated technologies used for this purpose.

Routing is a vital part of network operations, and employing it correctly is of utmost importance for any enterprise network.

In the context of networking, routing is the process by which data packets are directed to their final destination as they travel from node to node.  There are many aspects of routing design that can affect general network traffic patterns and particular network services. UC and VoIP services can be adversely affected if routing design does not take into account their special characteristics.

This article examines various aspects of routing implementation to see how it can potentially affect real-time services. We also look at what specific design aspects you should consider to ensure the proper operation of such services.

DHCP is best known as the protocol that automatically assigns IP addresses to hosts that connect to a network. It is one of those protocols that we don’t often think about because it functions in the background — users are completely oblivious to its operation, just enjoying its convenience and flexibility.

However, DHCP is about more than automatic address allocation, especially for VoIP and UC devices such as IP phones and video terminals. In this article, we explore the operation of DHCP and the specialized options it provides for VoIP and UC applications, some of which you might not know about!

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the successor to the well-established IPv4 network layer protocol. It is slowly but surely gaining ground worldwide on both internal corporate enterprise networks and on the internet at large.

But what does this mean for real-time audio and video communications applications such as VoIP and unified communications (UC)? How are VoIP and UC leveraging IPv6, and are there any issues that network admins must be aware of in this process? In this article, we answer these questions by examining the benefits and challenges of deploying such applications over an IPv6 network.

By leveraging multicast, organizations can optimize network bandwidth usage and support a larger number of concurrent users in video conferencing, multimedia broadcasting, and other similar scenarios. This makes multicast a key component of UC and VoIP solutions, offering a more efficient and cost-effective way to manage communications at scale.

In this article, we examine multicast communications in the context of networking, how it compares with unicast and broadcast communication, and practical steps for leveraging it on your network.

When you speak on the phone, it’s natural to believe that it’s a private conversation between you and the person on the other end of the line. However, do you know what mechanisms are employed to deliver this confidentiality? And how confident can you truly be in these security measures?

In this article, we take a detailed look at Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) security technologies and how they keep conversations confidential.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a collection of technologies enabling voice communications over IP networks, has come a long way since its first commercial application over 20 years ago. It has successfully overcome its many obstacles, developing into a robust, reliable and extremely flexible communications solution. You would be hard-pressed to find any new business telephone system installed within the past couple of years based on technology other than VoIP.

In a previous article, we saw how reliable the technology has become. In this article, we look at the factors to consider when choosing VoIP services, especially services delivered within a UCaaS framework. This will help you choose the best provider for your particular business needs.

In the past, VoIP was considered a low-quality, undependable voice service delivered over an unreliable internet connection. Since then, the technology has improved dramatically, as have the methods and connections used to deliver it. VoIP now enjoys the same levels of availability and robustness as traditional telephony did at its peak.

Even so, the stigma of low quality and low dependability has followed VoIP to this day. In this article, we attempt to understand why this is the case and provide a realistic picture of the phenomenal reliability that VoIP can achieve today.

Product Review

There are many businesses that require wireless telephony on their premises. Hospitals, hotels, warehouses, universities, and a multitude of manufacturing environments require employees to maintain a high level of mobility within an enterprise’s facilities while simultaneously maintaining their reachability via the internal phone system.

For such environments, a DECT-based system is arguably the simplest turn-key solution. Snom has made such a solution even simpler and highly scalable with its M900 DECT base station.