IP telephony: The evolution & convergence of voice & data. Part II

IP Telephony is a means of delivering telephony services oriented around the Internet Protocol (IP). It has been widely publicized by the media, in journals, Internet Service Providers (ISP) and particularly by telecommunications equipment vendors. It has been heralded as a replacement for the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), but there are still many significant technical challenges to overcome. This tutorial paper, divided into two parts, explains the issues surrounding IP Telephony and attempts to dispel many of its myths. Issues to be covered include standards, quality of service, scalability, signalling, addressing, routing, feature transparency and customer equipment. A brief review of some of Telstra's and other worldwide IP Telephony activities is also included.