COMP3310 - Assignment 1 (2004)

Voice over Internet Protocol

In 2003, the ANU rolled out a campus-wide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone system to replace the existing PABX system.

A number of technical, administrative and managerial issues needed to be resolved. Generally speaking, the roll-out has been quite successful.

Find out about VoIP and answer the following questions:

1. What are the names of the main protocols used for carrying Voice traffic across Internet Protocols and what Transport Layer protocol is used (1 mark)
2. What typical end-to-end delays (latencies) are acceptable for a Voice connection and why (1 mark)
3. What bit-rates are typically used for carrying Voice traffic and how do they compare (eg. as a percentage) with the standard Ethernet LAN bit-rates (1 mark)
4. Describe what would be needed to make a typical PC operate as a VoIP terminal (1 mark)
5. Name some of the key parts of a VoIP system and explain how they are used in making a phone call from one VoIP terminal to another (2 marks)
6. Explain what needs to happen for a Voice call initiated on a VoIP terminal to a phone on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) (2 marks)
7. Explain how a voice-mail system can be implemented in a VoIP system. What extra equipment may be needed (1 mark)
8. Explain how a low-cost International Call provider uses VoIP to make lower-cost connections than a typical telecommunications company and what methods they may employ to make their offerings cheaper than the opposition. Include an explanation of what equipment may be used to do this (1 mark)

You should use Web and library resources to research this topic and find answers to these questions.

You should aim to write one or two paragraphs for each mark to be awarded, but don't make your answers unnecessarily wordy.

This assignment is worth 10% of the final assessment.

This assignment is designed to assess:

• your ability to perform independent research on a topic in Networking technology,
• your ability to clearly communicate an understanding of that topic
• your ability to think through the implications of how that technology might change the way computers are used.

Make sure you include all references and your reading list. I don't want answers that you have made up. If you found your answers out somewhere, make sure you let me know where. You will lose marks for not acknowledging your sources.

This assignment is due by 5:00pm on Thursday 8th April, 2004 (end of week 7). It should be submitted electronically, using the submit command. You can submit your assignment as:

• a plain text file,
• an HTML file, or
• a PDF file

If using text or HTML, any figures you want to include should be in JPEG format and have the filename extension .jpg. I am not expecting any figures and they won't necessarily attract any extra marks.