Regardless of whether you are establishing VoIP telephony for your home or your business, the VoIP gateway is an essential element in making sure you are able to send and receive calls via IP as well as take advantage of the Internet. It is the job of the VoIP gateway to take the IP signals, translate them, and determine which point on the network should receive them. This is not an easy job but current technology allows the VoIP gateway to do it reliably and efficiently.

For busienss applications, the VoIP gateway will work to allow it to use its existing PBX (private branch exchange) system. The job of the VoIP gateway is still to direct traffic by interpreting the headers in the data and sending it off to the proper point in the network. For a business situation, this may be more complex since the enterprise may have remote locations that are also handled by the VoIP gateway. Enterprise applications may also require that calls are routed to specific individuals on the network.

For large scale applications, VoIP gateways are in the thousands. Business users can enjoy significant cost savings as the monthly cost to use VoIP telephony is significantly less than that for traditional communications.

We find VoIP gateways available in both analog and digital forms. They are most commonly purchased as an external unit but we do still find VoIP gateways available as PCI cards. The units themselves will have an Ethernet connection to access the IP network and connectors for the telephone lines and are designed to handle multiple protocols.

While the current economic crisis has slowed growth in the VoIP gateway market somewhat, it is still a vibrant and healthy market. As much of the world speeds to adopt VoIP telephone communication, this growth will continue. Indeed, the market is a long way from seeing saturation.

Bailey
May 14, 2009