Comparative analysis of traditional telephone and voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) systems

This paper investigates the issues that need to be considered when deciding whether to implement voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP). The first part of the paper focuses on the management issues that concern VoIP deployment, such as performance, quality of service, reliability and availability, scalability, obsolescence and service life, security and regulatory issues, electricity and backup power, network traffic and bandwidth. The second part of the paper covers three case studies on VoIP deployment. The first case is a report on a 90-user VoIP trial by Carnegie Mellon University, followed by a prospective study on the electricity consumption and costs should VoIP be deployed to the entire campus of 6,000 users. The second case concerns the United States Department of Education, which has successfully deployed VoIP for 1,300 users. The final case details the Colorado State University VoIP trial, which has about 50 users.