Satellite VoIP - Wireless Telephony Anywhere

Australian satellite communications services are evolving rapidly. The advent of satellite VoIP makes Internet telephony even more reliable and accessible. People who live in remote areas and those who travel to inaccessible places can enjoy a wide VoIP coverage with satellite Internet.

Thanks to the development in IP networking, transmitting calls via the Internet has become possible. As VoIP becomes more integrated with satellite services, satellite VoIP providers have expanded their products to better serve both the business and consumer markets.

Considerations in Choosing a Satellite VoIP System

One-way propagation delay for VoIP is estimated at 280 msec. This is due to positioning at Geo Stationary orbit and the speed of light. To date, several overseas calls are transmitted via satellite VoIP, especially via small long distance carriers.

Jitter quantifies how network delays affect the packets sent to the receiving end. Excessive jitter results into choppy lines. Jitter is measured based on the inter-arrival time of the packet stream. The satisfactory inter-arrival time at the receiver should be the same as the inter-packet gaps from the transmitter, while the standard deviation should be low. Jitter buffers (packet buffers which hold the incoming packets for a certain period of time) reduce network fluctuations and facilitate smooth packet flow to the receiving end.

Packet corruption can be prevented by keeping a low bit error rate. This will ensure high-quality voice. This is a critical consideration in choosing a satellite VoIP provider. Since the traffic flow in UDP/IP, it cannot be resent unlike in the case of TCP/IP.

The amount of bandwidth required per call is affected by the encoding standard, payload size and header compression. For example, the bandwidth is estimated at 16Kbps with a G.729(b) standard, payload of 40 bytes, and no header compression.

Satellite VoIP has been proven to be better and more reliable than other VoIP systems. There are not much hardware requirements other than the satellite Internet system. VoIP software is also easy to configure. Through satellite VoIP, business users can enjoy clear and continuous Internet telephony in areas not serviced by traditional broadband carriers.


Other Factors to Consider

Questions to ask when choosing a satellite VoIP provider:

• Are multiple lines per account possible?
• Is there a back-up phone system?
• Is conference call possible?
• What are the minimum hardware and software requirements?
• Is call rerouting possible?
• What are the coverage restrictions?
• Is the service compatible with mobile communications devices and other VoIP hardware?
• How large are the VSAT networks of the satellite carrier?