Voice, Video and QoS

The Internet was designed for computer traffic. This traffic has the characteristic of requiring to be error-free (and where an error will typically cause a retransmission of data or could corrupt the received data), and not that sensitive to delays. Overall, theInternet we have created has these characteristics, and where we might get congestion at busy times, but, we can often cope with a small delay in getting network traffic from one place to the next. A single bit in error, though, can cause a whole lot of problems. But, voice and voice, are different, and where they typically require low latency and a constant bandwidth. If a data sample from voice or voice does not arrive within good time, there is a chance that the data stream will drop or at least glitch.

At one time we would have separate communication channels for our voice and our data communications, but IP routing has proved so successful that we now mix them. And, so, we feed voice and video traffic along the same routes as our computer traffic, and where computer traffic can often burst onto the network and affect our real-time traffic. Along with this, we could have real-time critical data, such as monitoring a baby’s heart rate. This data must be error-free, and free of any errors, and it shouldn’t be swamped by either non-critical computer data, and less critical voice and video data.