PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) is the landline phone that we are all familiar with. To make a call, you pick up the receiver and dial numbers. The telephone number is the key to making the connection to the right person, a sort of address if you will. The VoIP uses an address as well, an IP address to direct your proposed call to the right party. When you use one to make a call to the other, the address or phone number is translated to the right one and the call is completed. If you are using VoIP to make a call, the PSTN address or phone number directs the call, and if you are using a landline, the PSTN network then translates the IP address in the same way.

 

Seamless VoIP-PSTN Interworking

 

Some people are habitual up-graders, buying all of the latest techno toys and gizmos as soon as they hit the open market. Others prefer to take a wait and see approach to some of the newer things, waiting for some of the bugs to be worked out of systems before they will agree to try them out. And then there are those that have found what works for them and will not be persuaded to do otherwise for any reason. But what happens when one of the upgraders must communicate with the old fashioned souls that will not move out of the past?

 

VoIP-PSTN interworking is the same scenario. VoIP and PSTN users must be able to communicate with each other without any noticeable difference from the norm. Since the inception of VoIP, it was the most important considerations from protocol standards development, hardware manufacturing, software implementations and network interworking.

 

Seamless VoIP-To-VoIP Interworking

 

Most people have had some interaction with a VoIP system and did not know it, while others do nothing but rant and rave about it. Voice over Internet protocol can work with the traditional (PSTN), and the landline user may not even realize it. But the confusion lies in how the two will work together without huge mix-ups.

 

If you have a computer-to-computer based system in place, there will be no translation, because none will be necessary. Both of the VoIP users will have an IP address, it is only when the VoIP user is calling someone who does not have an IP address that the translation and network switching becomes necessary. Of course, the VoIP providers would like to see more people switch, so the claim is sometimes made that PSTN and VoIP are incompatible with each other. This is not true, although there is usually a charge incurred with the connection – for the VoIP user.