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To: John F. Dowd who wrote (22556)	10/7/1998 10:35:00 AM
From: gfr fan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 45548

<< gfrfan: But why bother when ATM can provide calls at same price with less finagling with packets?>> Here's how VOIP works: you call up a number given to you by a service provider. Your call is terminated on a VOIP access server that has a gateway function that takes your voice call and chops it into packets - it's now in IP form. It's then handed off to a backbone, internet or service provider specific, that carries it to an egress point where it is put back into traditional voice. This type of service can be offered for a couple of pennies a minute, or just a monthly fee. The general public can't get their voices directly onto ATM - they don't have the equipment, so their needs to be a gateway that turns it into IP and then hands it off to a a backbone of SONET, PPP, ATM, etc. Another application is for businesses to have their PBX's hand calls off to a gateway box that chops the voice into packets and converts it into fast ethernet. The fast ethernet stream is handed to a router and then the packetized voice is sent over the public internet and that company's private intranet. Again, not all companies have ATM infrastructures to go right from a PBX to an ATM gateway switch, so this type of application will be popular with frame relay and packet based LAN enterprises.