With more and more organizations adopting VoIP technology, the demand for VoIP training is growing. With more and more organizations adopting VoIP technology, the demand for VoIP training is growing.

This is because companies require personnel who can install, administer and maintain systems based on VoIP technology, and more than that, they need personnel who can handle both data and telephony management.

These jobs are two different skill sets, and need integration. The telephony engineers have knowledge of trunk capacity planning, call routing, voice features, PBX interfaces, signaling etc. while data engineers or technicians are experts in transmission of data over Internet Protocols. VoIP training helps telephony engineers learn about the packet delivery side of networking while data engineers learn about voice technologies, call routing and dialing plans.

Ideally, the companies would like the same employee to know both sides of VoIP technology. But this is becoming increasingly difficult with growing specialization. In fact, companies now have separate administrators for networking and server maintenance. They therefore need to train both professionals in VoIP technology.

VoIP training course content

A VoIP training course needs to cover VoIP standards, Internet and wireless gateways, IP PBX systems, IP phones, voice compression systems etc. The course also needs to cover H.323 and SIP protocols. H.323 is the oldest and most widely used protocol suite for delivering voice over IP while SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is a simple protocol used for establishing sessions in an IP network. A session may be a simple phone call or a videoconference but it is important to understand.

VoIP training should also cover voice-related technologies that are relevant to VoIP. The other protocols that need to be covered are MGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol) and Megaco / H.248. These are control protocols that are used between a Media Gateway Controller or call agent and a media gateway.

A key area of VoIP training is Quality of Service (QoS) requirement since most complaints about VoIP broadband phone providers are about voice quality. Users invariably compare VoIP phones with landline phones and demand the same quality of service. The training therefore needs to address subjects like factors governing basic voice quality in terms of distortion, frequency response etc. They also need to describe and explain what levels of delay will actually impair a voice conversation and what levels will not be noticed. Similarly, the effect of delay that may result in echo or the effect of transporting non-voice signals such as fax needs to be covered.

Further, VoIP applications, which are being used presently, as well as those that are likely to evolve in the future, also need to be studied.