VoIP Needs Fax Solution

摘要

Cable's voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) offerings will be in trouble if faxes can't get through. Early VoIP rollouts suggest that problems could occur in an unacceptable number of cases if the industry doesn't pay enough attention to this issue. There are two interrelated problems that separate fax (and, to a lesser extent, home security alarm systems) from voice calls. "The big thing to understand is that fax doesn't work like voice," says Peter Percosan, a director of broadband strategies for Texas Instruments. The first difference is that fax tones can't be compressed. The other—and more pressing—concern is that fax transmissions are hyper-sensitive to packet loss. What may be tolerable or even unnoticed in a voice conversation can degrade or even end a fax transmission before the data is transferred.