Phone | How VOIP phones work vs cloud systems

Owned by Savannah Swanson
Last updated: May 26, 2022
3 min read

On-premise VOIP phone services compared to cloud-provided services (Zoom, Google Voice) as applied to Minneapolis College.

 

 “On-premise VOIP” are phone services with physical equipment on our campus.  “VOIP” stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol” which is a fancy way of saying a digital phone connection compared to older analog technology of dedicated physical phone lines.  The audio signal is digital and carried over the same network connections as our other computer data connections.  This also applies to the physical phones that some use on campus.  Those physical phones are essentially computers that look like previous analog phones but require programming to work.  They cannot just be plugged in to a wire and receive signal to function.

 

We have computer servers on campus that control our campus phone services.  They manage the phone extensions, sharing of numbers, forwarding, call queues for students, and voicemail.  By having them local (on-site) we’re able to better manage their security and functions.

 

The path of an outbound campus phone call is as follows.

  1. The caller uses their UC client or campus phone to dial a number.

  2. The UC client(phone) verifies your authentication by your StarID login or phone configuration.  This makes it so others with ill intent can’t replicate or intercept our campus extensions and users.

  3. The call data then travels over the data network (If on campus, the campus data network; if at home, your remote/home network and Internet.)

  4. The call data then reaches the Phone Server and is converted to phone signal and data that can be understood by all phones, whether they’re cell phones, analog phones, or other VOIP phones.

  5. That converted data is then sent to the phone number dialed.

  6. If a cellphone number, then that cellphone provider (Sprint, T-Mobile, etc.) will assign the call to the appropriate receiver.  Or another VOIP system will receive and assign accordingly.  If to an older analog service, then that local phone provider (Centurylink) will route to the correct phone.

Similar is true of inbound calls to campus extensions.

  1. The data is phone-based and received by our campus phone server.  Which determines the correct extension to direct the call towards.

  2. The phone server than sends the call over our campus data network to the extension or over the Internet and then to your remote/home wi-fi network.

  3. Your UC client (phone) receives the call.

Also needing to be included in this formula is cellphones and their shortcomings.  They’re our highest volume source for calls coming in and the destination for our outbound campus calls.  Cell phones obviously are wireless and have numerous low coverage environments such as moving cars, building walls, background noise, and rural areas.

 

Because of the added security, once a call is established (both parties are talking to each other) that data (every word/sound) travels from one caller to the campus phone server to the other caller and back again.  Possibly touching an unknown number of data networks depending on where you are and where the caller is on the other end of the call.  Because of current computer technology all these thousands of connections happen in the blink of an eye.

 

In comparison, video and internet call services such as Zoom, Google Voice, Teams, and many others offer similar services but have the liberty of prioritizing where the data from your call is routed.  They’re able to re-route the data over the best/shortest possible path to limit time and resources because they do not have to route back to a specific campus/business and treat your computer as the source.  They also don’t have to balance cell, older analog, and VOIP callers because all users are on the same software platform.  Meaning all parties are logged into “Zoom” for a Zoom meeting, which greatly simplifies the complexity of the data exchange between all callers.


Because Minneapolis College supports local phone service (campus to campus calls), incoming and outgoing off-campus calls, and emergency phone services (blue line), we don’t have the option of a completely cloud-based phone system without a substantial cost increase.


We hope this helped shed some light on our campus phone system.  If you have any further questions or experience any issues with any campus technology, please contact Technology Support at technology.minneapolis.edu and Report an Incident.