IP (internet protocol) Telephony, enabled by softswitches, is going to usher in a new era in telecommunications. By putting voice and data over one IP network, operators can enjoy lower costs and create new, revenue-generating "multimedia" services. This valuable reference offers a comprehensive overview of the technology behind IP telephony and offers essential information to network engineers, designers and managers who need to understand the protocols and explore the issues involved in migrating the existing telephony infrastructure to an IP-based real time communication service.Drawing on extensive research and practical development experience in VoIP from its earliest stages, the authors give access to all the relevant standards and cutting-edge techniques in a single resource. "IP Telephony: Deploying Voice-over-IP Protocols": assumes a working knowledge of IP and networking and addresses the technical aspects of real-time communication over IP; presents a high level overview of packet media transport technologies, covering all the major VoIP protocols - SIP, H323 and MGCP; details specific strategies to design services for public networks where endpoints cannot be trusted and can be behind firewalls; and, explores the problems that may arise from incomplete protocol implementations, or architectures optimized for private networks which fail in a public environment. This amply illustrated, state-of-the art reference tool will be an invaluable resource for all those involved in the practical deployment of VoIP technology.