07-11-2014, 09:19 AM
Abstracts: The application SoftPhone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated hardware. It is an application that enables a desktop, laptop or workstation computer to function as a telephone via Voice over IP technology that uses the cables of a computer network as the medium for transmitting telephone service. Often a SoftPhone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons with which the user can interact. A softphone is usually used with a headset connected to the sound card of the PC, or with a USB phone. As its name implies, it is a piece of software, or part of a VoIP software, that acts as an interface allowing you to dial numbers and carry out other phone functions using a screen and your mouse, keyboard or keypad. The software for a soft phone usually mimics the appearance of a real handset and can take the form of either a standalone program with its own window, or an embedded program in a Web application or other PC program. The computer’s sound card is used to provide audio input and output for the soft phone. Soft phones are typical call centers and other businesses that rely heavily on a combination of computers and telephones. One of its key advantages is that a telephone no longer has to be -- or even look like -- a traditional telephone. In fact, just about any PC, laptop, or PDA can be turned into a telephone simply by adding SoftPhone software. A SoftPhone can be cheaper to use than a regular telephone, since the technology requires no hardware beyond a networkconnected PC or PDA. Phone rates can also be cheaper. Nowadays technological aspects are increasing in today’s life. Although IP telephony has been available for a number of years, it's only become widespread very recently. Sound quality, which was an issue, has improved markedly. Furthermore, most providers now enable computer-to-telephone calls, rather than just calls between enabled computers. Given these reasons and the compelling cost savings involved, the growing trend towards IP telephony in homes, businesses, call centers and government offices is likely to continue.