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Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) is a technology that enables voice communication using a wireless internet connection rather than the mobile operator’s radio access network. First deployed in 2014, it’s particularly useful in areas with weak cellular coverage. It allows users to make and receive calls using their internet connection, thus improving call quality and reliability.
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As with most next-generation voice services, VoWiFi operates by converting voice signals into data packets transmitted over IP networks. It applies codecs (compression-decompression algorithms) to ensure that voice quality is optimized and bandwidth is efficiently utilized. Unlike old-fashioned voice services carried over circuit-switched networks, VoWiFi and VoIP rely on packet-switched networks, enhancing network flexibility and resource management.
To use VoWiFi, users need a compatible smartphone and a Wi-Fi connection that meets certain requirements, such as adequate bandwidth and minimal latency. From the users’ perspective, VoWiFi seems like a feature of the mobile device, allowing them to seamlessly switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks during calls and maintaining call quality as they move in and out of Wi-Fi range.
The benefits of VoWiFi to the end user seem straightforward. They can make calls in places with no mobile signal (e.g., in a property with thick walls), and they can do so without needing to install new software or establish new service relationships. If they care about such things, they know they enjoy the same SIM-based security they have when they are on the mobile network. Depending on their operator’s charging approach and their data and call plans, they can expect not to pay for at least some calls made over a Wi-Fi network. Seamless handover allows them to begin a call on Wi-Fi and keep it going as they transition to the public mobile network, or vice versa.
Network operators can provide better service to their customers without ramping up their radio access networks. They can continue to use core network elements to route, control, and bill for voice calls even when they are not providing the access technology. They get to keep traffic and interconnect revenues that might otherwise have been lost to them.
VoWiFi integrates the service with the security and interoperability provided by the mobile network. This allows for handover between Wi-Fi and the public mobile network and routing calls to telephone numbers. This makes it an attractive alternative for operators and end users to so-called “over-the-top” (OTT) voice providers like WhatsApp or Skype. These latter offer a telephony-like service over an operator’s data service. A wide variety of standalone apps and services can make end-to-end voice conversations over Wi-Fi networks. Still, all parties need to be on the same service and to be in some way “friends”, able to allow connectivity between them.
VoWiFi is, therefore, an important weapon in the operator’s arsenal of tools to compete with the OTT VOIP providers that are cannibalizing their voice revenues.
VoWiFi is a service whose time has come. The ubiquity of Wi-Fi at home and in other premises, the reduced in-building penetration of LTE and 5G, and the competition from OTT voice services, all make it attractive for mobile network operators to offer it.
Some of the challenges in deploying VoWiFi are obvious. There’s less-than-perfect compatibility between devices, software, and Wi-Fi networks. Even with networks that apparently have bandwidth to spare, there are quality of service (QoS) issues, with many broadband providers delivering a network that works fine for streaming video but suffers when it tries to do anything that can’t tolerate delay.
In Wi-Fi networks with multiple access points, handover doesn’t always work or doesn’t work as expected. Online forums are full of users complaining about choppy audio, clipping, and echo, among other things. Sadly for operators, users may attribute shortcomings in voice quality to them rather than to the broadband network or the local Wi-Fi configuration.
Nonetheless, as Wi-Fi technology improves and broadband becomes more accessible, VoWiFi is expected to play an increasingly important role in enhancing user experience in voice services.
Delivering standards-based, interoperable voice service over Wi-Fi appears at first sight to be a simple matter of using unlicensed spectrum to carry packetized voice. But as with the duck that seems to be resting placidly on the lake, there is a load of complex activity going on beneath the surface.
Key to the VoWiFi technology is a series of architectural elements, protocols, and interfaces that enable calls to be carried end-to-end across networks using different technologies and with different owners. The most important is the Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG). This vital component enables connectivity between mobile networks and non-3GPP networks, such as public Wi-Fi, commonly used for offloading data and voice traffic. With the increasing number of Wi-Fi hotspots and the need for flexible mobile services, the ePDG is crucial in improving network coverage, security, and user experience.
VoWiFi is a service whose time has come. The ubiquity of Wi-Fi at home and in other premises, the reduced in-building penetration of LTE and 5G, and the threat from “over-the-top” voice services, all make it attractive for mobile network operators to offer it. VoWiFi is an important tool in the operator’s armoury to compete with OTT VoIP providers such as WhatsApp or Skype.
ng-voice enables VoWiFi services through a virtualized ePDG solution running in the cloud on commercial public cloud providers' servers, delivering scalability, cost-efficiency, interoperability and compliance with industry standards.
Learn more about ePDG here: Understanding the Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG)
ng-voice is a Germany-based telco software provider, committed to making telco simple with software and automation at scale.ng-voice’s flagship product - the Hyperscale IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) Solution - is infrastructure-agnostic, cost-efficient and highly automated and delivers VoLTE, VoNR and VoWiFi while significantly lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
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Web: www.ng-voice.com
Contact: sales@ng-voice.com
