Simply put a VoIP Gateway converts traditional telephone traffic (analog) to a digital format (IP) that can be sent across the internet and visa versa. In sort it is a bridge between the IP and analog equipment.

If you are happy with your current phone system and do not want to invest in any new IP and sets, but want to take advantage of the lower call costs associated with the Voice over IP, you would install a VoIP gateway.

As shown in the diagram above, once installed a VoIP Gateway would intercept calls from your phone system, and convert them to digital packets so that it can be transported over an IP based network. Likewise any incoming calls received across the IP network will be converted back into analog format for the phone system to understand.

There is a lot more complexity behind the VoIP Gateway, such as protocols and codesc. These deal with how the data is transported and how it is compressed and uncompressed.

Rest assured Kloudphone engineers understand all of this, after all we do run our own network and can ensure that the VoIP gateway matches our settings perfectly.