The US Patent Office awarded 3Com a patent Tuesday for technology that could help bring Internet telephony one step closer to dial-tone quality.
US patent number US5870412, given to 3Com's Packet Protection algorithm, addresses techniques for minimizing network packet loss. In IP telephony, that loss usually spells drop-offs -- a glitch that has limited the widespread adoption of voice transmission over the Net.
The patented technology improves the quality of Internet-based phone calls because lost packets can be rebuilt more quickly, allowing conversations to continue without losing audio.
Bruce Claflin, 3Com (COMS) president and chief operating officer, said the advancement will more closely approximate the quality of a standard phone call. "Packet Protection is one of several important technologies that, working together, can help service providers meet customers' high standards for voice quality."
The technology inserts information about the surrounding packets into a packet stream, reducing the time to reconstruct lost packets in the event of a failure.
Packet Protection will be rolled into 3Com's Internet-telephony gateway products that allow telecommunications companies and ISPs to integrate voice-over-IP service into their data network offerings. The products are expected to ship by the end of the year.
