7.4. Packet-Switched Networks
In the mid-1990s, network performance improved
to the point where it became possible to send a stream of media
information in real time across a network connection. Because the
media stream is chopped up into segments, which are then wrapped in
an addressing envelope, such connections are referred to as packet-based. The challenge, of course, is to
send thousands of these packets between two endpoints, ensuring
that the packets arrive in the same order in which they were sent,
in less than 300 milliseconds, with none lost. This is the essence
of Voice over IP.
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