Efficiency of packet voice with deterministic delay

Packet switching is appealing for carrying real-time traffic because it can benefit from (possibly variable bit rate) compression schemes and statistical multiplexing to more efficiently exploit network resources. This work explores the efficiency of IP telephony in terms of the volume of voice traffic carried with deterministically guaranteed quality related to the amount of network resources used. An IP network carrying compressed voice is compared to circuit switching carrying PCM (64 kb/s) encoded voice, and some design choices affecting IP telephony efficiency are discussed.