STIE IT&B CAMPUS Wilphen Tanoto/0705030068

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY

(FTP, VOIP, AND VOD)

ABSTRACT
Internet has been a primary need for most of people nowadays. We use internet to
surfing, buy and download files from the internet to update their gadget, get information,
researching for the study, communicating with friends and business partners, watching
streaming video, accessing, and transferring data has been our daily activities. Actually,
every data transferring that we do over internet everyday uses the different internet
technology according to the condition and requirement. The purpose of this paper is do a
comparative study of three internet technology (FTP, VoIP, and VoD) we use in data
transferring over internet. We use FTP technology when we are downloading large size of
files from a certain address such as e-books, images, mp3, mp4, etc and save it into our
computer before we can open and view them for many time; and getting time elapsed for the
downloading process according to the file size. We use VoIP technology when we are talking
real time with other people over internet when the delay time for the data transferring must
be short; packet loss should not be happen and the sound files of our talking are not saved in
our storage device before it is opened and heard. We use VoD technology when we demand
a video streaming of news or events (entertainment) to be watch in real time, with the
requirement: doesnt have to wait for a time elapsed to finish downloading before we can
open and watch the file but only a few seconds time elapsed for buffering to watch the video;
and the files are not saved in our storage device.
1. INTRODUCTION
Internet has been a primary need for most of people nowadays. People always buy
and download files from the internet to update their gadget, get information, researching for
the study, etc. Many of people as businessmen also upload files to be bought and download
by internet user. They also upload a beautifully design webpage that contain information
about certain product (as catalog) to a web server so that internet user all around the world
who is doing surfing can access the webpage and gain information about certain things,
products, or services. In order to do business in internet, they also need the reliable two ways
communication between customers and suppliers like doing the phone calls but it is done
directly anytime customer is connected and surfing in the internet. News nowadays is
essential to be fast, up-to date, and easy to be access via internet. Even the news in internet
nowadays has provided the user with videos instead of texts and images. Internet user can
have the video streaming every time theyre connected to the internet and watch the headline

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news streaming of every event that happens in every part of this world directly at that time.
All of the data transferring and accessing by internet user that are mentioned above uses
different types of technology that is developing rapidly from years to years. Every internet
technology is developed year by year to provide internet user the best services and ease in
doing their activities and business. With this rapid development of technology, maybe a few
years ago, we cant imagine how we can communicate and get information and
entertainment with texts, images and even videos nowadays with a very long distance and
very short time. Without realizing it, everything that we cant imagine in the past is now
coming to reality with internet and we are now using and relying on this technology in our
daily activities.
2. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY
There are some internet technology in transferring files, texts, images, voices and
videos over internet. They are FTP, VoIP, and VOD. The discussion below is the
comparative study of these technologies.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) allows user from one computer to transfer files to
another computer over a computer in a TCP/IP network [3]. It means that with FTP, we can
send our files from our computer (as client) to the server computer. And any other user could
get the file by accessing the server computer (entering the right address of server computer).
This FTP is usually used by people to upload the webpage to the server computer and then
the webpage will be downloaded by the internet user using FTP also. Besides webpage,
people can also transfer other program and files such as text, image, sound and video files.
The process of download and upload using the FTP is over the internet or TCP/IP (Transfer
Control Protocol). TCP/IP is the protocol to make the transferring data in internet become
possible. The purpose of FTP is for a large file sharing. There are two machines involve in
FTP transaction, a client machine and a server machine. A client machine always initiates the
transactions. A client can send two commands, the get command and the put command. The
get command uses by client to access and copy files from server machine. The put command
is to move or copy files from client to store them to server machine. FTP can transfer both
ASCII and binary file. Files including plain texts and symbol typed from keyboard are
ASCII files, while other files, such as sound, image, video, and graphics are binary files.

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Files are sent, transferred (upload or download) and opened after the download process is
finished or all parts (usually in packets) of the files are in our computer.
Ftp://itbweb-server.com

Put

Get

PC
Server

Figure 1: Transferring Data from Client to Server via FTP

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a modern communication technology that
enables of transferring voices signal in real time as data packets over the internet or TCP/IP
networks [2]. In other words, this technology allows people to talk like using a phone but it
is done using internet connection. The previous telephone technology sends the analog voice
signal through a pair of copper wires that is connected between two phones. But in VoIP, the
analog voice signal is converted into the digital signal and break down to packets to allow
them to be sent over the internet by following their own shortest routes to the destination
(address). When the packets arrive, they will be arranged, combined and converted back to
analog signals and to be heard by the other people. So, the VoIP technology allows the
correct rearrange of data packets to be converted back to analog human voice signal with the
tolerate delay time. This time delay includes time to convert analog to digital signal, time to
break down to data packets, time to transfer through internet, time to rearrange data packets
and time to covert digital back to analog signal. The delay time of VoIP technology must be
very small so that user feels like they are communicating in real time. There are three types
of VoIP calling, which are from computer to computer, from telephone to telephone, and
between telephone and computer [2].

Telephone
Gateway PC

Internet

Gateway

Telephone
PC

Figure 2: Types of VoIP Calling

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Video on Demand (VoD) is an interactive TV technology that allows

subscribers/users to view video program in real time. This service can be delivered over the
internet to home computers, portable computers, high-end cellular telephone sets and
advanced digital media devices. VoD can work well over a wide geographic region or on a
satellite-based network [4]. Application using VoD include online education, news
distribution, and entertainment video distribution that can be accessed by internet user
anytime and anywhere all over the world [5]. Some information and entertainment such as
news or sports news are more comfortable if it is presented/broadcasted with video rather
than only with texts and images. So, VoD technology is almost the same as watching satellite
TV at home. Only that with VoD, we can choose the video program we want anytime. So
using VoD, we can have two ways communication where we can demand the video program
using our internet browser and we can get the video streaming by the suppliers. VoD
technology allows the transferring data with streaming method [1]. When internet user
demand a video program, the server will transfer the video files to the user, usually video
files are large and long to download using the FTP technology, so it is not efficient if the
internet user wait too long to download, need large hard disk space, and to prevent violation
of copyright problem. Therefore, in this case we use VoD technology that allows server to
send part of the video file using buffering and within seconds it can be shown in media
player that is embedded in the browser to the user so that user doesnt need to wait until the
file is finished downloaded to his computer.
So from the three internet technology we use to transfer data everyday and every time
we connect to the internet, we can see that the three types of the technology are used to
transferring what data we want or choose in the web page. But the different condition in data
transferring use different types of internet technology that we maybe not realize it. In FTP,
we usually use it to download large size of data from a server address, such as e-books,
images, mp3, mp4, etc. In downloading files with this FTP, we usually wait for the amount
of time elapsed for the process according to the size of file and the file is saved in our
computer. In VoIP, we usually use it to communicate with friends and business partners. In
this case, we send and receive human voice over the internet between two or more people
whose computers are connected to internet and identified with IP address as computer users
ID in the network. In transferring sound files with this VoIP, the small size of sound file

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(part of our talking) will be send and download by our fellow in a short and tolerate time to
make we will feel like we are talking real time in telephone. Packet loss during the
transferring cannot be tolerate and the sound files are not saved in the storages device of the
computer but gone after the sound is out from the speaker otherwise user choose to record. In
VoD, we usually use to watch a news or other event/entertain video after choosing it by real
time/streaming. So, we doesnt have to wait long to view the video, only within seconds for
buffering. The video files are not saved in our computers storage device.
3. CONCLUSION
Using internet to surfing, communicating, watching streaming video, accessing, and
transferring data has been our daily activities. Actually, every data transferring that we do
over internet everyday uses the different internet technology according to the condition and
requirement. We use FTP technology when we are downloading files from a certain address
and save it into our computer before we can open and view many times, getting time elapsed
for the downloading process according to the file size, and packet loss maybe happen that
makes us to re-download again. We use VoIP technology when we are talking real time with
other people over internet when the delay time for the data transferring must be short, packet
loss should not be happen and the sound files of our talking are not saved in our storage
device before it is opened and heard. We use VoD technology when we demand a video
streaming of news or events (entertainment) to be watch in real time, with the requirement:
doesnt have to wait for a time elapsed to finish downloading before we can open and watch
the file but only a few seconds time elapsed for buffering to watch the video, a few of packet
loss sometimes can be tolerate, and the files are not saved in our storage device.

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STIE IT&B CAMPUS Wilphen Tanoto/0705030068

REFERENCE

[1] Hariano Farhan, Aplikasi Video On Demand Berbasis Web, Laporan Tugas Akhir
Jurusan Teknik Informatika Fakultas Teknik Universitas Widyatama, Bandung, 2007.

[2] Kiki Prawiroredjo, Dasar-Dasar Voice Over Internet Protocol, Jetri Volume 2 No 1,
August 2002, pp 29-40, ISSN 1412-0372 Jurusan Teknik Elektro Universitas Trisakti,
http://blog.trisakti.ac.id/jetri/files/2010/01/2.1.3kiki.pdf, 26 February 2010.

[3] R.B. Tajudin, S. John, F.M. Kamil, N. Lim, W.B. Musah, and N. I. Razali, FTP Server
Distributed Multimedia Systems, School of Informatics Science Universiti Malaysia
Sabah 2006, http://www.scribd.com/doc/2882517/FTP-SERVER-TECHNOLOGY, 26
February 2010.

[4] Searchtelecom, Video on Demand, http://searchtelecom.techtarget.com/sDefinition

/0,,sid 103_gci1264507,00.html, 26 February 2010.

[5] V. Kumar, M. L. Gavrilova, J. K. Tan, P. L'Ecuyer, Computational Science and Its

Applications ICCSA, Proceedings International Conference Montreal Canada, 2003.

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