Are You Ready For VoIP? Tips For VoIP Readiness

Voice over IP is the future of communications. Over 90% of phone systems sold today utilize VoIP. There are may reasons businesses are moving towards VoIP solutions. A few them are, mobility options, remote phones, cost savings on their monthly phone bills and trunking redundancy. The fact that VoIP is an attractive option brings about another critical question. Is your network infrastructure capable of handling VoIP effectively? There are a few basic checks you can make before implementing a VoIP solution.

1. 100BaseT Minimum: You should be using at least 100BaseT standards. Your entire LAN structure including your switch should handle at least 10/100 mbps.

2. LAN Cabling Cat5 or Better: You should have dedicated LAN connections from your switch to each desktop location that are Cat 5, Cat 5e, or Cat 6 rated. If you have old cabling and are replacing an old phone system you may have to rewire your office and replace old Cat3 cabling.

3. Switch Compatibility: You will want to use managed, layer 3 switches. QOS (Quality of service) is important with VoIP, and your switch must be programmed to match the QOS setting on your VoIP PBX.  POE switches are also beneficial to powering your IP phones, otherwise you will have to use power supplies on each phone, or POE injectors.

4. Router Compatibility: Having a capable router is also important for your VoIP solution to run smoothly. If you have a premise based IP system and are using remote phones, NAT is very important. Be sure to have a router that has consistent NATing and be prepared to enable port forwarding on the router as well. Be sure to disable any ALG on your router to avoid problems with VoIP traffic. The router will also most likely be used to serve DHCP and hand out IP addresses to your network devices. Most importantly, have a router that you or your IT department can manage competently. Many companies buy a router based on reputation, rather than on functionality and management.

5. Bandwidth Test: You must test your Internet bandwidth before using any SIP related trunking for Internet voice calls. This applies whether you are using premise based equipment or a Cloud based solution. Cloud based solutions are even more demanding on bandwidth since extension to extension calls go through the WAN rather than traversing the LAN as it would do with a premised based solution. The speed test must be run at different times of the day, especially at peak times to determine if you have enough bandwidth to handle all of your voice and data traffic. Generally, each voice call uses 64kb in each direction plus some extra overhead for SIP. It is safe to use a number of about 180kb per call. Estimate your maximum number of calls you will have at peak time and then add in some overhead on top of that to be sure you have adequate bandwidth. For example, lets say you estimate that the maximum number of calls you will ever have at one time is 12. 180kbs multiplied by 12 is, 2.1M. Its not a huge amount, but for those businesses on a DSL for example, which average 1.5M to 2M, it would present a necessity to upgrade Internet speed.

6. Network Performance Test: Have your IT department run a test on your network at different times of the day to ensure you have a clean network. There are many things that can cause latency, packet loss or jitter on a network that can effect voice packets negatively, which go unnoticed with data only. It is good to perform packet traces at different times of the day for a period of time to find problems on a network before installing VoIP.

Following these six checks will eliminate some of the most common obstructions to having successful VoIP deployment. Your local telephone installer can give you advice on upgrading your current network for VoIP implementation. In some situations you may have to upgrade routers, switches or wiring along with your new phone system purchase. VoIP is a different animal compared to the old digital systems. Once you upgrade however you will never look back! Its kind of like going from tape cassettes to CDs, or from VHS to DVD.

Using Wireshark To Troubleshoot VoIP (General Use)

This is an excellent video on using Wireshark to analyse packet captures on a network. The majority of problems with VoIP is caused by poor networks. This tool is essential for finding and correcting network issues. Check out the video and go download Wireshark.

The Importance of QOS and VoIP

There are many threats that can jeopardize voice traffic on a network.

1. Bandwidth/Packet Loss- The first key to having voice run on your network is having enough bandwidth to handle the amount of voice trffic you will typically have on your network. The IPitomy system typically uses the G.711 codec which uses about 160kbps for each active call. It is mportant to calculate the maximum amount of simultaneous calls you will have to ensure your bandwidth will meet your requirements, otherwise you will experience packet loss.

2. Latency- Latency is another term for delay. As packets pass through the network they are often delayed by network congestion. This is not as big of a problem for data as it is for voice traffic. Anything more than a 250ms roundtrip delay for voice traffic will most likely be noticeable to the caller. Common symptoms of this problem may be echo.

3. Jitter- Jitter is how much variation there is in that packet delay over a period of time. As the delay time changes it causes what is known as jitter. For example poor LAN connections are a common source of jitter. Setting Quality of Service on the data switch ensures that voice packets have priority on the LAN.

The QOS Solution

Quality of Service gives preferential delivery to your VoIP traffic on your network. This substantially reduces latency, jittter and packet loss. For example, the IPitomy system is capable of many QOS settings. Default it comes set up for DSCP 24 (CS3). On a Netgear Switch, turn on DSCP and then go to DSCP mapping and set CS3 to the highest setting. This will match up your default IPitomy QOS setting (PBX setup/SIP/Advanced) to your Netgear. Doing this will eliminate many problems with VoIP on your network.

Step Into the 21st Century: How Different Are You?

Today's economy demands companies to be unique in their particular industry in order to survive. I am in the telecommunications industry and I frequently speak to telephone system dealers across the country. When I ask them how business is going, the most common answer I get back is, "Not selling much, the phone is not ringing." Unfortunately many companies think they are still operating under a 90s business model.

Many businesses are still hoping people are going to find them in the yellow pages and then call them looking for their product or service. This is no longer a viable option. In order for a company to excel it must update its business model and separate itself from their competition. Over 50% of small businesses have terrible non-engaging websites. If yours is the same as everyone else's, why should they call you when they run across your website? Do you have engaging videos and articles, perhaps a blog to entice your visitors?

When your sales staff stop by to make a visit to a potential client do they just drop off your brochures like everyone else does, or are they creative? I like Jeffrey Gitomer's idea of putting brochures in a company logo-ed trash can, being that most people will throw away your printed brochures seconds after you leave, and keep your trashcan with your name on it. The real question is, will the potential client remember you distinctly from your competitor?

The same can be said for your business cards. Do you still have the standard cheap card with your name and phone number on it? Or did you take the time to make yours stand out from everyone else's? There are many areas of your business that you can be creative with to separate yourself from the competition. How different are you?