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.
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