| There are many different perspectives on VoIP (Voice | | | | considered voice in the same fashion, what we would |
| over Internet Protocol) or IP (Internet Protocol) | | | | get is garbled speech and inaudible conversations. |
| Telephony in the communications industry. These | | | | The way the industry has helped this is by establishing |
| perspectives vary depending on what vendor or | | | | a set of parameters to allow for Quality of Service. |
| provider you are having the discussion with. There are | | | | QoS encompasses many different techniques, some |
| a couple of different issues to keep in mind when | | | | which may vary depending on your vendor. Two very |
| planning any type of IP migration or integration. First | | | | popular ideas behind QoS are packet tagging and |
| and foremost is what terminology is used. In the | | | | queuing. Packet tagging enables network appliances so |
| simplest of forms, VoIP is the full transport of signaling | | | | they can assign certain priorities to different types of |
| and voice data over an IP Network. IP Telephony is | | | | traffic. This allows voice or any other type of real-time |
| the strategy that allows signaling only to be transferred | | | | traffic to be assigned a higher priority than non |
| over the IP Network. Secondly is to develop a | | | | real-time such as data. Network devices read the |
| strategy on how either or both of these technologies | | | | packets and will send out high priority packets before |
| can be implemented while maintaining a certain level of | | | | the lower priority packets. This is done in conjunction |
| redundancy and acceptable voice quality. | | | | with queuing. The queues are used so the packet |
| When VoIP first hit the headlines in the mid nineties, it | | | | waiting have a place to "wait in line." When considering |
| was advertised as the end to long distance charges. | | | | VoIP and speaking to your technology vendor, make |
| Ten years later it is obvious that is not the case. | | | | sure they have an established and proven way of |
| Although they might have gone through some tough | | | | doing this effectively. |
| times, Long Distance Carriers still exist and everyone | | | | Now, what are the advantages? When speaking |
| still pays long distance toll charges in one way or | | | | about full VoIP a very viable benefit is Toll Bypass. For |
| another. The truth is that when using VoIP in a | | | | companies that have more than one location and |
| capacity that transports voice over an unmanaged | | | | place a lot of calls between sites, a VOIP solution |
| network with no Quality of Service (QoS), such as the | | | | might be the way to go. The most important thing is |
| Internet, the results are usually unfavorable. The reason | | | | that a company has a data network that can handle |
| for this is very simple. The way the Internet and the | | | | the additional traffic. More times than none, a data |
| protocols that make it work were designed, there was | | | | network has a lot of older technology that might need |
| no consideration for real time transport of media. | | | | to be upgraded to support QoS and the higher |
| Traditional voice is transferred over circuit switched | | | | bandwidth needed to compensate for the additional |
| networks that allows for a constant connection | | | | traffic. Besides Toll Bypass, IP Telephony itself has |
| between two or more parties for the duration of a call. | | | | tremendous benefits. It gives us the ability to connect |
| IP networks, such as the Internet are packet switched | | | | remote offices so they function as one "Converged |
| networks, which allows data, in the form of packets to | | | | Enterprise." An employee that works in an office on |
| be transported in the best route or routes available. So | | | | the West coast can now dial four digits and call |
| hypothetically a piece of data can be sent over the | | | | someone on the East coast. |
| internet and the packets could be split up in a few | | | | The possibilities are endless, but due diligence and |
| different ways and arrive at the destination in a | | | | planning need to be done before time. Deploying this in |
| different order than it was originally sent out. Due to | | | | your company having to go back to the drawing board |
| such things as packet headers and IP addressing this | | | | can be disastrously expensive. This cost can |
| is not a problem in the data world because it is not real | | | | decrease the rate of your ROI by years. Interview |
| time. A piece of data, such as an email can be | | | | your vendors and find someone you can trust. |
| reassembled after it reaches its destination and | | | | References as always are a must! |
| appear perfectly normal to an end user. If we | | | | |