VoIP Availability Can VoIP Be Reliable? |
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| By Steve Mike Levy |
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| VoIP has many advantages that make it an appealing solution
for many business owners. The idea of transmitting voice
traffic over an existing data network at a significant
reduction in cost has become too hard to pass up for most
business owners. However, few realize the potential
limitations or issues that can arise with call quality when
using VoIP. This is not the fault of VoIP itself. In a perfect world voice and data traffic are happily traveling through the network side-by-side without interference or interruption. This can work, however this utopia is not achieved without careful consideration and network analysis. This is because when you start sending voice traffic over the data network it now has to compete with other data to reach its destination. If the network does not have enough bandwidth, or has too many hops, the speed with which the voice packets reach their destination can be slowed down considerably. Each hand-off of the packets takes extra time and slows the overall transmission speed of the packets. With a voice conversation, this delay is unacceptable and results in a garbled conversation that is difficult to understand, often sounding like a cell phone out of range. Two key components of an optimal performing VoIP system are capacity and redundancy. Obviously, the network should be able to accommodate the current call volume as well as the bandwidth requirements that are used for data transmission. Determining the required bandwidth requires taking a careful look at the current call volume as well as the utilization on the network. If the network is experiencing issues or slowdowns without the addition of VoIP traffic, it stands to reason that these issues would need to be resolved before adding the demand of VoIP. Any additions or enhancements would need to have an estimate of bandwidth needed for voice traffic. Without the proper capacity on the network, the VoIP quality will suffer leading to frustrated employees and customers alike. Redundancy allows for a backup to be in place in the event that any component or piece of the production system should fail. This could be hardware in the phone system, hardware on the network as well as the trunks that lead to the outside world. Any failure could result in an a major outage that takes down communications. This is why redundancy is such an important aspect of network configuration and setup. Having a single point of failure can be quite costly when you consider loss of revenue due to business grinding to a halt. Most phone systems have dual hardware to handle the processing of VoIP calls in the event that one of the components should fail. Theoretically, failover should occur without much fanfare. However, there is always the possibility that calls could be dropped during the failover process. If any calls are being processed by the failing hardware, the call would be unable to proceed. Any new calls however, would automatically be processed by the redundant hardware. This same concept holds true for the data equipment where one router or switch will pick up where the other failed. This essential for maximum system availability for any network and doesnīt just apply to VoIP traffic. Any company that does not have backup hardware in place may find themselves in a tough spot should the data hardware go down. Not only does it stop the transmission of data, but halts all VoIP calls as well, effectively leaving the business with no way to communicate. Some communications outages are due to a loss of connectivity with the carrier. Weather or some other disaster can bring outages to the carrierīs network. Fiber cuts are common where construction is occurring and have been known to take down communications for a large number of the carrierīs customers. For this type of scenario, having an alternate carrier is a good way to insure that your business always has a connection to the outside world. By using multiple carriers, the business is not at the mercy of only one carrier and you will have options in the event you have to reroute your network traffic. Since VoIP travels over the network, the familiar expression 'the network is down' takes on a whole new meaning. Not only will you not be able to communicate via email, but your phones are dead in the water as well. To resolve this issue, you configure your data equipment to begin routing traffic over the backup carrierīs communications if the primary is inaccessible. Having this setup insures that you always have communication and that data and voice traffic will continue to route. System availability is the key to any successful IT solution. VoIP traffic is dependent on network availability as well as capacity. Additionally, configuring the network to properly handle VoIP traffic is essential for a successful outcome. VoIP technology can be a lower cost reliable solution when the proper measures are taken to insure maximum availability. |
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| Article Source: http://interpret.zar.vg | ||||
| About The Author As a self proclaimed expert on all the newest technology with respect to telecommunications, I have posted many more articles at: www.VoIPphoneSystemsFinder.com. I have also found this to be a wonderful resource for those in the market for a new Business Phone System. |
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