Business VOIP Gains Momentum

Business VOIP is known by several names: Voice over Internet Protocol, also called , IP Telephony, Internet telephony

This technology is used to send voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network. Voice over IP traffic can be deployed on any IP network, including those lacking a connection to the rest of the Internet, for instance on a local area network.

Protocols used to carry voice signals over the IP network are commonly referred to as Voice over IP or VOIP protocols. 

The market for IP communications services has gained momentum over the last several years, with Voice Over IP being the primary application driving this growth. Businesses everywhere are replacing traditional traditional telecommunications networks with VoIP systems.

The lure of business VOIP is the cost savings of bundling voice and data into one traffic stream.  The use of the existing LAN (local Area Network) and WAN (wide area network) data network to carry voice, data, and video in a single, converged IP communications format over a single line offers economies of scale that translate into profits and opportunities for both the business enterprise and communications service providers.

When businesses migrate to IP telephony, they need to consider the different architectural approaches and ways of migrating to a converged network.  There are a host of considerations to be made, and there are some clear differences in the varying levels of actual convergence in network architectures.  For free quotes on business VOIP equipment go here.

In phase one of migrating to business VOIP the only convergence of voice and data traffic is at the network carrier level. The objective is to route voice and data carrier traffic over the same carrier circuits to take advantage of cheaper digital circuit prices.  

Before your organization migrates tobusiness VoIP, you must understand the specific E911 requirements for your state and locality. You should also be aware of which 911 services are available from their carriers, including the roles and responsibilities each participant has in a 911 call. Companies reusing analog phone lines, for example, can request the necessary 911 information from carriers and duplicate it for the IP phone system. However, multi-site locations present different challenges. 

The next phase is to move the phone terminals and common equipment to the data network by using Virtual LANs (VLANs). With VLANs, the network is configured through software so that the same network hardware can logically have two separate networks, one for voice and one for data. The voice and data traffic are separated in different VLANs, so the time-sensitive voice traffic is not impacted by large file transfers and other data traffic. In this manner, similar types of devices, such as IP phones, can be in physically different places, but still part of the same logical network.

When  traffic is fully converged it is handled by using priority tags within the packets themselves. The switch uses tags to determine the order of precedence to keep voice and data traffic flowing. Most businesses using VLANs should deploy a converged network, because it allows for segregation of the traffic to ensure priority is given to voice and other applications that require it. In a fully converged business VOIP system, there’s a risk that the applications that need priority may not be given it due to congestion of various types of high priority traffic, which could lead to poor voice quality and other performance issues such as Delay/Network Latency, Packet loss, Jitter, and Echo. 

Fixed delays in a business VOIP environment cannot be controlled but some delays can be minimized by marking voice packets as being delay-sensitive. The principal cause of packet loss is congestion, which can be controlled by congestion management and avoidance. 

Variation in delay is called Jitter. The effects of jitter can be mitigated by storing voice packets in a buffer (called a play-out buffer) upon arrival, before playing them out. This avoids a condition known as buffer under-run, in which the play-out process runs out of voice data to play because the next voice packet has not yet arrived, but increases delay by the length of the buffer.

Common causes of echo include impedance mismatches in analog circuitry, and acoustic coupling of the transmit and receive signal at the receiving end.

If you use a VLAN-supported model, you won’t pay twice to get the functionality.  VLANs work very well by segmenting the traffic within the switch, and keeping the voice and data traffic separate.

A switch with two uplinks can be used so that one uplink dedicated to voice traffic and the other handles data. The company can use half of the ports for phones and the other half for PCs.   By doing this, you only buy one switch, but you have the benefits of two switches.  And your voice traffic doesn’t get bogged down behind a big file transfer.

A critical element in ensuring a reliable business VOIP system is the ability to guarantee the continuity of data and voice applications in the event of a system-wide failure or other event.  IP phones, computers and other network devices will have to have a reliable power source if an electrical outage or disruption occurs. Given the increasing demand  electricity and the dependence of IP phones on electricity, you need plan for power backup.

Power over Ethernet (PoE) equipment, which uses standard twisted-pair cable to convey electricity to IP phones, wireless access points and other devices, is the best approach.  PoE technology is highly reliable and is an ideal way for businesses to save money on their communications systems by sending power and data over the same wire.

When implementing business VOIP, it is best to use Power over Ethernet switches, because it allows IP phones to be powered reliably if local power is lost. By using centrally located uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to provide backup power to PoE switches, companies can make sure their operations, including voice communications, remain available in the event of an outage.

Using Power over Ethernet for your business VOIP system also helps to simplify IP phone handset installations because phones can be connected to the power source and the data link using one cable. IP phones can be plugged into a PoE switch while computers are connected to an Ethernet port on the phone.