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Telephony Capabilities over an IP Network

IP Telephony is the extension of a single network combining all that is good about telephony systems on the same network that provides the data to the PC on the desk and is integrated with the software on that desktop. A single identifier (ex. a user ID) will ensure that all the communications needed for that individual's business is forwarded regardless of that person's location. Extend this concept to the mobile access and multiple devices and the technology is totally pervasive.

Sharing the foundation of digital infrastructure means that IP Telephony (IPT) can provide enhanced features that fully integrate in unexpected ways with other IP based applications and media to create a dynamic set of collaborative communications tools.

Unified Messaging

Unified messaging is the concept whereby a message, be it an e-mail, voice message or fax is treated as a single entity - a message. It can be stored in a variety of styles and picked up in any format depending on the access device used.

Contact Centre

This is an example of the ubiquity of a single network entity. The user can be anywhere on the network (or Internet) and be transferred to any person in any country with all the benefits of both data and voice contact via the Contact Centre. The realm of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can move to a new level.

Considering IP Telephony for your Organisation

Deciding to move to a feature-rich IPT environment should be approached carefully to take into account every possibility to optimise existing investment, make key considerations and examine network infrastructure, assess the impact of changes to the organisation and its users, and understand the affect of new services and scope for scalability.

Network Design Considerations

  • Call management (or call control) and directory services are fundamental building blocks in the network design, also defining network capability in terms of availability, performance, scalability and administration.
  • Capacity must be calculated cope with minimum Voice and Video bandwidth requirements (including compression techniques) and with the anticipation to cope with peak capacity under all circumstances.
  • Latency for hardware and links must be calculated with the same strict requirements as capacity, enabling voice and video packets to traverse the network in 50-100ms.
  • Quality of Service (QoS) standards such as 802.1q, 802.1p, DiffServ, and MPLS must be adhered to provide the minimum standards required to for successful voice and video (time-delivery sensitive) data.
  • Redundancy and resiliency must be addressed in the converged network architecture to ensure that no single building block of that network is allowed to compromise its reliability.
  • New applications and IP telephony services over your converged network are inevitable, the effect of which will generate more demand as each new application in the business will generate capacity issues.

Planning and Migration

Voice and data network systems are business critical and both systems will probably be too complex to contemplate undertaking this change in one move. A gradual, evolutionary approach in planning and migration is required.

  • Establish the right criteria; not necessarily satisfied by cost reduction alone, it also requires quantifiable benefit from the application of that the technology provides
  • Review the business and technical requirements to maintain established quality levels of systems, also considering external network connectivity, security and network management
  • Establish the physical interconnectivity, intermediate hardware and software, test environment for anticipated applications
  • Set expectations and establish a framework for uptake with individual users regarding the transition to new telephones, features and call numbering plans
  • Execute detailed migration plan from old system to new system, creating IP to PSTN links and eventually removing old voice circuitry

Finally, do not underestimate the skills required to support the migration. An organisation skilled at voice networks will not have the necessary skills for dealing with IP networks and vice versa.

The skills needed are broader than a range of technical skills for the migration; it also needs a highly developed understanding of the business imperatives, a broad yet detailed knowledge of project management methodologies and a supplier sympathetic to the rigorous business demands (as opposed to merely the technical ones) and fully supported by the vendors.

Synetrix offers this comprehensive set of technical and professional skills for designing, building and migrating your voice operations to a converged IP environment.

Synetrix offers a comprehensive set of technical and professional skills for designing, building and migrating your voice operations to a converged IP environment.