Transcript The “what and why” of a VoIP Assessment!!

Prepare your Network
for Voice … over IP
The “what and why” of a
VoIP Assessment!!
Chris Nabinger
CTO, Masergy Communications
email: [email protected]
MASERGY at a Glance …
MASERGY delivers the strongest enterprise WAN experience in the
telecommunications industry
 Leading global network service provider
 Focused on the enterprise segment
 Received numerous business and industry honors
 Pioneered several industry “firsts”
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Global native IP MPLS network (2001)
Fully customer-controlled networking (2001)
Global VPLS (2003)
Global Ethernet (2004)
Embedded Service Control and Network Management (2006)
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January 23-25, 2008 • Miami Beach Convention Center • Miami, Florida USA
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Who Needs a VoIP Assessment?
EVERYONE …
…deploying VoIP
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But, “Why?”, You ask …
• Why VoIP?
– Lower costs through convergence of voice and data
– Easier management of services, such as moves, adds,
changes
– Rapid provisioning of new services
– 40% YOY growth, $15B market today
But, It can be VERY RISKY for the
Implementation Leader
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Get Started … TODAY!
• What is a VoIP Assessment:
– Process to prepare your data network to carry voice traffic
• Accomplished through discovery, planning and testing
• You may need months to prepare for VoIP; a few weeks of assessment and a few weeks to
repair and retest.
• By the Numbers …
– “85% of today’s data networks are not ready to support VoIP …” Gartner Group
– “Less than 25% of enterprise VoIP deployments budget for pre-deployment
assessments” Nemertes Research
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But, “Why?”, You ask …
• VoIP is just another network application … or is it?
– Network architecture and design can make or BREAK VoIP
– Let’s uncover some of the ugliness…
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Latency
Jitter
Packet Errors and Loss
• What else do I need to think about?
– Signal Quality: initial call signaling and setup performance
– Delivery Quality: measure transport performance, such as latency, packet loss,
signal strength
– Call Quality: MOS (Mean opinion Score) to measure overall user experience
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The LAN(D) mine …
• Is your Local Area Network ready?
– Can your LAN reliably handle the added bandwidth consumption?
– Look closely at your routers that connect to your WAN provider
• Are your LAN switches VoIP ready?
– Ensure your routers translates layer 2 QoS using layer 3 … at WIRE SPEED!
– Turn on Layer 2 (802.1p) and Layer 3 (DiffServ) QoS throughout your network
– Review and test feature sets and code version compatibility across all network
switches
– Verify configuration data: codec, dialing plans, QoS assignments, etc
• Power to the People! Either you need POE switches to provide power
or you need phones/power adapters
• Plugging your desktop into your VoIP phone? Ensure PC activity does
not overload your data connection
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Is your WAN carrier ready?
• Don’t implement over unmanaged Internet, not even for teleworkers. –
– use a VPN solution that allows QoS control. Imaging home based sales people with
a “jittery” phone – OOPS!
• Check your WAN supplier closely
– Do they meet VoIP requirements for latency, jitter and packet delivery … around the
globe!
– Do they offer QoS across their entire network … globally?
– So they use packet queuing methods that absolutely guarantee Voice Traffic
throughput
– Do they connect to China, India or south Africa with NNI? If so, will you lose your
QoS and DiffServ priority markings as you traverse different networks?
– Test their VoIP troubleshooting capabilities. You’ll need fast, strong technical
service in the event of problems.
– Can they participate in your testing, including lab or real simulations?
• Check ALL route segments to confirm your carrier is ready
– backbone, local loops, intermediate hops, devices, etc.
January 23-25, 2008 • Miami Beach Convention Center • Miami, Florida USA
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Is your WAN carrier ready?
• Check references from other VoIP customers
• Is your new VoIP application riding on a converged WAN network?
– Can you purchase a special voice plane to guarantee QoS? Does your WAN
provider offer such? Can you purchase it “on-demand”?
• What type of QoS does your WAN provider’s network support?
– Layer 2 and Layer 3?
– Strict Priority Queuing?
Bottom Line: Your QoS configurations guarantee VoIP traffic first priority
– The only exceptions are routing updates and other control packets
OOPS, almost forgot to check my backup WAN provider – whew!
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The Simulation …
• Use software to simulate actual voice traffic, as well as all other traffic
simultaneously
– Across your entire network to find incompatibilities and choke point
– Not just at this moment. At peak times: look at 10 second intervals
• Measure quality
– MOS, jitter, call set-up time, packet loss, incomplete and failed calls, etc.
• Include a vulnerability assessment
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January 23-25, 2008 • Miami Beach Convention Center • Miami, Florida USA
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Final Thoughts …
• Ensure all switches are managed – ensure QoS is managed, too
• Ensure your PBX is VoIP ready or has a clean upgrade path.
• Verify configuration data: codec, dialing plans, QoS assignment
• Find a partner that is a VoIP implementation EXPERT
• Don’t forget to manage user (especially executive) expectations at time
of initial roll-out. Have a back-out plan handy…
• Remember … acquisitions, divestitures, department changes and
people moves cause traffic pattern changes
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THANK YOU
[email protected]
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January 23-25, 2008 • Miami Beach Convention Center • Miami, Florida USA
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