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Single Communications Infrastructure For Voice And Data
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By: Mohamed Shaker
In this article we will talk about Single Communications Infrastructure for Voice and Data, The second factor that we have to take in our consideration when designing any kind of an IP Telephony solution.
The idea of a single communications infrastructure for all SMB communications needs might be appealing from the operations perspective. A single IP network implies greater installation/upgrading/maintenance uniformity over separate data, voice, and video networks. That, in turn, can lead to lower deployment costs and less diverse training requirements for support personnel.
Also consider the potential downsides of a single communications infrastructure:
Does it make sense from the performance perspective to lump traffic from drastically different types of applications onto the same network? In the context of bandwidth and transmission delay requirements, the combined data/audio/video applications can be extremely bandwidth intensive but hardly time sensitive, and vice versa.
How about the built-in separation between different types of application traffic that allows the telephone network to function even if there is a problem with the data network? In the presence of two separate networks for data and telephony, the outage of one normally does not affect the other.
The issue of redundancy and built-in high availability expectation on the part of voice users always needs serious consideration when making the commitment to a single IP-based network for all communication needs. Network availability and, consequently, service availability need not be adversely affected by a single infrastructure, as long as the components of the infrastructure are identified, along with their level of reliability. That allows for an approximate determination of the probability of the service being available during a certain time frame. You then need to match this level of probability with the SMB's expectation for service availability.
From the perspective of performance, a single communications infrastructure for data, voice, and video does not mean that every link within that infrastructure accommodates all categories of traffic. It means that the protocols, transmission media, and switching equipment are of a similar nature rather than representing different technologies, such as circuit and packet switching.
It is possible to have portions of an IP network that are dedicated to voice only or a network that shares all types of traffic. You can make decisions regarding traffic types based on anticipated traffic levels, bandwidth capacity, and switching equipment performance. " QoS techniques can assist with ensuring an optimal level of performance for voice in scenarios where bandwidth needs to be shared among varied types of traffic."
Reference:
Cisco Network Design Solutions for Small-Medium Businesses
Posted by ROOT Technologies
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