Upgrading for VoIP: Four Approaches
For most SMBs, the migration to VoIP will involve more than choosing a VSP to replace their current LD provider. It will involve upgrading on two fronts: the LAN – that is, the networking equipment on your premises – and the WAN, including your connection to the Internet and the equipment and capabilities of your service provider. There are four distinct approaches you can take to go VoIP, depending on your quality requirements and budget.
Approach #1: Best and Most Expensive
For the best voice quality you should have two entirely separate LANs at your place of business and two entirely separate WANs (connections to the Internet). Dedicate your first WAN+LAN to data and your second WAN+LAN to voice – thus ensuring no physical possibility that your data packets can “stomp” your voice packets. Then, when planning your voice WAN, try to find budget room for a T1 connection instead of a lower quality DSL/cable connection.
Now, when planning for your two LANs, you will need to purchase two separate routers, each with their own physical wiring, which will terminate as two separate Ethernet jacks at each employee location.This means that your employees will plug their computer into one jack and their IP phone into another. Expect to pay $80-$100 per employee location for each extra “drop”, but much less if you have your wiring company run both drops at the same time.
Finally, when you have built your dedicated WAN+LAN combos, you must carefully choose a VSP!
Approach #2: Second Best, Less Expensive
If you don’t want to pay for two separate LANs, you can still get pretty darn good quality if you do two things. First, you must still get two separate broadband providers for your WANs, one for voice and one for data – again, a T1 if you can afford it. Second, you should upgrade to a QoS Ethernet switch on your LAN. A QoS-capable switch (with IEEE 802.1P support, for example) will ensure that voice packets and data packets are prioritized properly on your LAN – thus when large files are moving across your LAN, your switch will make them pause momentarily to let voice traffic go first. Your users won’t even notice the pause, but your voice quality will be significantly improved.
Approach #3: Cheaper but Harder to Pull Off
A more economical approach, but often the hardest to do right, is to add QoS capabilities to both your LAN and WAN, therefore allowing you to get away with only having one of each. To do this properly, you’ll first need to upgrade your LAN with a QoScapable switch/router. You’ll also need to ensure that your broadband provider has QoS capabilities and that your VSP uses the same type of QoS as you use on your LAN. Yes, QoS comes in many flavors. In fact, the easiest way to pull all of this off is to get a T1 that provides you both Internet access and VoIP-based LD on the same circuit, all with QoS, and all from the same broadband provider!
Approach #4: I Want Really Cheap!
OK, OK, we get it. You love your wallet and you didn’t pay for this white paper. So, at the absolute minimum, you must upgrade your broadband connection to ensure sufficient bandwidth for voice traffic from your premises to the Internet. A typical VoIP call will use about 64KB of upstream and downstream, and you should factor in at least 90KB for your first call because of what is called “IP overhead.” So, do your math assuming peak concurrent line usage. If your peak usage will be 5 concurrent calls, then you add 90KB + (4 x 64KB) = 346KB. Be sure to remember that this is 346KB up *and* down. Many broadband providers will give you much more downstream than they will upstream, so be sure to ask! Finally, if you are going to go cheap, and cannot afford a T1, try to at least get “business-grade” DSL (see sidebar, “What It Will Cost”).
In case we haven’t provided you too much information already, there are two final things to note about making your leap to VoIP. First, ensure that your VSP has a local PSTN media gateway in your area; this will shorten the path your VoIP calls have to take over the Internet before they are converted to travel across the PSTN. Second, try to use the same broadband provider at your main office and all remote offices; VoIP performance is usually better when calls travel over a single provider’s backbone vs. having to “hop” across multiple backbones.
Hybrid IP-PBX: The First Step to VoIP
What Will it Cost?
Whatever approach you decide on for migrating to VoIP, a hybrid IP-PBX is an excellent first step. Hybrids operate in three modes – PSTN,VoIP, and what’s called PSTN-fallback – a mode which ensures that you’ll always have phone service, even during Internet outages. With a hybrid IP-PBX, you can also connect and use analog phones (including cordless sets), IP phones, or a combination. So you can convert select employees to IP telephony according to their needs and the capacity of your Internet connections.
A hybrid IP-PBX enables you to start saving money right away, even if you choose to use the PSTN connections to the outside world. With a hybrid IP-PBX at your business, you get free VoIP calls between offices and with all your telecommuters, but you can selectively choose to pay more for calls across the PSTN where the quality matters most. Think of it this way, your employees get free VoIP calling between themselves, but your customers are guaranteed perfect POTS quality when they call you, or you call them.
But hybrid IP-PBX systems aren’t just about VoIP and cheap LD, they also enable SMBs to improve their “communications image” – presenting callers with a professional (and time-saving) auto-attendant, allowing employees to work from home or the road, 4-digit dialing from anywhere in the world, blending Outlook into your phone system and more.
Hybrid IP-PBX capabilities can include:
- unlimited extensions and voicemail
- multiple auto-attendants (IVR)
- unlimited call queues (ACD)
- telecommuters – even for call queues
- uploading of professional voice prompts
- scheduling – time and date settings
- music on hold with upsell messages
- parking, paging and call forwarding
- integration with Outlook and CRM software
- customizable caller ID
- click-to-call from your website
- extensive reporting for productivity analysis
About the Author
Chris Lyman is the CEO and founder of Fonality. Chris combines his extensive telephony and VoIP knowledge with his data-centric roots as founder and CEO of Virtualis, a top ten web hosting company, which he sold in 2000. He often presents at industry forums and conferences on topics such as IP telephony, data architecture and open source business models.
About Fonality
Fonality is the leading provider of affordable hybrid IP-PBX systems for SMBs. Fonality’s PBXtra product line comes VoIP-ready but also supports calling via the PSTN and PSTN-fallback. PBXtra Standard and Call Center editions provide enterprise-class features at a fraction of the cost of traditional industry offerings. Deployed to tens of thousands of business users in the U.S. and other countries, Fonality’s products can be purchased direct or through a network of more than 1,300 resellers. For more information, visit www.fonality.com.
VoIP without hype. What business need to know. Part 1.
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