2. QoS: Don’t VoIP without it!
Jeff Szczepanski
Founder and CTO
Allworx Corp

3. Agenda QoS Philosophy Relativity How Good is Good? Pitfalls of VoIP
QoS Management
Conclusions

4. QoS Philosophy QoS = Quality of Service Defining Quality
Quality is a relative concept.
…but Quality Relative to what!?

5. QoS Relativity
The “relativity” part here implies a comparison or a continuum of quality
…and a continuum of quality implies invoking a process to maintain or improve such quality.

6. QoS is a Process
Think about QoS like you think about quality on a manufacturing line
Achieving good QoS is more about the processes you deploy than it is about the products, features, or technologies involved.

7. How Good is Good? The Manufacturing analogy is Six Sigma
IT Planning, Server and Data Network folks talk about and strive to a goal of “Five 9’s” of reliability.
But is % Good? Expectations in telephony is very high.
…Understand that in traditional telephony, reaching “Five 9’s” is still a bad day at the office.

8. Traditional Telephony
TDM is really simple, if the wires are connected, it is probably going to work.

9. Data Networks
…especially without QoS processes

10. Pitfalls of VoIP Echo One-Way Audio Packet Loss Speech Artifacts
911 Call Location Management
Intermittent Problem Isolation
General System Complexity

11. VoIP is the ‘Canary in the Coal Mine’ of your data network.
VoIP Traffic
VoIP is the ‘Canary in the Coal Mine’ of your data network.

12. Why VoIP? Increased channel densities Lower Network Costs
Single Shared Infrastructure with Data
Presence Integration
Unified Messaging
New Service Offerings

13. VoIP QoS….is a bit more relative
Moral of Story
It is easy to under estimate the task of building and maintaining a robust VoIP network…
vs.
VoIP QoS….is a bit more relative
TDM QoS

14. Deploying VoIP Managed Switches Dedicated VLAN for Voice Traffic
Traffic Prioritizing Routers
Guaranteed Bandwidth -> SLA’s
Redundant Uplinks and Equipment
Avoid single point of failure
Plan for 911 location Requirements

15. Managing VoIP Call Logging and Traffic Monitoring is key…
…especially for isolating apparently intermittent problems. Change Logs and Version Control very helpful too.

16. Conclusions
VoIP has many advantages but relative to QoS it is certainly not without its pitfalls.
It’s still new and while no longer bleeding edge it is still relatively early on the overall curve.
A QoS plan is critical to doing Enterprise VoIP successfully
Good QoS only results with:
Staffing IT with VoIP Knowledgable People
Deploying the right kind of Equipment
Configuring Systems Properly
Tracking Changes and Logging Performance
Closing the process loops on all of the above

17. Q&A
Thanks!