A packet network is worlds away from a circuit network. After all, it was designed to carry an entirely different type of traffic. In the U.S. and in many other parts of the world, the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is a triumph of 20th-century circuit-switching technology. We still expect and usually get near-perfect clarity from a telephone call made over the PSTN. But despite the astounding gains data-networking technology has made in the past several years, we do not expect anywhere near the same reliability from our data networks. That kind of reliability is not required for data.
An e-mail message or a file transfer can be delayed by as much as half an hour without exciting anyone’s notice, yet delays of a few hundred milliseconds can ruin a VoIP telephone call, making it incomprehensible—or just annoying. When you start to run VoIP across any given enterprise network, delays caused by other applications, overloaded routers, or outdated switches are practically inevitable.
VoIP will undoubtedly be one of your most business-critical applications. An unreliable or poor-quality phone system is a recipe for disaster. But with Vivinet Assessor, you can test and troubleshoot VoIP before you roll it out—before you make substantial investments in equipment, software, training, and possibly unnecessary network upgrades. Vivinet Assessor is a vital tool for making smart investments and cost-effective infrastructure adjustments to get your network ready for VoIP.
The concept of “VoIP readiness” is central to Vivinet Assessor. Although it comprises several aspects of network capacity, configuration, and performance, the VoIP readiness of your network is assessed in terms of the following criteria:
whether your network is ready to carry high-quality voice transmissions in its existing configuration. For more information, see Section 3.0, Task 1: Performing a Network Inventory.
whether switches and routers have the resources recommended by the VoIP vendor. For more information, see Section 7.11, Increasing Assessment Accuracy.
whether your network is ready to carry high-quality voice transmissions with its present bandwidth utilization. For more information, see Section 5.0, Task 3: Assessing Network Utilization.
how much bandwidth you will need for the additional VoIP traffic. For more information, see Section 6.0, Task 4: Modeling Bandwidth.
how much voice traffic can be added to your network in its existing configuration without significant degradation of call quality. For more information, see Section 7.0, Task 5: Assessing VoIP Quality.
how much money your organization stands to lose if call-quality problems on your network are not addressed. For more information, see Section 8.1, Customizing a VoIP Readiness Assessment Report.
The final criterion listed above is vitally important, especially if you are moving to VoIP as a cost-saving measure. And the bandwidth criterion is similarly important because your implementation will surely expand in the future as new users, new demands, and new equipment are added to the system.