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There is no doubt that VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol technology is fast becoming an industrial phenomenon, which could revolutionize the world's telephone systems. This article leads the way from falling into the pitfalls.

Identifying the solution

One may be carried away with all the promises of VoIP technology. Because of its potential and robust capabilities, it can not be helped that all the features would be so tempting to realize at one time. Since implementing it in its entire magnitude is a race against time and money, knowing the current infrastructure of the company*what can not be done and the things that can be done the soonest possible time*is of utmost importance.

If the primary goal is to choose between cost savings and the introduction of a value-added service, then a network overhaul may not be the best option. In this case, the last thing to do may be replacing the whole network for the sake of VoIP, which instantly becomes the ante for the success of the project. Integration and interoperation, then, paves the road to the Promised Land of VoIP service. This approach protects the existing (and still working) investments of the company and minimizing the cost of this new venture.

Finding the right equipment

The bottom line when looking for a VoIP solution and when finding the right VoIP solutions provider is to do a little due diligence. It always pays to ask for a product demonstration and proof of concept. When doing this early on, it easily drives away companies who only masquerade as VoIP solutions providers, saving the company a lot of time, effort and money.

There are certain parameters that are worth looking into when scouting for a VoIP solution. Codecs or short for *Coder-Decoder* performs transformations on a data stream or signal for transmission, storage or encryption. The VoIP solution in mind should highly consider this factor. There are appropriate signaling protocols for this requirement. The early protocol was H.323 and later on SIP or Session Initiation Protocol. There are also proprietary ones for the security conscious. There could be other parameters especially equipment projections on certain growth scenarios.

The choice can sometimes be as good as the allocated budget.

The hard and fast roll-out

The hot debate on VoIP as a value-added service has caused some stir in the telecommunications industry. The sensitive nature of the issue has scrutinized VoIP solutions providers and has undergone further regulation. Because of this, additional clearances from separate government agencies may be required, which can drastically change delivery lead time from 45 to 90 days.

Just when everybody thought that the best person to install the VoIP equipment in the branch is the IT person, a quick look at the real installation requisites leads to a startling discovery of an electrical technician as the right man for the job. Armed with only a straight RJ45-terminated Cat5e cable, the succeeding paragraph tells why.

There is a strong likelihood of restructuring the telephone cabling in the office. When the VoIP equipment integrates to the network, the telephone handset re-aligns to the network as well. Moreover, an additional telephone handset may be needed, depending on the capability of the VoIP equipment. As an additional payload to the branch, the VoIP equipment should be allocated with a separate electrical supply and the appropriate grounding mechanisms.

Ensuring VoIP service at optimum levels

Like any other networking equipment, VoIP is also susceptible to latency, jitter and packet loss. Latency is the speed of data traveling from source to destination. Jitter (Noise) is the tendency toward lack of synchronization caused by mechanical or electrical changes. Packet loss is the discarding of data packets in a network when a device is overloaded and cannot accept any incoming data at a given moment.

The Network Working Group of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) specifies how packets are tagged over the internet. RFC2474 defines Differentiated Services or DiffServ and becomes one of the bases for QoS or Quality of Service. Employing QoS in a VoIP service ensures monitoring and prioritizing voice calls over the IP network. When data traverses in the network, QoS does its job by re-ordering the data using a defined policy. Imagine a policy in this manner; (1)VoIP, (2)company systems, (3)internet, (4)e-mail, (5)network control and (6)the rest. In the preceding scenario, the QoS policy places VoIP at the topmost level, ensuring the delivery of data to its destination and vice versa.

Monitoring proper VoIP usage

A good reporting and monitoring tool is crucial to ensuring that the VoIP service is being put to good use. When employees in the company realize the full features of the VoIP service, the risk of abuse and misuse are also inherent. Also, since the VoIP equipment now shares the company's IP network, incursions from non-employees may result to VoIP service interruption. On top of the company's network security policies, this reporting and monitoring tool should have the capability to track the source and destination of calls, the duration and date & time of calls. With a little creativity, data from this reporting and monitoring tool can be utilized for billing or accounting of calls.

One such monitoring tool is Kiwi Syslog Daemon, a freeware network monitoring tool using syslog. Syslog is a de facto standard for forwarding log messages in an IP network. A commercial version like IP Switch's WhatsUp Professional offers a comprehensive reporting of all devices that are connected to the IP network.

Continuous testing and extending of features

Along the way and as a deeper understanding of the VoIP solution is developed, a myriad of other features can be discovered where the company can put to use. This can only be possible if diligence was fully exercised to choose which VoIP solution suits the company.

The initial setup of enabling the head office to call its branches or vice versa can be expanded to allow branch-to-branch calls, append a fax feature, forward calls or make possible for employees who are constantly in the field to also use the company's VoIP facility.