Tips

Tips

• Integrating video conferencing with unified communications

  Integrating video conferencing with unified communications enables users to initiate video connections through presence, much like they do with instant messaging. This tip explains how to integrate video with unified communications with examples ...  Continue Reading

• Unified communications etiquette guide: What to know, what to avoid

  As enterprises adopt unified communications, they should focus on helping users adhere to rules of unified communications etiquette to ease their transition into regular UC use, improve user experience and increase employee uptake.  Continue Reading

• Video conferencing MCU location is important

  The location of video conferencing MCUs (multipoint conference units) makes a difference in your video conferencing deployment, affecting the number of users supported and ability to scale in the future. Learn why the WAN core is a good spot for the...  Continue Reading

• Secure video conferencing: Traversing the firewall

  Providing secure video conferencing means overcoming the inherent design differences between video conferencing and firewalls. Discover the pros and cons of using a direct Internet connection, configuring a DMZ, or deploying traversal servers and ...  Continue Reading

• IP telephony QoS: VoIP traffic management and prioritization

  When conventional solutions don't improve IP telephony QoS issues, VoIP traffic management can help. Learn how to prioritize VoIP traffic, address voice delay and provide Class of Service-based routing.  Continue Reading

• When SIP trunks fail: Disaster recovery for SIP trunking

  When your SIP trunks fail, do you have a disaster recovery plan for SIP trunking to support troubleshooting and resolution of SIP trunk failures, or are you solely dependent on what the carriers and/or ITSPs tell you?  Continue Reading

• Legacy devices and analog telephone lines still useful, despite VoIP

  Supporting legacy devices and analog telephone lines will be part of your due diligence well into the foreseeable future despite the high rate of VoIP and IP telephony deployments. Find out which legacy interfaces you can expect to use in the future...  Continue Reading

• Implementing a mobile unified communications (UC) solution

  Mobile unified communications (UC) can provide many major benefits to an organization. In this tip, you will learn about the major strategies available to implement a mobile UC solution and fixed mobile convergence (FMC).  Continue Reading

• The benefits of mobile unified communications

  With its cost efficiency and portability, mobile unified communications (UC) is an attractive option for companies looking to update their UC capabilities. Learn about the benefits of mobile UC, including the applications and the technology behind ...  Continue Reading

• What makes a UC system?

  Confused about what makes up a unified communications (UC) system? You're not alone! The answer can depend on whom you ask. It's universally accepted that presence is the cornerstone of UC. But understanding the difference between UC and the ...  Continue Reading

• VoIP service selection: MPLS, VPLS or Metro Ethernet?

  Creating secure, reliable VoIP connections over a multi-site enterprise network requires knowledge of your specific infrastructure. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) and Metropolitan Ethernet (Metro Ethernet) ...  Continue Reading

• Presence: SIMPLE versus XMPP

  SIMPLE and XMPP are the two main presence-associated standards. Learn about these standards and how to leverage them to your advantage.  Continue Reading

• Intro to SIP packet routing: Using the SIP route header and via header

  In the last of a series of three tips introducing the basics of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Brien Posey discusses the four types of headers SIP employs to ensure that information packets travel the correct path when communicating between ...  Continue Reading

• An introduction to SIP verbs: Register, subscribe, invite

  Part 2 of a three part series on the Session Initiation Protocol, this article discusses commonly used SIP codes and response verbs, and explains basic SIP operation.  Continue Reading

• An introduction to SIP and SIP functions

  The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the primary protocol that's used by most VoIP and unified communications (UC) products. This is part 1 of a three-part series that will explain how SIP works.  Continue Reading

• Understanding presence technology

  Presence technology is an integral part of unified communications, making it possible to locate and identify a device or user wherever it might be. Learn why presence is important.  Continue Reading

• Open source PBX: Risk or value?

  Open source IP PBX systems like Asterisk have benefits and risks. Learn what they are and assess your readiness for the IP PBX implementation in this tip from Gary Audin.  Continue Reading

• VoIP security -- Free IP telephony fuzzing tools

  Protect your organization's VoIP security with free VoIP security tools designed to test IP telephony vulnerability.  Continue Reading

• Routing basics -- What VoIP managers need to know

  Voice over IP (VoIP) requires that an organization's voice staff understand many of the fundamentals of data networking. Routing is an essential data networking function that also applies to VoIP. In this tip, learn more about the routers and ...  Continue Reading

• VoIP traffic: Five steps to prepare your network

  VoIP traffic is much more sensitive to latency, jitter and packet loss than most network applications. It is crucial that you ensure that your network is ready to handle this new demand.  Continue Reading

• How silence suppression saves WAN bandwidth

  Silence suppression, or voice activation detection (VAD), technology is used to save WAN bandwidth used by VoIP traffic, while comfort noise generation (CNG) counteracts negative affects on VoIP speech quality.  Continue Reading

• IP PBX: Ten reasons to switch

  Should you throw out the old PBX and replace it with a new IP PBX? This tip from WindowsNetworking.com provides ten compelling reasons to do so, along with a brief explanation of what an IP PBX is, how it works in a computer network and how it ...  Continue Reading

• VoIP bandwidth: Calculate consumption

  The bandwidth needed for VoIP transmission depends on compression technology, packet overhead and the network protocol used. In this tip, learn how to calculate how much bandwidth your VoIP implementation will need.  Continue Reading

• VoIP bandwidth -- Rightsize your WAN for voice traffic

  Up-front rightsizing and WAN bandwidth capacity planning are critical aspects of VoIP, and should be done prior to deploying an MPLS network or implementing VoIP.  Continue Reading

• How voice compression saves bandwidth

  Compression of voice traffic can save bandwidth on your IP network, but can cost quality or cause delays. Learn more about the CODECs or standards for voice compression -- and their effect on call quality -- in this tip.  Continue Reading

• What's in a VoIP packet -- An introduction to bandwidth for VoIP

  Learn what makes up a VoIP packet, how headers work, what protocols transport voice traffic over the Internet and how this traffic uses network bandwidth.  Continue Reading

• Defining traffic telecommunications style

  There are three types of traffic: voice, data and image -- each with its own set of requirements for transmission. Find out here how these different types of traffic are quantified.  Continue Reading

• Turning analog phones into VoIP phones

  How an ATA or broadband phone works and what kind of features and performance you can expect from them.  Continue Reading

• Working with the Layer 2 data link layer in an IP telephony deployment

  This IP telephony deployment article provides solutions to performance issues in Layer 2, the data link layer.  Continue Reading

• Policing and shaping within QoS

  Learn about the policing and shaping methods within QoS that allow IT professionals to smooth traffic flows for VoIP transmission.  Continue Reading

• DHCP for VoIP

  Learn how to set up DHCP for Voice over IP (VoIP) in this article.  Continue Reading