Technology Reseller - v10

technolog y reseller.co.uk 21 COVER STORY for Broadband per G711 call. b. Latency: <150ms c. Jitter: <45ms d. Packet loss: <1ms Secondly, as with the LAN the circuit should either be for voice only or, if converged, it must have a sufficient QoS policy enabled both downstream and upstream. Sadly, much of the UK market seems to miss this point with the outcome being variable, and often poor, voice quality. This is primarily because wholesale broadband ADSL & VDSL circuits do not as standard offer any SLAs on bandwidth, latency, packet loss or jitter and do not offer bi- directional QoS to protect voice. Adding an upstream QoS policy on the customer’s router does little to combat this! What you need Our recommendations are as follows: 1 Fibre Ethernet, FTTC Ethernet or EFM Ethernet with appropriate QoS policy applied upstream and downstream. 2 SDSL M Broadband circuit solely used for voice. Our SDSL M circuits have sufficient performance SLAs for carrying up to 15 G711 voice calls. 3 This article is focused on voice quality, but don’t neglect security. Protect circuits or VLANs from potential hackers and expensive voice fraud by applying appropriate security measures. Spitfire runs a half-day course for our Partners on ‘Avoiding voice fraud’. It is not uncommon for delegates to take an unscheduled break in this course to make some quick changes to their PBX implementations! 4 Connecting to your cloud PBX provider. Cloud PBX providers will generally allow you to connect to them via the internet. Whilst this is flexible, it carries a major risk, as the internet is a contended public network that does not offer any consistency or guaranteed performance. A cloud provider might be top-notch for guaranteed performance, and so might your Ethernet circuit, but neither will take responsibility for issues on the public internet! One solution is to install a dedicated access circuit from your premises to the cloud PBX provider. However, this is expensive and inflexible. Our recommendation is to use a single organisation for your ISP and Cloud PBX and check that they can offer a private route between your circuit and the PBX, thus avoiding the public internet. 5 Connecting to the PSTN network: SIP trunks are used to connect your cloud PBX service to the PSTN network so that external calls can be made and received. Most SIP trunks are delivered via an Internet connection so your calls will traverse the public internet for a second time – and we know the risks of that! To avoid this, ensure that the Cloud PBX provider offers its own SIP Trunking service so that calls do not route via the internet. Summary Voice quality can be assured by your Cloud PBX provider from the handset to the PSTN network by: a. Configuring a Voice quality LAN b. Utilising a Voice approved circuit c. Implementing a Cloud PBX service that is directly connected to your ISP network d. Utilising a Cloud PBX that uses directly connected, not internet SIP trunks e. Ensure the G711 CODEC is used for high quality audio f. Ask your providers if they can assure your voice quality end to end. www.spitfire.co.uk Want to know more? If you would like to know more about how to ensure voice quality in the cloud, please come to Spitfire’s Seminar talk at UC Expo on 16th May at 12.20pm or visit Stand F105. Alternatively, please contact us on 020-7501 3150. n Meet us at: – UC EXPO: May 16-17 – Margin in Voice & Data: June 14 – Channel Live: September 11-12 – IP Expo: October 3-4 – Offices in London & the Midlands n YouTube videos: – Search ‘Spitfire Network Services’ on YouTube for videos on Spitfire SIP Trunks, Converged Ethernet, Spitfire Partner Service & much more. n White papers: see www.spitfire.co.uk/white-paper s for the following: – The truth about VDSL and VoIP: why VDSL is not suitable for voice – PBX Security in the VoIP Environment: how to avoid voice fraud. About Spitfire Spitfire specialises in providing high quality Internet and Telecomms solutions engineered for, and tailored to, the specific requirements of our business customers. Our account managers are highly trained to ensure they gain a detailed understanding of data and applications through a training programme covering everything from coding to industry recognised networking qualifications such as Cisco CCENT and CCNA. This thorough training programme enables the account manager to accurately identify the network needs of our customers so that we can recommend the most suitable solution.