Three Vital Ways to Prepare Your Network for VoIP Deployment
VoIP has become quite popular and is continuing to grow rapidly in the SMB sector. If you have plans to switch to VoIP, it is essential that you have a fully optimized network for it to function well. This post highlights a few simple steps to get prepared for high-quality VoIP.
Approximately 40% of small and medium businesses have bid adieu the traditional telephone services and embraced the newer VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) due to its productivity and cost advantages. Most business establishments rely fully on phones to carry out their communications, thus reliability becomes vital. VoIP infrastructure utilizes data packets to send or transmit voice across the internet and functions perfectly on a properly installed network.
Once you have reached the decision to switch to the VoIP infrastructure, what should you do next? First, begin by asking yourself if the current network you have can support the deployment of VoIP. The following are various ways you can use to prepare your installed network and other VoIP infrastructure security software solutions.
Evaluate the WAN connection.
To achieve optimal results for your VoIP infrastructure, it is crucial that you allocate sufficient bandwidth, which means understanding your requirements. These requirements depend on the total number of VoIP clients or phones as well as concurrent calls to be made. Additionally, you may wish to identify other network applications that eat into your available bandwidth. You can use web platforms such as Speed-Test to measure your bandwidth.
Additionally, you may need to consider your internet connection speed. For instance, a fiber T1 cable connection is way much faster and convenient to use for your business. For this reason, you need to look for the best internet service provider that offers the best throughput. The current minimal internet speed options today range between 75mbps, 100mbps to 150Mbps. If your business has 20 or fewer connections, of 75Mbps should suffice.
Determine Your Network Infrastructure and Equipment
Never be fooled that speed alone with adequate bandwidth will guarantee the best results for your VoIP. Your network backbone is crucial, and having an outdated, old network is a huge barrier to a successful VoIP deployment. If you have a weak grasp on your network infrastructure, you risk many challenges along the way.
Research has revealed that most SMBs run old networking equipment. Determine how old your routers and switches are. Are they gigabit-ready to handle VoIP? Old networking infrastructure usually has unnoticed problems that emerge with applications such as VoIP that are latency-dependent. Invest in modern networking equipment to have a smooth and efficient VoIP system.
Prioritize and Segment VoIP Traffic with a VLAN
Some Applications that run on high bandwidth and priority such as VoIP and video conferencing can be negatively affected when there are many services on your network. To ensure the best QoS you must dedicate voice bandwidth by the use of a VLAN segment. This will allow you prioritize applications data traffic, hence improving performance and upholding QoS. Remember, segmentation begins at the router level, thus, it’s wise to invest in a top-quality business class router with QoS capabilities
