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What are the steps involved in designing a VoIP network?

EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Carrie Higbie

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QUESTION POSED ON: 29 October 2004
What are the steps involved in designing a VoIP network, including planning, component requirements and selection, and network dimensioning?

The answer to this question really depends on the application. Assuming you are designing a VoIP network for a business, you would look at the existing data network first and understand any changes that need to be made in order to accommodate voice on that network. For example, shared media devices like hubs would need to be removed and replaced with switches. The reason for this is that collisions can occur with hubs which would lead to poor voice quality. If you're going to deploy VoIP phones, you would want to consider using switches that support power over Ethernet. These could be centrally backed up to provide power to phones in case of a loss of power. If you have multiple sites and are going to route voice traffic between sites, you'll want to set up routers to prioritize the voice traffic over the data traffic. In considering a VoIP system to perform the PBX functions, you'll want to consider a system based on open standards that allows for devices from other manufacturers to be used. The system should support all standard telephony features and more modern features for productivity gains such as presence, instant messaging and chat.

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