Drive the goblins out of your converged network

All QoS implementations require a network-monitoring system to track traffic, identify performance degradation, and regulate service to give precedence to voice and video traffic. Networks require switches that support QoS and 802.1p standards -- a standard that accelerates the classification and filtering of traffic.

Trick or treat: What's in QoS for whom?

There are multiple benefits to implementing QoS. The quality of voice and video transmissions improves and, on the back end, QoS allows administrators to control network resources and monitor traffic to ensure critical applications receive appropriate service.

All of that, of course, makes it less daunting to adopt convergence technologies which can deliver ghoulish savings:

• Users at different sites can make extension-to-extension calls over the existing data network rather than requiring additional land lines.
• Businesses can implement 64-party audioconferencing bridges that save hundreds of dollars a month on conference-call services.
• Session Initiation Protocol trunks can cut phone bills by as much as half by connecting the phone system to traditional telephone lines via the Internet over a data T1 line, reducing the use of voice T1 lines and associated costs.

What's more, with QoS, teleworkers can use a IP phone from their home office over a VPN link, making it possible for them to handle calls as if they were in the corporate office, increasing their accessibility. "Softphones" -- software on laptops -- with QoS also are an excellent option for employees who travel frequently, because they allow remote users to call extensions at the main office for free via their computer.

That's not to say that QoS is without challenges. QoS tools can relieve network congestion, but sometimes there is just too much traffic for the given bandwidth. To ensure quality, bandwidth must be high enough to support latency of 150 milliseconds or less.

Switch failure is also a concern for businesses that use IP phones with dual-port switches to connect the phone and a computer through a single drop, applying QoS to route voice traffic ahead of data traffic. If the two-port switch fails, the phone and the computer both lose connectivity. Likewise, users will lose connectivity if the LAN switch fails. Recovery systems must be in place to get the network back up and running as quickly as possible. Many businesses operate a POTS (plain old telephone service) line to maintain some access during these times, and some businesses avoid the potential challenge altogether by implementing a LAN for each type of device, though this option is more costly.

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