Technical Analysis of Hosted Voice over IP Solutions for Small and

medium Enterprises

George NjorogeCSCIE 139

gnjoroge02@gmail.com

Hosted vs. Managed VoIPHosted VOIP is utilizing a company for phone

connectivity (soft and hard), extensions, voicemail, using the hosted company’s equipment.

Managed VoIP is your equipment often hosted at some datacenter and utilizing a consultant to manage it.

Reasons to Use a hosted Provider

Lower Capital ExpenseMore than one officeNo in-house VOIP ExpertCall CenterNew FeaturesExecutive Home Users

Options for Hosted VoIP

Utilize the same ISP as the local LAN for VoIP traffic

Utilize a Managed Line and Managed VoIP Gateway

Option 1Utilizing the same ISP as the LAN for VoIP traffic

has the following possible issuesJitter

Any jitter on the phones will create popping and clicking even if the packets arrive within the time frame of 300-400 milliseconds.

Latency Poor call quality due IP packets arriving at different

intervalsPossible Call dropCould be great 90% of the time and 10% poor qualityNo QOS

Option 1 configuration

Hosted VoIP Provider

Firewall

POE Switch

VoIP Phones

ISP

LAN Switch

VLAN 200

VLAN 300

Option 2Managed Line

MPLSMPLS labels are encapsulated in the VoIP packet

voice/RTP/UDP/IP/MPLS-labels

VoIP Gateway DeviceTraffic shaping in the system is designed to ensure that high

priority real-time data is processed before lower priority non-real-time data.

Guaranteed QoS

Option 2 configuration

Corporate LANManaged Voip

Network

ISP Managed Line (MPLS)

Firewall VoIP Gateway - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Executive Home UserHosted VoIP

Provider

VoIP Gateway/Firewall

Home ISP (Cable, DSL,

Fiber)

Small POE Switch

Wireless Access Point

Mobile Client AccessCall Forking “find me follow me”

The hosted PBX can be activated to use the find me follow me feature. This means when enabled, the phone will ring at the predefined mobile number on the pbx. This will be a 3G/4G call and will not utilize data.

Mobile Client App The Mobile client app will act as a soft phone. The

client will work over the data plan on a wi-fi connection. If none exists, it will utilize the data plan

Issues with Mobile ClientNo Quality of ServiceCell CoverageUnreliable Wi-Fi

TroubleshootingISP based option

Run trace route command to check for any packet drops

Run a Ping to the hosted ISP to see if there is any packet loss

Check network latency using tools internally and externally. (www.speedtest.net)

If Phones have no connectivity, check wiring, and port connection.

TroubleshootingManaged Line connection

If call quality is low, we can contact our provider as they provide the line

Check logs in the VoIP GatewayNo phone connectivity, check the wiring and

data ports

TroubleshootingSoft phones

Check headset connection into the PC and microphone configuration

Check for high CPU usage on the PCNetwork connectivity. Soft phones do not work

in an ISP based configuration. They require a VPN to the hosted VoIP server.

Check Workstation Firewall

Troubleshooting Executives Home Phone

Check the VoIP gateway for any issuesVerify valid internet connection Check for connection speedsCheck wiringCheck SwitchCheck connectivityContact VoIP provider

Questions?