The Most Critical Elements for Sustaining Voice Quality

In order to ensure ongoing voice quality – and ultimately, a successful VoIP deployment – you must first ensure that you can sustain high voice quality. “When one hears ‘sustaining,’ they probably envision what’s required on day two of a convergence implementation,” says Tone Software’s Paul Wiggins in a TMC (News - Alert) podcast, “which is the ongoing management of VoIP; however, this leaves out a big piece of the puzzle.”

In light of this, Wiggins offers some handy tips concerning converged networks:

The network should be able to sustain good VoIP call quality prior to installation

This can be done by carrying out a simple network assessment, where the network is put through a stress test by simulating voice traffic over the infrastructure and grading call quality and performance results, Wiggins says. “Without conducting this type of assessment, sustaining good VoIP call quality would be hit or miss at best. So ensuring that the network can support call quality prior to deploying is vital for maintaining ongoing IP voice quality,” he explains.

Real-time monitoring of the entire converged environment

 After the network is certified as being capable of supporting VoIP, you must then ensure full visibility into all quality factors and metrics, Wiggins says. The only way to do that, however, is by embracing real-time monitoring of the entire converged environment. He continues, “The ability to see into the performance of the entire physical infrastructure as well as the applications which make up the converged network are crucial when managing IP voice quality.” Without the proper management solution and a 360-degree view of the converged environment and its underlying metrics, things “can be more than problematic.”

“Vendor specific tools and traditional network management tools cannot provide full visibility into the performance and quality of the VoIP network. This leaves support teams blind to the actual quality occurring in the application layer, and creates a disconnect across the vendor segments within the network,” Wiggins says, explaining that this cannot properly nor efficiently resolve pressing issues when they arise.

Conversely, by investing in a robust, proven VoIP monitoring and management solution like Tone Software’s (News - Alert) ReliaTel, you’ll have all that you need and more for continued success, sustained voice quality and ultimately, business continuity.

To listen to the entire podcast, click here.

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Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli