IP Audit Service
Is your network ready to benefit from converged voice & data?
South West Communications can bring these two networks together to deliver a fully converged environment to eliminate the costs of supporting and maintaining separate networks. We have significant expertise in deploying voice solutions over existing LAN and WAN infrastructures helping organisations to maximize their investment and currently have numerous private and public sector customers undergoing phased convergence projects.
Before you consider putting voice traffic over your existing data network, you need to have a clear understanding of the impact it will have and ascertain the networks integrity and it’s capability to support voice.
South West Communications Group undertake network IP Audits to determine the suitability of legacy infrastructures to support voice calls and devise the most cost effective route to bring about change in a planned and methodical way. We specialise in the development of communication strategies that help to overcome legacy network issues when upgrading from traditional telephony to modern, cost effective Voice over IP (VoIP) converged networks.
The test session period for an IP audit is selected to ensure that we capture a realistic period of time that encompasses normal or busy network usage. In order to gather the information required for a network audit, voice packets are ‘injected’ into the existing network from strategic points within the LAN/WAN. The traffic is then modified to simulate the varying loads and operational criteria found within a converged network. The simulation will use the various voice compression protocols available (G.711, G.723 and G.729) and measure the voice quality under these conditions. The quality is measured using the industry standard MOS grades.
The key criteria measured that most effect the operation of the network are Delay, Jitter and Packet Loss.
Delay is experienced if the network becomes congested, this can be caused by the existing network design or insufficient available bandwidth. The accepted maximum technical delay limit is 150 ms - however to ensure the quality of the voice traffic the network should aspire to a target of 40ms, with up to 80ms an acceptable upper limit.
Congestion can also cause Jitter within a network which is defined as variations of the time between packets arriving at the destination.
Packet Loss in legacy networks can be caused by several factors, the most common being network congestion, traffic collisions, when there is insufficient bandwidth availability or due to poor network design (either by an evolving flat design or inappropriate equipment to meet the demands of today’s business).
The resulting data is then analysed and a formal report submitted to you which details our findings regarding the strength and resilience of the network and it’s suitability to take telephony traffic across it. Within this report, we also make recommendations as to the actions required if necessary to upgrade the network infrastructure. At this point our professional consultants are able to work with you to design a more resilient solution that addresses all of issues the audit has highlighted.
Visit our Factsheets page for a detailed report on out IP Audit Service