Converged networks have become increasingly popular despite the `wait and see` attitude of many businesses, allowing them to leverage the cost benefits of a single network for voice, data and video. However, there are a number of issues that need to be taken into consideration when embarking on the shift from disparate networks to a converged environment.
For one, how do you effectively monitor and optimise a network that carries myriad applications that include multimedia e-mail, instant messaging, Web and video conferencing and unified collaboration?
Furthermore, how do ensure your converged network continues to support business processes as opposed to hampering them? The benefits of converged networks are apparent, but making the most of them remains the challenge.
It is important that organisations clearly define their business goals and ensure these are understood by the ICT team. Therefore, continuously checking whether the design of the converged network is meeting requirements is a must.
Quality of service (QOS) metrics is one important consideration; it should be developed properly from inception. Analyst at the Yankee Group, Vanessa Alvarez, comments that QOS is the most important aspect of a converged network. "QOS metrics are the primary building blocks of your overall quality of service strategy," she says.
The reality is while data traffic can afford to lose some packets, voice can`t - calls will become choppy, frustrating and conversations simply become too difficult to maintain, which is counterproductive to say the least.
A QOS strategy sees voice as the number one priority, enjoying guaranteed bandwidth; important data traffic as the number two priority; and lastly, the rest of the data, which enjoys a best-effort priority.
Additionally, QOS also allows for the effective prioritisation and resultant delivery of video, which is particularly important for videoconferencing and video surveillance. The delivery of quality video, however, does add a level of QOS complexity as studies have found that portions of a network`s capacity has to be left open to ensure no packet collision or congestion.
Ultimately, QOS offers the ability to provide different priorities to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow. This is important if the network capacity is insufficient, especially for voice, online games and IPTV, as they often require a fixed bit rate and are delay sensitive.
This also brings us to the next point: managing your converged network. In order to do so, you will need a converged management solution that will allow you to, in real-time, prioritise voice on the data network.
In essence, a converged management solution should provide you with the ability to troubleshoot a vast array of performance issues, monitor the network and applications, optimise the delivery of VOIP services, analyse response time, and perform capacity planning.
This become even more prevalent when voice is layered onto the data network - bandwidth remains expensive, and VOIP demands a steadier stream than any other network service.
Also, a converged management tool will show you which types of traffic - legitimate business processes, employee productivity applications like voice and personal usage such as streaming radio or even video - use the most bandwidth. This, in turn, will enable the ICT team to determine how much more, if any, bandwidth your organisation needs to appropriately expand the network, as well as mould utilisation policies.
While converged networks encompass voice, video and data - voice is and remains the number one priority, as the gains, from a cost perspective, are significant. The reality is that a packet loss of even 1% can cause voice jitter and delay.
Therefore, to get the most from your converged network you have to ensure voice is prioritised with the help of business strategy and physical implementation of QOS procedures and converged network performance management solutions.
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