TDM vs VoIP what's the buzz ??

[SBL110]

Hi Everyone,

Need to gather some info from the "real" world regarding TDM vs VoIP implementations. Here's the story in a nutshell:

We are a medium-sized hospital running CM2.2, (4) gateways, a remote SI and remote Prologix (both soon to become gateways). Modular messaging 3.0 slowly replacing three Intuity Audix systems. 99.9% of all phones are TDM based. Seriously, we only have 12 VoIP phones currently running.

We're building a new 100,000 sq ft expansion for 60 new patient rooms. A couple of director level folks would like to make the new expansion a technical showcase and have asked me to price out VoIP phones.

At first glance, the VoIP will cost $37,600.00 more than TDM. This is calculating additional Med-Pro and C-Lan boards and the cost of Cicso PoE ports. The TDM phone costs figure digital port boards and RTU's, etc.

From my perspective, the IP phones aren't bringing anything new to the table. They won't be sporting any fancy applications, they will make and take calls period. Additionally, I'm having a difficult time trying to convince upper management that they will still have to run phone lines for fax, TTY and other analog devices.

Has anyone else fought this battle? I'd be interested in some of the details especially if you work in healthcare. I'm not anti-VoIP, it's just that there isn't a compelling reason to install them just because they're VoIP! If we were building a hospital from the ground up -- no problem. Thanks in advance for your opinions, facts and stories.

Scott

 

[mikeydidit]

In my opinion Scott, VoIP is not ready for the hospitals environment yet. Most places, Ok the phones go down (and plan on downtime with IP sets) and you are not making or taking sales calls. In our environment someone could die.

The up time on a TDM switch is around 99.999. That’s the sort of reliability we need in a hospital setting. And then we have backup numbers and trunks and UPS and plans and policies.

I am now on the S8710 servers running 3.0.1. Not the latest, greatest, but a load that has had time to get most of the bugs worked out so we do not have downtime. Yet new enough to get most of the latest features other than the call center applications, which really do not apply to either of us. I am not sure the dependability rating of these servers, but I waited 5 years before going to them so the platform would be stable. So far it has been pretty good.

I think that is really what should be considered in our environment. Some of our higher up’s are also considering various types of IP devices setups here like SpectraLink. They have plans to use our emergency room as a test bed for this. This will run through our Wireless access points for that area. Other projects have failed using them because of the amount of steel and concrete in the hospital building. This caused intermittent connections and thus devises that were flaky at best. But they are going ahead with the project anyways. I think it will be a good thing that I have about 25 6408D+ sets working in that area still.


Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594

 

[SBL110]

Thanks for the info Mikey. We're using the Spectralink wireless phones (Avaya model 3626) in a limited capacity. Spectralink requires an SVP server to be installed to handle QoS despite our ability to manage that through our Cisco network. We found the Spectralink 3626 very reliable and quite rugged.

We also have 220 Ascom 1.9GHz portables (Ascom 9p23) running in and around the hospital successfully, however, we've reached the end of the line with this system and can't expand it any further. This is causing us to look at Ascom's Freenet WiFi portable phone (i75) and the Cisco 7921 as possible replacement systems. The Spectralink isn't being considered as a global replacement because the display size is too small. Never a dull moment here.

Good luck with your deployment.

 

[GSmitherman]

We have taken out an Avaya Definity (3 carriers)from a hospital and replaced it with a ShoreTel VOIP system. The hospital is in love with it. With TDM systems, if the processor has issues or dies the system is in trouble. With Shoretel, if the processing unit dies or is failing, the next module takes over the processing duties. NO down time. ShoreTel is rated as 99.999% reliable. In fact the next ShoreTel module we replace will be the first.

 

[surakmn]

IP is just transport - the point to IP telephony isn't to be "IP" but because it enables you to meet other business goals. Absent business drivers there's no reason to replace perfectly good traditional TDM with IP, but if you're building new you are having to build a LAN infrastructure anyway - it only makes sense to build it to support VoIP regardless of your ultimate telephony environment, especially since over the long haul you can get much greater density with IP than with TDM. I've worked with several Avaya IP/Digital hybrids and they work just fine.

You certainly do have to allow for analog connections but that doesn't necessarily mean myriad 1FBs. You're not typically going to handshake a modem at 56K through an IP-based analog port, but it is perfectly adequate for fax machines, credit card machines, etc.

In your specific situation I think it depends more on the strategic picture. If you have existing capacity and it's just a matter of wiring out a few new phones there's nothing wrong with what you have. If they have more up their sleeve involving additional expansion, upgrades, unified messaging, multi location, etc., then moving in the direction of IP could be beneficial.

The question of reliability in a hospital environment is an interesting one - not all PBX architectures are created equal and that's independent of whether you're running IP to the desktop. Personally I'd be perfectly comfortable with both Avaya and ShoreTel.

 

[big70]

The buzzzz is a 1. a good engineer (pabx and data)
2. Avaya phone system
3. Cisco Network


The dont,s 1. A bad engineer
2. Cisco phone system
3. avaya network or other playmobile stuff

easy as that



Greets Peter