Voice over IP 5

[MBH]

What type of networks currently offer Voice over IP?

 

[Guest_imported]

VOIP can be done in an enterprise using current Lan if it has the bandwidth and COS. WAN  using frame or T1. Cloud using the same. Be careful though- the best solution that I've seen out there is made by SIEMENS because it is infrastructure agnostic and there phones are standards compliant. Also it is hardware independant. Cisco's solution is proporietary and hardware dependant as it has to be preloaded on their server. Thier phones also don't comply by the standards. I've never put anything on my LAN that the application is hardware dependant and the edge devices and the entire netwrk infrastructure HAVE to be bought from the application vendor in order for it to work.

 

[munsonbrown]

Just curious, who else makes phones for siemens hipath series? My understanding is that the seimens system, like cisco's, is also dependant on proprietary hardware like the rg 2500 gateway. Cisco's sytem is compatible with multitech gateways, and I understand another company is working on a conferenceroom speakerphone for cisco's AVVID system, although the company name escapes me at the moment. I also know that cisco supports tapi/jtapi so third party vendors can integrate softphones.
I'd like to know more about this seimens systems as my familiarity with PBX company soultions for VoIP is limitted. [sig][/sig]

 

[Guest_imported]

The Cisco product is more solid than the big three (Nortel,Lucent/Avaya,Alcatel). I have 10 years in the telecom industry. I am hold certs with Nortel, NEC, and Lucent. After getting into VoIP and IP Telephony I have only seen one scalable product and that is Cisco Call Manager wich is leading the fight For SIP to be a open standard. Cisco is also pushing to have its solid SSC Skinny Station Protocol to become a stanrdard. In the smaller markets 3coms NBX 100 and soon to be released 500/750 are the markets best. The built in features for the price are great. Always remember VoIP can be done between two routers and a couple of analog phones. IP Telephony is where the apps and features are introduced. Siemens had its chance to shine in the Telecom industry (Rolm) they blew it.
Watch out for 3COM,Cisco,Avaya, and Nortel to be your leaders. Do not look at every Tom, Dick and Harry tring to sale Voip, and or IP PBX.

 

[JoeManfu]

Greetings,
While I agree Cisco equipment is very reliable. I find it hard to believe anything will beat the 3Com solution. The NBX I recently purchased, NBX 100, cures all the problems I saw with the Cisco, Inter-Tel, Pingtel, Lucent, or Nortel. It's one box. That's it. No additional boxes for Call managers, ACD, Routers for T-1 lines, or routers for analog lines. Not to mention the NBX system I purchased covers 5 branches with about 100 phones, handles local copper lines in each branch, manages the least cost routing, automated attendant, centralized voice mail, centralized reception, reception time shifting (we cover two time zones), ACD, and did I mention it's in One Box?
I don't want to knock Cisco products, or any others, I love my Cisco WAN routers for the frame relay this NBX runs on. But I didn't want 12 more boxes to manage. I do recommend using switches instead of 10/100 hubs. And the 3Com rang in about $70,000 cheaper than the Cisco solution. If the need for more than a thousand nodes arises, You would have to move to the NBX 750 and more than that I wouldn't know. But keep in mind that you can, as I did, run multiple NBX call processors, to handle multiple branches on a WAN so in effect on my system I could run nearly 1000 nodes. The phones are practical as well. Software programmable, and simple. I couldn't imagine giving one of my older salesmen one of those beautiful new Cisco phones with the massive lcd display. They refuse to give up their WYSE terminals.
Just my opinion.
Carlie Bentley
IT Manager
Fluid Power Products Inc.
Lexington, Kentucky.

 

[fastbusy]

>>What type of networks currently offer Voice over IP?

Any network providing or assuring quality of service.
This is an absolute requirement for data and voice network convergence. QoS ensures that voice is not interupted (jitter) by someone downloading MP3s for example.

When considering manufacturers don't forget features. The Definity (Avaya), for instance, is very strong on features and functionality, and can easily be updated to empower your organisation in terms of VoIP use.

Then there's the LAN verses WAN question ? Is it really worth replacing your existing digital handsets with expensive IP endpoint voice terminals ? Personally I think that if you already have digital handsets it's not worth it. Perhaps get a few IP softphone licences and give them a try.

We have to think why we're actually doing this in the first place. VoIP as a way to reduce carrier costs between corporate sites. IP trunking as opposed to IP stations.

OK so if you have the chance to kit out a brand new office, you have a great chance to put in a single converged network. Back to the QoS. Are you satisfied that you will be able to provide the necessary QoS ?

 

[dragonman]

What about the Altigen VoIP solution it looks quite flexible? Does anyone have experience with Altigen?
Thanks

 

[Guest_imported]

As far as the NBX 100 goes it is not as scalable. Before you say I am wrong I am 3com Cert on the NBX 25, 100 and soon to be released 200/250. 3com is a great replacment for a key system but I am making the CallManager dance. On hold music per phone the users choice or global streaming audio.
Call center apps and scrolling the movie listing for your area across you phone screen. The NBX can not do that.

 

[Guest_imported]

A audio conferencing control for developers:

http://www.banasoft.com/AVPhone.htm

 

[Axelman]

At this stage, the only real competition Avaya has would have to be Nortel.
The feature set of the Cisco Call Manager is a bit of a joke really and we don't really see them as a serious competitor to Avaya who are really years ahead of Cisco on features, let alone the peripheral stuff. If Nortel sorts out their financial troubles though, Avaya could have some competition on their hands.

 

[jimbopalmer]

I am running multi PBX IP trunking on Nortel Merdian 1s, as well as IP phones and Voice mail, but it is clearly a legacy device learning new tricks. I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[Guest_imported]

Opinion... An integrated system puts all communication eggs into one basket. If you have just one part of an IP phone system go down, you lose both computer and voice. Doesn't make sense to me. Gateways supporting legacy systems and some integrated gateways (Nortel) would seem the safest tech answer. So if your network goes south, you can still talk to your customer and take notes with a pencil...

PhM

 

[RLHarris]

Below is a link to Miercom's interoperability lab conducted at ComNet.

http://www.mier.com/conferences/comnet2001/wrap-up.htm

It is my understanding (I am positive someone will correct me if I am wrong..)that Cisco's gateways and routers offer interoperability, but the CallManager telephone sets and features are are proprietary as any "traditional" phone vendor.
Robert Harris
Communications Advantage

http://www.communicationsadvantage.com

 

[DueE]

Try this for Nortel Networks BCM next Generation PBX Review

http://www.commweb.com/labTests

DueE

 

[rhack5565]

As far as Interoperability goes, the Cisco Gateways seem to work pretty well. We are testing A Nortel Option 11 with a PRI to a Gateway, and an Avaya G3R to a Gateway. Calls between the Avaya & Nortel are working smoothly. The Gateways seem to work well at doing protocol conversions as well. Only strange thing I came across is with the Nortel using NI2, and the Cisco gateway using NI2, calls less than 10 digits would not complete, "Invalid Called Number Format" cause messages were received on the Nortel end, received by the Cisco gateway. The Cisco box had to be set to QSIG to allow varying length dialed numbers to be allowed.

 

[Jafon2k]

Hello. I got your site from a post on erlang.com

Please allow me to pose a question to you:

I have a terminating gateway that is interconnecting to a Cisco gateway.

My gateway is a MC3810. It has yet to terminate any traffic though it had placed successful test calls when it was loaded with 12.0 IOS.
It is presently loaded with 12.2.7b Enterprise VOIP/VOATM IPSec56.

The problem I am having is that calls made to the MC3810 will go through. The PSTN line will ring three times and then the call is dropped instantaneously with no answer. SIP signaling was uitlized with this setup (bypassing fast start). Fast start was not functioning properly in preliminary tests.

Do you know of any typical configurations used in originating Cisco gateways that causes this behavior?

This same problem occurred while I was using a Vive gateway. Prior to this I believed that the problem was with the Vive gateway hence the change out to a Cisco box.

I am connected via marine cable over leased line IP. The phone lies are analog lines. The channel bank is a Carrier Access I with FXO cards set to loop start.

The Vive used no channel bank and was connected directly to the PSTN analog lines. Fast start was used with the Vive gateway.

I hope you might be able to point me in the right direction to solve this problem.

Thanks!

 

[struan]

Which of the big providers have toll class voice over adsl?
thanks.

 

[RLHarris]

"Toll Class" VoDSL cannot be guaranteed by any provider. The toll quality G.711 codec uses 64 kbps of bandwidth. ADSL connections typically start at 128 on the upload speed, which is sufficient bandwidth for VoIP, but the packet latency cannot be controlled over a consumer broadband connection such as ADSL.

There are many products that will work well over ADSL, but with no guarantee of quality. Cisco's ATA186 terminal adaptor, the standalone PingTel phones, InterTel's IP telecommuter phones, NEC's Dterm phones, to name a few, will all work with asychronous connections. Robert Harris
Communications Advantage

http://www.communicationsadvantage.com

 

[mattKnight]

Hi all,

Has anybody heard anything about Sphericall?

It's a US based manufacturer VOIP system. Ok its got proprietry gateways (E1/T1, analog trunk and stations) consequently you only need analogue handsets to work. You can get a GUI to help of course!! I think it supports IP handsets if required.

itegrates well to voice mails etc.

As all VOIP it is dependant on LAN/WAN configuration especially QoS

Maybe worth a look

Matt

 

[Salp]

Hi all,

Do you have any suggestion to terminate a Cisco AS5350 Access Server to analog PSTN lines. I need terminate IP call via AS5350 to PSTN without using ISDN/PRI/E1.

Is a Channel Bank a good solution?

Thanks in advance,
Salp