Do I need to evaluate my LAN network before I install an IP system?

After years in the field implementing hundreds of IP telephony systems, Paul Miller, one of our senior technician, has seen all kinds of unusual situations as organizations of all sizes make the switch to converged voice/data networks. An implementation services project manager at Telephones.com, Paul shares the seven most common deployment mistakes he's seen on the job.

1. Skipping network assessments. A thorough network assessment is critical for multi-site deployments of IP telephony, and even for single sites, Paul says. Tests assessing network latency, packet loss, and jitter are conducted with software agents that simulate voice traffic being transmitted across a legacy data network.

Thorough network assessments analyze traffic over a matter of days, gathering data points that help customers judge the readiness of their network to handle the impending surge of real-time voice traffic. Point-in-time assessments measure only the network's behavior at a single moment and thus are apt to miss sporadic capacity shortages that take place during scheduled network replications or bulk-file transfers, for example.

Performing a network assessment is not just a best practice. When it comes to deploying a unified communications solution, a customer must conduct a network assessment. The main item to check here is to make sure you have enough bandwidth for the amount of traffic you will have between your main office and those offices located in other cities. There is a myth that an IP system is not reliable. The fact is, an IP system is just as reliable, if not MORE reliable, than a conventional digital phone system. The MOST commonly reported problem with an IP system has to do with Quality Of Service (QoS). The fact is, if you do not have the proper amount of bandwidth at the phone system location and at the locations where off site IP phones are installed, then you will experience poor voice quality. The rule of thumb is simple. Maintain proper bandwidth for the amount of equipment is use and you will be extremely happy with the features and functions of an IP system.

2. Omitting site surveys. Another up-front consideration is a site survey, which entails the mundane but necessary work of looking at exactly what equipment is in use around the site. Customers don't always spend the time looking under everyone's desk to see if they have an Ethernet hub there, Paul observes. Then all of a sudden, you learn that they don't have dedicated cabling to the desktop or you find an area where they put in an inexpensive hub or an unmanaged switch that is feeding a bunch of printers. Most installations have a Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch which provides power to the IP phone. If there is a hub or switch under the desk or in a small closet, the power will not make it to the phone. While it may seem time-consuming to make that walk-through for the site survey, it helps you understand the exact terrain that will be rolled over to IP telephony.

3. Staying in the dark about trunks. The IT staff may not be in regular enough communications with carriers to know whether ground-start or loop-start trunks (a.k.a. Plain Old Telephone POTS Service are in use in the organization's Telco network. Ground-start trunks are often from the legacy days, but if you have ground-start into your PBX when you attempt to cut over the lines to the IP telephony system, you won' t get any dial tone since ground-start lines are not supported. Carriers can make the change for you to convert to loop-start trunks, but expect up to a month's delay as they do so, cautions Paul. Rule of thumb here is most IP systems can use regular copper wire fed analog lines, but will probably want to move up to a SIP trunk. Another advantage of an IP system is that you can use SIP trunks which will save you money in the long run and provide additional features to your IP system you could not get with conventional lines. You will find several suggested SIP trunk providers listed on our site.

4. Not knowing other key circuitry details. Get all the information you can from your carrier as you prepare to cut over, such as confirming that the D channel is on the 24th channel when you order a new PRI. In some instances, the D channel is on some other channel, and this is something that is not changeable on our side, says Paul. Telephones.com's technical support staff will also need to know the type of CO switch in use, and how many digits (four, five, seven or ten) the carrier will be sending if you require help setting this up. We recommend that it matches the extension length of the end-user at the company site or sites, Paul says.

5. Sticking with old client operating systems (only of your IP system requires it). Some people are shocked that we don't support Microsoft Windows 2000 anymore, Paul says. We would hope everyone has Microsoft Windows XP Server by now, but that's not always the case. However, earlier versions of some IP systems , do support Windows 2000. The best step here is to communicate the desktop requirements with your solution provider before the project starts Paul says.

6. Not including training. Adequate training of administrative staff who may be adding new employees into the phone system, supervisors who will be running both real-time and historical usage reports, and other types of users who will use the phones in the office and on the road is too often overlooked, Paul says. It's not hugely time-consuming to teach people how to use their IP system. Perhaps one to two hours are required to teach most employees the basic functions relevant to their roles within the organization. Those hours can make a huge difference in terms of your organization's ability to get the most out of its IP telephony deployment.

7. Cutting over on a Friday night. Many organizations first consider a weekend as the ideal time period in which they will make the switch to IP telephony, but Paul advocates a mid-week schedule for several reasons. For one thing, you want to slate your training for the day prior to cutover, so it's fresh in people's minds and they can put into practice on Thursday what they learned on Wednesday. Having on-site support from your technician also come in handy to explain how to access corporate voicemail from outside or to review the auto-attendant menu once again with end users or to link up that lone overlooked fax machine.