A major challenge inherent in designing and maintaining an enterprise network is the administration costs. Software-defined networking (SDN) can dramatically reduce both the hard costs (money) and soft costs (time) of managing a network. Although this tends to be the most compelling argument in favor of using SDN, it in fact offers may more advantages than this. In this article, we introduce SDN and examine some of its key benefits.
Topics: Trends, Productivity, Routers, Network Design, Gateway, Switches, Unified Communications
Cisco is a name familiar to almost anyone who has worked in networking or telecommunications over the past few decades. Founded in the mid-1980s, it pioneered some of the most fundamental concepts in networking, including LANs, WANs, and multiprotocol routing. In this article, we take a closer look at Cisco and its cutting-edge networking and telecommunications solutions.
Topics: SIP Phones, Headsets, Gateway, Switches, Cisco
VoIP protocols: H.323 and MGCP as alternatives to SIP
Part 2 of 2
When it comes to VoIP signaling, SIP is by far the most widely-used protocol. But, there are other protocols, as well, and being familiar with them is helpful when establishing interoperability between systems or deploying specialized installations. In this article, we’ll discuss the H.323 protocol suite and the media gateway control protocol (MGCP), and look at applications for which they are best suited.
Topics: VoIP, Network Design, Gateway, Voice Protocols
Best practices for connecting faxes to IP networks
As widespread as IP telephony and unified communications are, it is often assumed that all analog technologies leveraging telephony systems have advanced sufficiently to use VoIP. However, this is not the case. There are several useful and, for some businesses, vital applications that continue to operate in analog form. In this article, we’ll look at fax machines specifically, and how to integrate them into your VoIP network.
Topics: VoIP, Peripherals, Gateway, FoIP
How to set up centralized call processing in a multisite enterprise
Enterprises with multiple sites have a variety of options when it comes to their IP telephony infrastructure. Which setup will best meet their needs depends on the answers to questions such as:
- Where should the call processing take place?
- Where should calls to the PSTN exit the network?
- Where should incoming calls connect to the corporate network?
These decisions depend on the nature of the underlying network infrastructure that will carry the IP telephony services, as well as other considerations such as the location of the remote sites, the dial plan, and cost.
In this article, we discuss the centralized call processing model and how to avoid common complications with its deployment.
Topics: IP PBX, Business Telephone System, VoIP, Network Design, Gateway
This week we focus on ADTRAN, a global provider of telecommunications networking equipment and internetworking products that has stood the test of time in a volatile and dynamic market by maintaining a solid level of market innovation and reliability. In this article we review ADTRAN’s network switches, routers and media gateways.
Topics: VoIP, Grandstream, Product Review, Gateway