Overcoming IP Telephony Performance Issues in a Converged Network

Overview

When implementing Voice over IP (VoIP) onto a data network, you must ensure that the equipment capable of handling the additional load, and, more importantly, that the traffic will be properly classified, marked, and prioritized for optimal performance. Voice traffic is highly intolerant to delay, jitter, and packet loss, so it is critical to prioritize it over normal traffic. In this white paper, we discuss the application of Quality of Service (QoS) to networks with media flows such as voice and video. To take advantage of many modern advances in IP-based telephony, we must take into consideration several design and configuration factors before we can expect it to function properly.