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Can VoIP Help Me?
By Michael Keilhofer | August 25, 2010
A PBX is a customer premise business phone system which in years past was called a Private Branch Exchange or PBX. A PBX manages telephones (extensions) throughout the enterprise (business) and acts as a Switch for voice calls.
A PBX that uses VoIP (Voice over IP) technologies is called an IP-PBX. These VoIP technologies are used to carry the voice and control information from one location to another.
The ability to offer features like letting your business callers reach you on your cell phone even when you’re out of the office is one feature only an IP-PBX typically can offer.
There are many features an IP-PBX can provide that older phone systems may not. Some of these new features are: find me/follow me, presence, unified messaging, and personalized call screening.
Much of the hype about VoIP technologies is that it’s free. Those of us with some common sense know that nothing is truly free and VoIP is no exception. Another VoIP feature often claimed is that, unlike older phone systems that need their own wiring, VoIP can use your existing network wiring.
The calculations for Bandwidth utilization when utilizing VoIP are beyond the scope of this article. It is usually a good idea to think of needing 80Kb per conversation though this does depend on how your VoIP equipment is set up. To get a good idea, you will need to estimate the maximum number of simultaneous phone conversations expected.
The prioritization of VoIP traffic in order to make sure it is delivered reliably is sometimes an obstacle due to older network equipment like switches and routers that don’t know what VoIP traffic is. This and total bandwidth utilization is an important step in predetermining that VoIP can be used in your network.
Since VoIP is just digital data, each piece of network equipment adds a little delay to the voice. If you have a large number of devices in between two VoIP connected phones, a delay of several hundred milliseconds or more is possible.
Your VoIP network in the work place is a LAN (Local Area Network) giving you complete control of network devices. And because most businesses have a 10/100 rated LAN and small number of switches, there shouldn’t be too many devices between any two extensions.
If your business isn’t pushing your network to the limits because of large file transfers, heavy printing, or Internet downloads/uploads, you may be just fine. Using a separate LAN for your VoIP traffic is always an option. If you’re installing a new LAN yourself, you probably know that there’s usually spare pairs of wires in your network cable that could be used for a second connection just for your phones.
Existing telephone wiring may work fine as a separate network if it is Cat 5 or better wiring and you change the connectors from the typical RJ11 to RJ45. Only some testing will tell for sure.
Navigating your way through this new VoIP world can seem difficult and is the reason telephone system resellers have people to answer questions. Don’t assume you shouldn’t or don’t need to ask questions when it comes to VoIP phone systems. None of us has all the answers. But working together, we do find solutions.
Learn more about IP-PBX. Stop by the Telegato site where you can find out all about VoIP Products and what they can do for you.
Topics: VoIP Phone System |