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The Ultimate VoIP Solution: Page 5 of 6

The importance of the converged solution also means that management solutions should be able to detect a failing system and re-assign users before they notice. Problem detection requires that statistics be gathered directly at the end-client, particularly when it comes to detecting NAT problems. SNMP can be used for this task, but polling for SNMP traps across thousands of nodes won't scale well, notes panel expert Walt Magnussen. Better still would be to set thresholds at the devices using the RTP Control Protocol Extended Reports (RTCP XR) standard and alert the management station when those thresholds are crossed.

Finally, ensuring that the system will scale properly requires system capacity planning tools. In the TDM world, life was easy. "You had time slots or ports, and when you ran out you ran out," says Magnussen. Now with VoIP systems consisting of multiple servers, scaling has become more complex. It's simply not enough to add memory and processing to a user's proxy server. Depending on the VoIP configuration, those same variables may need to be tweaked elsewhere, such as at proxy servers responsible for routing traffic, location servers, conference servers, redirect servers, and registration severs. Layers two and three parameters such as QoS settings and bandwidth allocation may also need adjusting.


The Incredible VoIP Architecture