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Prioritizing VoIP Traffic: Can You Hear Me Now?

VoIP--or Voice over IP--provides a host of benefits, including automatic call forwarding; integration with e-mail, IM and videoconferencing; and presence capabilities to help employees find one another. VoIP systems can also simplify provisioning--just give the user a VoIP phone and a network jack. This is especially useful for enterprises with mobile workers, or those that need to quickly provision new employees or move people to new floors or buildings.

 
 

But none of those advantages will mean much if your network can't provide sufficient VoIP call quality. VoIP calls are extremely susceptible to delayed and lost packets, and can't tolerate network congestion. And because VoIP calls are real-time, there's no second chance to retransmit packets.

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