Product Description

So you’re in charge of implementing a VoIP phone system for your organization? VoIP Deployment For Dummies is a crash course in Voice over Internet Protocol implementation!

Here’s how to analyze your network and implement a VoIP phone system, manage and maintain it, keep it secure, and troubleshoot problems. You’ll learn how to plan the rollout, work with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), handle fax issues, and keep your users happy.

• Understand how VoIP works, common misconceptions about it, and the pros and cons for your organization
• Compare and comprehend hardware and software choices
• Discover the options for touch tones and faxing via VoIP systems
• Analyze network devices, IP addresses, connections to remote sites, and other aspects that will affect VoIP implementation
• Draw up a test plan, check out both voice and fax transmission, get a report, and schedule the installation
• Investigate SIP call generation, identify the elements, understand cancelled calls, and re–INVITE calls
• Troubleshoot your system, identify call variables, trace the source of a problem, manage trouble tickets, and resolve failures
• Manage latency, jitter, and flap, and take advantage of Wireshark
• Find out what to expect when your system goes live

Written by an expert with extensive real–world experience in VoIP implementation and management, VoIP Deployment For Dummies provides the know–how you need. You’ll be able to implement your system and manage any issues proactively, which is sure to look good to your boss!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #424750 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

From the Back Cover

Get your business talking online with this handy guide to VoIP implementation

Your organization has made the decision to go with VoIP. Now it′s up to you to implement the system. Well, fear not —here′s the crash course you need! Learn how to analyze your system, plan the rollout, monitor and maintain VoIP, work with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), troubleshoot your system, fax with VoIP, and keep your users happy.

• Understand — how VoIP works and the pros and cons for your organization

• Be prepared — analyze your network, its devices, IP addresses, connections to remote sites, and other issues that affect VoIP implementation

• When it′s not a voice — discover the options for touch tones and faxing via VoIP systems

• Line up your tools — compare and evaluate hardware and software options for VoIP

• Activate — draw up a test plan, check out both voice and fax transmission, get a report, and schedule the installation

• Just a SIP — investigate SIP call generation, identify the elements, understand cancelled calls, and re–INVITE calls

• Keep it running — troubleshoot your system, identify call variables, trace the source of a problem, manage trouble tickets, and resolve failures

Open the book and find:

• Clarification of common misconceptions about VoIP

• The anatomy of a VoIP call

• How to manage latency, jitter, and flap

• Why touch tones and faxes pose special challenges

• How to choose a fax option

• What Wireshark is and how to use it

• How to identify the footprint of a problem

• What to expect when your system goes live

About the Author
Stephen P. Olejniczak (pronounced O len √√’chek) is the Director of Operations for ATI, and has worked over 16 years in telecommunications. His experience is concentrated on installation, service, billing and support of voice service. The past five years having focused his time on learning all facets of VoIP as the marketplace, technology, and supporting infrastructure has evolved. Stephen didn’t start out in life as a techie, only falling prey to the glamour and easy money after failing to find a career enabling him to use his bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology. He currently lives in a picturesque beach town in California with his beautiful wife Kayley and a collection of fountain pens.

Customer Reviews

Good info, though mostly US-specific
I read this book as I was deploying a new VoIP installation for our company. I had some previous knowledge of and experience in VoIP, but I wanted to study it further, so I bought this book.

The book presents many principles and guidelines which are essential to know as the 'theory', before jumping into the 'practice' of VoIP deployment. It briefly covers topics like network setup and optimisation, and then it extensively covers SIP messaging, testing and troubleshooting.

The good points about this book (for me anyway) are that it covers many topics which are important to know to make one more VoIP-savvy. For example, it taught me about SIP re-INVITEs, which are very important to optimise the RTP (sound) path during a VoIP call. This way I discovered our VoIP provider doesn't use re-INVITEs, so internal calls from office to office within our building go through the internet all the way to London and back! That was a major discovery and I've now asked our provider to look into the re-INVITE messages as a way to cut down on bandwidth usage.

However, the book has some negative points as well. It mostly describes the US market and VoIP field, which in terms of actual business plans does not look much like the UK or European market (where obviously this book is also sold). It covers some very important topics too briefly, like packet shaping and traffic prioritisation. This made me want to know more (like how it is implemented and how to set this up!), so I had to spend hours looking up more info on the web - it would have been better if this information was completely contained in this book, which after all is about VoIP 'deployment'!
Finally, I found it only briefly covers perhaps the most popular VoIP server system at the moment (Asterisk) while devoting a whole chapter (and more bits of other chapters) to a proprietary packet sniffing software, something which is completely unnecessary - it could instead present more options for network monitoring and have us choose the one we like / can afford.

Overall however this book has a wealth of new knowledge and I would recommend it as a starting point to anyone deploying a VoIP installation for the first time. Bear in mind however, it is only a starting point and you will need to look further after finishing this book.