What you need to know about DECT

August 6, 2010 by Garrett Smith

You all have probably heard the term DECT before or cordless DECT 6.0 before.

All you simply have to do is walk in your local Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Target and browse the aisle that contains telephones and other electronics. DECT has actually been around for quite some time now, predominantly in the analog world. DECT stands for “Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology” and facilitates a cordless or wireless communication between a base and handset or receiver via a 1.9 GHz frequency range. In most cases, you get around 300ft or so of DECT signaling from the DECT base station. This means that you have a 300ft circumference around that particular base to enjoy cordless freedom.

For the majority of IP DECT solutions, the range doesn’t stop there. These solutions can be accompanied by DECT repeaters which simply transmit the DECT signal strength another 300 ft outwards. In most cases, these DECT repeaters must all reside within the main DECT base signal frequency.

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Designing a Wireless VoIP System

July 22, 2010 by Joe Shanahan

In my last post I discussed the benefits of utilizing wireless VoIP in both a WiFi environment and a cordless DECT environment.

Both types provide users the freedom of mobility while still being able to have constant access to their telephone. Now we will look at how to go about designing and setting up a wireless VoIP system. Since the cordless DECT phones have a base station that is directly connected to the network with CAT5 cabling, this post will focus on setting up a wireless network for WiFi phones.

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VoIP and Your Network

July 19, 2010 by Darren Hartman

Looking to join the ever growing number of businesses using a cutting edge VoIP phone system, but concerned you’re infrastructure is ready?

No need to hesitate with that decision any longer. Ensuring your internet connection and network infrastructure can handle VoIP is relatively easy (unless you’ve got a large complex network).

Let’s take a look at a few things you should know:

Available bandwidth – Chances are you already most likely have a strong and reliable internet connection in the office (or else you wouldn’t be reading this). However, a lack of necessary bandwidth to properly transport your VoIP calls has crippled more than a few deployments. This because many fail to realize that VoIP calls are made up of data packets and fail to increase their available bandwidth before utilizing VoIP.
- Prior to making the switch to VoIP, you should calculate the total bandwidth needed to send and receive your calls. You can do this by multiplying the number of anticipated simultaneous calls times the packet size of the voice codec you will be using (like G.722 or G.729).
- There are some great bandwidth calculators online that can help you with this.
Ensuring and Managing Quality of Service (QoS) – All voice calls are sensitive to interference and since most VoIP calls will be sharing bandwidth with the rest of your data, you may want to prioritize or even segment you voice traffic. Doing this enables you to avoid the following issues which result in poor calling experiences:
- Latency: Delay of packet delivery
- Jitter: Variations in delay of packet deliver
- Packet Loss: Too much traffic in the network cause the network to drop packets
- Burstiness of Loss and Jitter: Loss and discards (due to jitter) tend to occur in bursts

Once you’ve taken a look at each of these items in relation to your current internet connection and network infrastructure, you should be a good position to move on to the next steps. This includes:

Increasing bandwidth
Replacing or expand your existing network infrastructure

When it comes to the second item, your networking infrastructure, it is important to know that the switches and routers of today are for more advanced than the ones you may be running. Today’s networking equipment come with features that allow the shaping of traffic and tools to ensure QoS.

They’re also nowhere near as expensive as you might think, so if it’s been a while since you’ve upgraded your network, you should definitely take a look at what’s currently available.

So don’t let your current infrastructure scare you away from VoIP. If you take into account the factors listed you are going to stop any issues before they start.

Which 3 Series is Right For Me?

July 16, 2010 by Garrett Smith

Ah, the Ultimate Driving Machine.

Beautifully designed. Powerful and sophisticated.

Wait, this isn’t Jalopnik.

Sorry to all of you auto enthusiasts out there who thought we’d be taking a break from VoIP today to talk about the iconic line of cars from BMW. The three series I’m talking about is the Polycom SounPoint IP 3XX series.

Or the Ultimate Calling Machine if you prefer.

The Polycom SoundPoint IP 3XX Series is an extremely popular lineup of desktop IP phones ideally suited for small medium business and large enterprises that have a need a middle level solution. The IP 3XX series consists of three models:

Polycom 321
Polycom 331
Polycom 335

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SIP Trunking With a VoIP Gateway

by Brian Hyrek

It’s certainly true that IP telephony offers a much more robust telephony experience than traditional analog telephony. However that robust experience often comes with an upfront expense.

So what if you’re not financially ready to invest in a VoIP PBX?

You’ve still got options.

VoIP Service providers most commonly offer SIP Trunking in order to allow you to make VoIP calls using your phone system – either analog or VoIP. If you’ve never heard of a SIP Trunk a good way to think of it is as a phone call routed over the IP infrastructure of a carrier using VoIP technology. Today SIP Trunking is the standard transport method for VoIP calling.

For your business utilizing SIP Trunking means you no longer no longer need a PSTN connection or costly PRI/BRI’s. Electing to take advantage of SIP Trunking affords the opportunity for smart and cost effective solutions such as only requiring one connection for both data and voice.

After a bit of research, you may have decided on a SIP Trunking provider that best suits your needs.

This leads us to how exactly you leverage SIP Trunking with your existing PBX.

For that you’ll need an FXS VoIP gateway.

SIP Trunks can be brought in to an Analog or Legacy PBX via a FXS gateway. In a prior blog, I had touched upon FXS and skimmed the possibilities of an FXS gateway. FXS, Foreign Exchange Station, is a telephone interface which supplies battery power, provides dialtone, and generates ringing voltage. FXS devices must connect to an FXO device such as your Analog PBX.

Connecting an FXS Gateway to Analog PBX

Take a look at any Analog PBX and you will notice FXO ports on the actual PBX. An FXS gateway will be connect to these ports in a 1 to 1 type setting. Meaning, If you have 8 FXO ports on your Analog PBX, you will require an 8 port FXS gateway to connect to the SIP trunks.

Take a look at this diagram on SIP Trunking via a VoIP Gateway:

FXS Gateways come in a range of sizes from 2-24 port to suit businesses of all sizes. They can also be used in conjunction with one another to scale even higher.

All in all, it is possible to “save” your recent investment in an analog PBX or further your communications experience with SIP Trunking while not being able to financially support an IP PBX.

Is VoIP for my Small Business?

July 12, 2010 by Arthur Miller

A simple, but complex question I get from a lot of small business owners and IT staff is, “is VoIP for my small business.”

Those of us in the industry might think that this question is a definitive, “Yes.” But for you – the small business – it’s not always that easy.

After all you’ve likely got a zillion other things to worry about.

Still VoIP is consistently in the media and millions of other businesses have made the switch making it a popular talking point. (more…)

Skype’s Move to the Desktop (IP Phone)

July 9, 2010 by Garrett Smith

A few weeks ago Tom Keating over at TMCNet did a write up on how the Grandstream GXV3140 multimedia phone will soon be supporting Skype. If you’re unfamiliar with the Grandstream GXV3140 it’s a next generation multimedia phone that offers both voice and video calling in addition to a host of other advanced features.

While this Skype integration isn’t officially available to the general public, the move by Skype to allow multimedia phone manufacturer’s (like Grandstream) to embed Skype functionality into their offerings is a logical one. A strong signal that Skype wishes to be more than just an afterthought when it comes to business communications.

After all most folks in the business world are still apprehensive that Skype can function as their primary communications medium.

But with handset manufacturers desperate to preserve high price points, robust multimedia phones will continue to hit the market. Today every major handset manufacturer has a multimedia phone offering and you’d be hard pressed to think that partnering with Skype isn’t on their roadmap at somepoint.

Perhaps an even bigger driver than multimedia capable handsets for Skype is the growing demand for video conferencing solutions. Given that current video conferencing offerings are limited in many respects by price and complexity, having the convenience and low cost of Skype paired with your normal VoIP service could be a boon for manufacturers (and Skype).

Regardless of the drivers and despite a fully functional public release, there is no doubt that Skype’s move to the desktop IP phone has the potential to be very disruptive. Something they’ve proven time and time again to very good at.

Selecting a USB Phone

by Christina Smith

There are 42 million active Skype users in the world and 15 million users using Skype at any given moment. So it is natural that you want to use Skype too. Whether it is to keep up with the Jones’s, speak regularly with someone who is far away, or just get rid of your landline telephone charges, softphones, such as Skype, are growing by leaps and bounds every day.

When deciding to sign up for a Skype account (or using another softphone client), you must have a speaker and a microphone attached to your computer. When I first signed up, I assumed my netbook had these things, but in fact it only had a speaker, so I could hear people but they couldn’t hear me. My first two weeks on Skype I only used it for its Instant Message capability for that reason. Then I got the FreeTalk USB Skype headset so I was able to speak and be heard again (regardless of what anyone said, they missed not hearing me!)

If you plan to be an infrequent softphone user, one or two calls a day, you may choose to simply invest in a USB headset similar to the FreeTalk Everyman that I use. It is a simple plug and play binaural headset with a rotating boom microphone. The sound is clear, the headset is pretty comfortable, and it is only $29.99. Perfect.

However, if you plan on using your softphone or Skype to replace your normal landline or office phone, you may be interested in a USB phone with a more familiar interface and a few more features. (more…)

Open Source PBX Comparisons

by Garrett Smith

So if you have been following my previous posts on open source software and hardware requirements, you are well aware that you have many options to choose from when choosing to go with an open sourced based PBX for your solution. Since one of its core features is…well…unlimited possibilities, you have many areas to consider, most of which we have already covered in the software and hardware requirements posts. Heck we have even compared open-sourced solutions to commercial based VoIP solutions so you have a good understanding of the differences between the two.

The last area we need to cover is the available options you have when purchasing an open-sourced based IP PBX. This includes hardware options and add-ons as well as software options.

If you are one of those readers that were very intrigued about my post on necessary hardware requirements needed to operate a phone system, and wish to build your own server, then stop reading, and start building. If you were one of those people that understand which hardware requirements are needed for your solution but don’t wish to build your own, well then, this is your post.

Below, we will discuss a few options you have when purchasing a pre-installed fully tested open-sourced based IP PBX server. (more…)

Killing Skype

July 7, 2010 by Garrett Smith

There’s been a bit of buzz created by TechCrunch’s leaking of a Google Voice desktop app built from the Gizmo platform last week.

Most of the buzz has been driven by speculation as if or when the desktop app will be released. Many have proclaimed this to be a move that would put Google Voice in direct competition with Skype.

Some have even gone so far as to suggest that this Google Voice desktop app might be a Skype killer or at the very least become a heavy competitor.

The reality is that killing Skype or even putting a sizable dent in their business won’t be easy for Google Voice even with a desktop app. Here’s why:

No motivation to switch – The majority of Skype users use Skype for things like Skype-to-Skype calls, video chat, collaboration and cheap international calling. While the new Google Voice app might eventually mimic these features, why would a Skype user switch? Google Voice must come out with something that will motivate current Skype users to switch. Oh and don’t talk about the free number – I’m sure Skype could hand out the same thing.
Poor Track Record – Google has a poor track record of success outside of their core business of search and advertising. The likelihood of them successfully mashing two companies (GrandCentral and Gizmo5) together underneath one roof and taking out the market leader is very slim – no matter how much money they have.
Privacy Issues – Sure Google Voice is free and serves a purpose, but at some point people will eventually become wary of the amount of data they are freely giving to Google (who is selling this to advertisers). It is only a matter of time before folks realize that in many cases Google is just as bad as Facebook is when it comes to sharing data with third parties.
Business Model – At some point Google Voice will need to make direct revenues or act as a channel that creates indirect revenues (I.E. monetized by advertising). Right now Google Voice is popular, but it’s free. How many would pay $5 – $10 a month for it? I’m not sure. Plus ad supported calling has proven time and time again to be a failed business model. Now money could be made selling minutes (outbound), however that is increasingly difficult to do.

In the end a Google Voice desktop app will certainly broaden the appeal and usage of the service. But it doesn’t appear to offer anything more than what can already be found with Skype (and others).

It’s simply not a game changer, not enough to kill Skype and likely won’t put much of a dent in their business.

What you need to know about DECT

Designing a Wireless VoIP System

VoIP and Your Network

Which 3 Series is Right For Me?

SIP Trunking With a VoIP Gateway

Connecting an FXS Gateway to Analog PBX

Is VoIP for my Small Business?

Skype’s Move to the Desktop (IP Phone)

Selecting a USB Phone

Open Source PBX Comparisons

Killing Skype

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