QOS Network Assessment

Overview:
By testing your data network’s ability to successfully
support IP telephony traffic and discovering potential
performance problems before your system is installed,
ShoreTel’s Network Assessment helps you plan, design
and implement a successful IP telephony solution. The
assessment can be administered by your ShoreTel
solutions partner or by a ShoreTel engineer. Regardless
of the source, an assessment is required prior to
installing a new ShoreTel IP telephony system across
multiple sites.

Simulate the voice experience:
The assessment uses active application traffic to
monitor the live network in order to reveal what’s going
to happen when IP telephony is introduced into the
mix. Test agents send a variety of network traffic
packets – using different application protocols, packet
size, packet spacing and QoS levels. The tests simulate
the various types of IP telephony traffic that are likely
to occur on a live network. In addition to measuring
peer-to-peer traffic, the agents can also generate realtime
client transactions against production servers,
including communication with IP PBX servers. This
comprehensive approach enables the test engineer to
pin point the source of potential problems and make
recommendations for resolution before the system
is installed.

Expand your view:
A ShoreTel Network Assessment is different from the
“snapshots” that are often used to keep tabs on data
networks. A snapshot captures conditions at a single
moment in time. The ShoreTel Network Assessment
monitors both Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide
Area Network (WAN) links over a number of days
rather than hours. In addition to revealing conditions
that could degrade IP telephony performance, the
longer assessment helps to identify the source of
intermittent problems. WAN monitoring is important
because WAN connections are often the source of
latency, jitter, and packet loss issues. The WAN test
results also help in establishing the appropriate service
levels with the WAN service provider.

Gain an end-user perspective:
By performing a pre-deployment network assessment,
organizations gain an end-user perspective on the new
technology by evaluating voice quality, as experienced
by the listener. Voice quality is reported in the form of
a mean opinion score (MOS), a five-point industry
standard scale in which one represents the poorest
voice quality and five represents perfect voice quality.

Benefit from specialized expertise:
Problems that impact toll-quality voice have many
sources including network congestion, geographic
distance, configuration, queuing methods used in
routers and switches, or routing options used by
carriers, such as MPLS or frame relay. Based on a
wealth of experience with IP telephony, the test
engineer interprets the test results to anticipate
dependencies and identify any potential problems.
A full report is provided with specific recommendations
to maximize the data network’s ability to successfully
carry voice traffic.

Deploy and enjoy:
The time to perform a ShoreTel Network Assessment
is before the ShoreTel system is deployed. That way
there are no surprises post-implementation that can
lead to unbudgeted expenses or disappointing
performance.

Network requirements:
• The network cabling must meet the minimum CAT 5 specifications for
100Mbps ethernet connections.
• The network should have sufficient bandwidth to handle increased traffic
due to voice packets introduced to the live network during testing.
• Quality of Service (QoS) should be implemented across all WAN
connections prior to the assessment.
• Firewalls must allow TCP traffic on port 4445 and UDP port 5004.
• The monitored topology should be free of wireless links.

Test process:
• The test engineer calls the customer to explain the test process and
answer questions.
• The customer is asked to provide network and call volume details that
are used to determine the setup and configuration of the test
environment.
• The customer designates a computer at each tested location that will
remain on throughout the testing. The computers must have a minimum
amount of CPU utilization, be running either a Win2K or Win XP
operating system, and have standard http browsers. Alternatively,
ShoreTel can load an agent and run it in the background on a lightly
used computer.

• The test engineer provides a link to the installation package so that the
customer can load the test agent software on the designated computers.
• The test engineer configures the agents to point to the ShoreTel test
center or its proxy and configures the test server to initiate conversations
between sites.
• A preliminary test, lasting a couple of hours, determines the maximum
number of recommended calls per WAN link, based on the bandwidth
and codec used.
• The comprehensive test, lasting up to a week, measures the network’s
ability to sustain IP telephony traffic over the course of normal business
activities, including peak traffic hours.
• The test results and recommendations are sent to the customer in a full
report that identifies potential bottlenecks, identifies the source of
degraded network performance and designates whether the problems
are network or application based.
• At the customer’s option, the engineer is available to participate in a
conference call to discuss the test results and answer any questions.

How to order
For more information about the ShoreTel Network
Assessment, or to place an order, contact your
ShoreTel solutions partner support@dennisontech.com