Are you looking for cost-effective ways for phone communication (save up to 65%) with stakeholders or at home employees? Are you exploring network infrastructure that will scale with your business? Or has your organization made a move to hosted VoIP (aka UCaaS or Unified Communications as a Service) but is still struggling with call quality issues?
SD-WAN deployments with hosted VoIP might just be the answer to all your problems!
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It refers to making phone calls over the Internet rather than through a regular landline or a mobile network. A VoIP system works by converting analog voice signals into digital signals.
Hosted VoIP eliminates the need to manage VoIP in-house by deploying on-premise VoIP servers. A hosted VoIP solution takes care of everything with their data centers, resulting in the need for much less on-site hardware and more calling capabilities with zero maintenance.
This service utilizes an IP phone that converts live voice calls to data packets, which then pass through the provider’s data centers and transfers the data over the public Internet.
Hosted VoIP is a very useful way of making calls – for a start, once it’s set up, it’s a lot cheaper than using normal phone lines or self-managed VoIP servers. It means that, depending on your setup, you do not have to pay for your phone calls based on distance, which country you’re calling, or how much time you spend chatting.
Hosted VoIP also offers a range of additional functionality, including:
Cloud-based VoIP delivers outstanding capabilities in telecommunications, and here are some of its benefits.
Hosted VoIP provides the features of a telephony system and more, emphasizing impressive voice quality minus the additional costs on hardware and maintenance. Hosted VoIP is paid via a typical monthly subscription. It’s a predictable expense that ensures an efficient collaboration system at a fixed price. Maintenance is included and bundled in as a part of the service so you’ won’t have to hire a full-time employee to manage the system.
There are many hosted VoIP solutions in the market, and you can choose one that fits your needs. It can be a private, public, or hybrid deployment model—a unique feature of cloud-based systems that goes beyond the all-or-nothing scheme.
The VoIP system keeps getting updated as the technology matures. With a hosted solution, new features and upgrades can be configured without hassle. The third-party service provider is also responsible for maintaining the phone system and easing the burden on customers.
A hosted VoIP revolutionizes the way companies do business, providing more avenues to expand and deliver customer satisfaction through mobile communications via an app.
Software-defined WAN is a network solution designed to optimize the way data is handled and transported across a circuit. It’s now regarded as an ideal architecture to implement when dealing with digital transformation for enterprises.
Contrary to popular belief, SD-WAN is not just useful for multinational corporations or a company with many branch offices. It will also work for a firm with a single internet connection that relies mostly on VoIP to communicate with customers and stakeholders. Irrespective of network size, a cloud-driven SD-WAN can transform a choppy VoIP connection into a crisp, high-quality call even with shaky connectivity.
SD-WAN appliances implement several methods to voice traffic that improve the overall functionality of VoIP. Here are several features offered by SD-WAN to optimize VoIP.
Redundancy is an essential characteristic of SD-WAN network architecture that bodes well for VoIP-powered companies.SD-WAN is capable of leveraging multiple connectivity circuits and choosing the best available path that can handle high-performance applications like VoIP. An SD-WAN solution can:
Even if you are a single connection business, network admins can use a centralized control system to diagnose call quality problems and respond faster to outages.
SD-WAN simplifies data packet prioritization based on business criticality. Policies can be configured to ensure that VoIP traffic is detected and automatically prioritized above data traffic.
SD-WAN cloud gateway provides both upload and download prioritization, which means it can prioritize both incoming and outgoing call traffic. This is crucial for hosted VoIP optimization.
Forward Error Correction reduces packet loss and packet errors significantly, ensuring that VoIP calls retain their quality from end to end.SD-WAN sends additional data packets along with regular voice packets. The additional data is used by the recipient to check if they have received everything.
Several SD-WAN vendors offer jitter buffering, which eliminates fluctuations on the voice call by storing the converted data packets and transmitting them in evenly-spaced intervals. This feature is dynamic since SD-WAN detects when the circuit needs jitter buffering and applies it on the fly.
Jitter buffering can be described as an intentional delay to the arriving packets so that there is minimal sound distortion. In SD-WAN jitter buffering:
As a high-performance application, VoIP is sensitive and needs a well-implemented SD-WAN solution to ensure flawless delivery. Not all SD-WAN vendors create the same services and deliver the same quality features that VoIP-enabled organizations require. Here are some aspects to look for, ensuring that the SD-WAN architecture can fully support VoIP.
SD-WAN leverages multiple connections to guarantee consistent application performance. When a link fails or when the jitter or dropped packets go beyond the threshold, the network should be able to find and use a better path within two seconds. Most WAN outages happen in the last mile, so it’s essential to test the failover feature of an SD-WAN solution.
It’s essential to choose a solution that finds no trouble scaling peer-to-peer connections. SD-WAN eliminates the hairpin when it comes to calling from different locations. Some early deployments of SD-WAN are designed as a hub-and-spoke model, which causes additional latency.
An SD-WAN solution should provide both long-term SLA reports and real-time alerts when measuring jitter and packet loss. You can analyze this data to determine whether the architecture is adequate to support VoIP or whether future upgrades may be required.
Security is a concern for companies that want to implement VoIP but are hesitant because it leverages the Internet. The right SD-WAN solution will be able to allay fears of cyberthreats by privatizing every network and restricting access via a centralized control function. It should be capable of applying site-to-site or site-to-multisite protection to secure company and customer data in all forms of communication.
Not all SD-WAN solutions are created equal. The right vendor should accommodate the growing need for connectivity when a business plans to expand to other sites. Typically, SD-WAN is designed to simplify internet configuration. Still, it would doubly be convenient if the vendor offers flexible customization options that will help tailor the SD-WAN solution on a case-to-case basis.
Voice over IP and SD-WAN are just two of the emerging technologies that drive digital transformation. Enterprises that want to stay relevant and viable in the digital economy must be open to implementing a combination of innovative solutions, giving them the edge they need to deliver the best customer experience that trumps the competition.
Contact CarrierBid Communications to learn more about hosted VoIP and SD-WAN deployment for your organization!
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