Switching to SIP? Four Facts to Check When Switching to SIP

SIP Trunking

SIP Communication in the business sector is getting traction as the businesses realize they can save a packet, sometimes up to 70% from traditional phone communications costs, by switching to SIP. So the SIP trunking is too gaining attraction to fill the technical needs of SIP communications.
SIP is traditionally a simple calling protocol yet there are some things to watch out when making the switch. Sangoma gives us Four most important and how to tackle them,

SIP Needs Security

Since SIP is in plain text, it doesn’t take an IT genius to decipher a SIP session (call). Without the proper security measures, anyone can run a packet capture tool (such as Wireshark) and extract audio from calls.

The good news is that this is an easy problem to solve with Secure Real-Time Transport protocol (SRTP) and a Session Border Controller (SBC), which is basically an application-layer firewall designed for SIP.

Make SIP (a) Priority

Between the media streaming and file sharing, chances are you have a lot of traffic on your network. If you implement SIP trunking on top of that without preparation, you may have delays in video buffering, slow email send speeds, or decreased audio quality on your VoIP calls.

To avoid this, make sure you utilize the standard QoS feature found in most business-grade routers and switches. The QoS feature will ensure your voice calls receive priority on the network, ensuring the available bandwidth is delivered straight to them first before less important network traffic.
Prior to SIP, Know Your Network

When switching to SIP, it’s important to have an accurate idea of how many concurrent calls your business makes. Review your call logs and understand the total number of calls your business makes, as well as how many concurrent calls are made at your busiest times.

SIP Bandwidth Needs 

The second thing to understand about your network is that SIP depends on bandwidth, and a lack of it can cause poor audio, dropped calls, and busy signals. Luckily, bandwidth is cheap and usually readily available!

Make sure you have enough to support the maximum number of concurrent calls your business requires. (To calculate the necessary bandwidth, simply multiply the maximum number of concurrent calls by Number of max concurrent calls x 100kb/sec = average bandwidth per call needed.) Simply add the bandwidth required to the amount you already use for business duties, and you should be good to go.

If You Fax Over SIP, Be Smart.

Faxing over IP can be very messy, particularly when it comes to the T.38 fax limitation. In very simple terms, a fax message cannot be compressed in the same manner as a voice packet. Packet loss with a phone call can result in poor audio quality, but you can often still understand what the person is saying. With faxing over IP, any packet loss can potentially cause the fax to fail completely.

That being said, if faxing is important to your business, then you should consider a reliable FoIP (fax over IP) solution such as FaxStation. With Sangoma’s FaxStation you can enjoy an analog fax experience without the added cost of an additional PSTN line.

You can find more information and solutions at Sangoma.