Course Outline

Hands-On Labs and Case Studies:

This two-day interactive class will use demonstrations and hands-on labs to reinforce the key concepts you will learn throughout the course. You must bring your laptop to participate in the hands-on labs during this course.

Case Study 1 – Adding Business Locations & Work-at-Home Employees for a Small Construction Company
Learn what they did, how they did it, why they did it, and what features have proven most beneficial.

Case Study 2 – Reducing Costs and Adding Features for a Mid-sized Manufacturing Company
Follow their progress as they transition their voice traffic from traditional dedicated circuits onto their Frame Relay network, eventually reducing telecommunications costs by over $20,000 per month.

Case Study 3 – Greenfield Installation for a Healthcare Provider
Learn about the decision to deploy a converged network in the new facility, and the impact it had on the remote locations.

Lab 1 – Designing & Deploying a Test Network
Start with a basic setup in a Local Area Network (LAN) environment, and then gradually add more complexity and capabilities.

Lab 2 – Soft-phones, Hard-phones, & Analog Adaptors
Evaluate end user devices such as Xten Networks X-Lite, SipTone II and Cisco ATA 186, and conduct SIP calls in class

Lab 3 – Bandwidth & Network Requirements
Get the information you need to reduce or eliminate as many QoS and system risks as possible

Lab 4 – Moves, Adds, & Changes
Get experience with the ease of moving, changing, and adding users in an IP Telephony system

Lab 5 – Integrated Messaging
Learn how to integrate Presence, Voicemail, IM, and Email in your IP Telephony system

Lab #6 – WiFi & Dual Mode Phones
Combine WiFi with VoIP for mobility, and take a look at dual mode phones

Lab #7 – VoIP Service Providers
Evaluate service offerings and pricing from several leading providers.

Lab #8 – Security
Learn about possible security holes in an IP Telephony system. Find out what they are, and learn how to protect your solution.


COURSE OUTLINE

Section 1: Case Study #1 — Adding Business Locations & Work-at-Home Employees for a Small Construction Company

In this section, we will examine the experiences of a small construction company as it expands operations. This company will be adding a second office, as well as supporting several work-at-home employees. You'll learn what they did, how they did it, why they did it, and what features have proven most beneficial.

• What was the existing infrastructure?
• What was the driving force?
  • Capabilities
  • Cost
• What options were considered?
• What was the plan?
• How was the plan implemented?
• What are the benefits?
  • Functionality
  • Costs
• What obstacles had to be overcome?
• What were the lessons learned?
  
  

Section 2: Case Study #2 — Reducing Costs and Adding Features for a Mid-sized Manufacturing Company

In this section, we will examine the experiences of a mid-sized manufacturing company with a mid-western headquarters and 11 regional offices. You'll follow their progress as they transition their voice traffic from traditional dedicated circuits onto their Frame Relay network, eventually reducing their telecommunications costs by more than $20,000 per month.

• What was the existing infrastructure?
• What was the driving force?
  • Capabilities
  • Cost
• What options were considered?
• What was the plan?
  • Vendor
  • Technology
  • Network requirements
  • Cost
• How was the plan implemented?
• What are the benefits?
  • Functionality
  • Costs
• What obstacles had to be overcome?
• What were the lessons learned?
  
  

Section 3: Case Study #3 — Greenfield installation for a Healthcare Provider

In this section you will learn from the experiences of a healthcare provider with locations in 4 states. The construction of a new headquarters facility prompted the company to explore alternatives to its old phone system and services. You'll learn about the decision to deploy a converged network in the new facility, and the impact it had on the remote locations.

• What was the existing infrastructure?
• What was the driving force?
  • Capabilities
  • Cost
• What options were considered?
• What was the plan?
  • Vendor
  • Technology
  • Network requirements
  • Cost
• How was the plan implemented?
• What are the benefits?
  • Functionality
  • Costs
• What obstacles had to be overcome?
• What were the lessons learned?
  
  

Section 4: Designing & Deploying a Test Network

Now that you have a good understanding of your IP Telephony Solution options, we'll turn our attention to the technology itself. In this section you'll learn to deploy a test network. This test network will allow you to familiarize yourself with the features, functions, and components of an IP Telephony installation. We'll start with a Local Area Network (LAN) environment setup and then gradually add more complexity and capabilities.

• End User Device
  • Soft Phone
    • Xten Networks X-Lite
    • Pingtel Instant Xpressa
    • SJ Labs SJphone
    • USB handsets
  • Hard Phone
    • Grandstream
    • Polycom
    • Swissvoice
    • SipTone II
  • Analog Telephone Adapter
    • Cisco ATA-186
    • Sipura SPA-2000
    • Motorola VT1000
  • Simple Traversal of UDP Through NATs (STUN)
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
  • SIP Proxy Server
    • Public Servers
      • Free World Dialup
    • Private Servers
      • Brekeke Software OnDO SIP Server
      • Asterisk
      • SIP Express Router (SER)
    • Extracting Call Detail Records (CDR)
• Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Integration
  • Foreign eXchange Office (FXO)
  • FXS-FXO converter
  • VoIP PBX
  • FXO PCI card
  • IPKall
  • Writing a Dial-Plan
    • Local
    • Long Distance
    • International
  • Testing Bandwidth and Quality of Service (QoS)
    • Minimum Bandwidth
    • Packet Size
    • Prioritization
• Connecting SIP Proxy to PBX
  
  

Section 5: Features, Benefits, and Capabilities

In this section, we'll revisit the significant features and benefits a VoIP implementation can provide. You'll see how effortless Moves, Adds, & Changes (MACs) are with IP Telephony. You'll also experience Presence Management and Integrated Messaging. Also, we'll combine WiFi with VoIP for mobility and take a look at dual-mode phones.

• Control - Moves, Adds, & Changes
• Mobility - Road Warriors
  • WiFi
  • Hotspots
  • Dual-Mode Phones
• Security
  • Encryption
• Presence Management
• Integrated Messaging
  • Voicemail
  • Instant Messaging
• ENUM (RFC 2916)
• Return on Investment
• Adding Video
  
  

Section 6: Risks

A new technology always brings, along with the new features and capabilities, new risks. Understanding the risks is the first step to mitigating them. This section clearly describes the changes in thinking required when operating a converged network. This will give you the information you need to reduce or eliminate as much of the risk as possible.

• Reliability
  • End User Device
  • SoftPhone
  • HardPhone
  • IP PBX
  • Data Network
  • Power
  • Emergency Services (911)
  • Information Services (411)
• Voice Quality
  • Network Congestion
  • Packet Delay
  • Packet Loss
  • Compression
• Security
  • Shared Network
  • Packet Sniffer
  • Denial of Service Attacks (DoS)
    
    

Section 7: Selecting a Hardware Vendor

There used to be a saying in the computer business:“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” Today, in the communications business, the same might be said of Cisco. While the VoIP market is dominated by Cisco, Nortel, & Avaya, there are several other vendors that should be considered. This section will introduce the top IP Telephony hardware vendors and provide useful information when selecting a vendor.

• Cisco
• Nortel
• Avaya
• AltiGen
• Shoreline Communications
• Vertical Networks
• Others
  
  

Section 8: Selecting a Service Provider

For many small businesses, and most mid-sized companies, running your own SIP Proxy servers makes sense. However, some small organizations and branch offices of larger companies may want to outsource their voice services to a VoIP Service Provider. In this section, you'll evaluate service offerings and pricing from several leading providers

• Vonage
• Broadvoice
• Free World Dialup
• AT&T
• USA Datanet
• Packet 8
• Net2Phone
• Others
  

You will receive an ASPE SIP Softphone Toolkit Free

You will use this toolkit—along with your Free Proxim Harmony wireless card—in class by performing IP Telephony calls. This hands-on experience will give you the skills you need to effectively begin testing your network back at the office.

Your ASPE SIP Softphone Toolkit includes:

• Bootable CD with your own SIP Softphone tool
• Proxim Harmony Wireless card with external connector
• Combination head-set and microphone package