Broadband Myths and Facts Examining the current trends and how they impact your business
Not all broadband services are created equally. There are a number of different 'flavours' and they work in different ways. With more organisations now looking to support real-time applications such as 'voice' across their data networks, it is important to understand how your broadband service is delivered and to perform a 'health check' to ensure that you won't encounter problems.
Ortiga have a wealth of experience in deploying and managing real time applications for our existing customers. Below are some myths and facts which may help you to understand some of the issues. If you're still unsure, please don't hesitate to contact us on 0845 055 6545.
Quality of Service or QoS is the latest in widely used and misunderstood acronyms. To simplify QoS it is the ability to prioritise network traffic depending on your applications. Its recent popularity is due to the rising interest in using broadband to carry voice as well as email and web traffic. When networks slow down due to congestion, voice packets need to be prioritized so that the calling parties can understand what each other are saying.
1. BT's broadband network (IP Stream) does not support QoS
FACT however the BT network is generally not congested and therefore the ‘pinch points’ in the network, where congestion can occur, tend to be at the client's own network or the internet providers connection into the BT network. It's vital therefore that you choose an ISP that guarantees not to be congested. 2. You need QoS for VoIP
MYTH you only need QoS if your 'Voice over IP' application is competing with other applications for bandwidth. If you are using your broadband circuit only for voice, your ISP and local network are not congested and you are not trying to squeeze too many simultaneous conversations down it, you will be fine. The whole point of 'convergence', however, is that you can mix applications on the same broadband circuit and to do this safely you will need QoS.
3. Only Datastream and 'Unbundled Local Loop' (LLU) can offer uncontended broadband services
FACT Datastream and Unbundled Local Loop (LLU) are two alternative methods to BT's IP Stream network that Internet Service Providers can utilise to provide you with a broadband service. With LLU and Datastream, the ISP controls the path back from the BT exchange and so they can partition customers on their own bandwidth. However this can be expensive and is only necessary where there is the possibility of network congestion. It is therefore extremely important to select your ISP carefully when deploying real-time applications to ensure that they have made sufficient investment to support what you are trying to achieve.
4. IPStream is not suitable for voice
MYTH there are thousands of customers using IPStream for voice with no problems at all. Many of them use a dedicated IPStream line for voice and a separate IPStream line for data. However, with QoS enabled Engineered Broadband (available from Ortiga) customers can use IPStream for both voice and data. On such a network voice traffic is prioritized in both directions over other traffic. The prioritization applies to both the link between your premises and the BT exchange and the connecting pipes between Ortiga and BT. This has the effect of providing the best possible voice quality, regardless of other applications on the same broadband circuit.