QoS SOLUTIONS FORVIDEOCONFERENCING

This project is intended to gain knowledge and apply the theory leamt about the need of
QoS in videoconferencing and the various options available. Today's conferencing
applications are now IP friendly, it can run on either dedicated lines (like ISDN or
telephone lines) or IP networks. However, as most network administrators know,
conferencingapplications can wreak havoc on unprepared corporate networks. The key to
successfully deploying conferencing applications is the activation of Quality of Service
(QoS). QoS refers to a network's ability to reliably and consistently provide a certain
level of throughput and performance. QoS for conferencing typically involves network
availability, bandwidth, end-to-end delay, jitter, and packet loss. Simply stated, if the
network doesn't conform to the minimum requirements in any of these areas, the
conferences are doomed to fail. QoS can be achieved in a variety of ways, including
over-provisioning (deploying additional bandwidth), data prioritization, and the use of
QoS-enabled overlay or converged networks. Organizations have two main options for
deploying QoS within their organizations; convergence or overlay. Convergence requires
the use of QoS-capable WAN links throughout the organization. In many cases, this
requires a fork-lift upgrade and migration of all network resources, which can place
convergence out of reach of many cost-sensitive organizations. On the other hand,
overlay networks allow a step-by-step migration from a non-QoS to a QoS network
without the high cost and inherent risk of major network reconfigurations. In this way,
overlay networks are a first step toward convergence