Internet Service Provider(s)
Vantage Unified recommends selecting business-class service from your Internet Service Provider. Using business-class service will provide a higher level of service and will ensure the provider does not place service or port limits on your traffic. Some limits may affect the reliability of your voice service. Your Internet connection should have enough bandwidth for your data and voice traffic. Each concurrent voice call will require 8-64 Kbps, depending on audio codec selected.
Firewall
It is industry best practice to use a firewall to segment the public Internet from your private network. We urge you to research and purchase a firewall based on your needs. Contact for assistance in researching and selecting the correct firewall.
Quality of Service
Voice traffic is very sensitive to changes in network bandwidth. Sudden changes in bandwidth availability may cause poor audio quality. Quality of Service, or QoS, allows the network administrator to configure a higher priority for voice traffic. This will ensure other network traffic does not affect audio quality.
SIP Application Layer Gateway
Many Firewall and Router providers include a feature called SIP Application Layer Gateway, or SIP ALG. This feature is known to cause unexpected behavior, including one-way audio, loss of registration, and non-operating devices. We strongly recommend disabling this feature. Contact us for more information on disabling this feature on your device.
Network Segregation
Vantage Unified recommends separating data and voice networks. This will reduce the likelihood of voice degradation due to large data transfers on the data network. Network segregation can be through physical separation using separate switches or virtual separation using VLANs. Consult your network documentation on VLAN configuration.
Power over Ethernet Switches
Power over Ethernet, or PoE, switches provide power for your telephone devices over the network cable. This removes the need to purchase a power cable for each device. The device will automatically boot once the network cable is attached to the device. PoE switches will provide either IEEE 802.3af or IEEE 802.3at. Confirm the compatibility with your telephony devices. Contact for assistance with determining your Power over Ethernet needs.
Energy Efficiency Ethernet/Green Ethernet
Energy Efficient Ethernet, or IEEE 802.3az, allows network switches to reduce the power to devices when there is little or no activity. This feature may cause unexpected behavior on telephony devices. We recommend disabling this feature on the network switches used in your voice network. Contact us for more information on disabling this feature on your device.
DHCP Options
Vantage Unified recommends using DHCP Option Codes for configuring provisioning settings on your devices. Using DHCP Options will remove the need to configure provision server settings on each device manually. This is also known as “stringing the devices”. Upon booting the device, the DHCP server will send the provisioning settings to the device along with an IP address. The DHCP Options provide provision settings to your devices are DHCP Options 66 and/or 150. Contact us for more information on configuring this feature.
Multiple Internet Service Providers with Failover
Some customers will elect for a second connection through another Internet Service Provider for failover capabilities and/or to divert voice traffic through a separate Internet connection. There are a number of ways of configuring failover; the well-known method includes IP SLA, route maps and tracking statements. The dynamic failover method allows for metrics to be defined and has the router manage both ISP connections.
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