The requirements for a network administrator have always been diverse. Get the users connected, make sure there’s enough bandwidth to run applications, keep the network secure, and so on. When problems come up on a traditional network, the solutions have often been fairly straightforward. If users aren’t connected, you connect them. If there’s not enough bandwidth, you buy new equipment. If network resources are vulnerable, you introduce appliances and applications that provide enhanced security. It’s a pretty tight loop of problems and solutions | Global Knowledge Expert Reference Series ofWhite Papers Is It the Network Solving VoIP Problems on a Wireless LAN 1-800-COURSES Is It the Network Solving VoIP Problems on a Wireless LAN Benjamin Miller Global Knowledge Course Director CWNE CWNT Introduction The requirements for a network administrator have always been diverse. Get the users connected make sure there s enough bandwidth to run applications keep the network secure and so on. When problems come up on a traditional network the solutions have often been fairly straightforward. If users aren t connected you connect them. If there s not enough bandwidth you buy new equipment. If network resources are vulnerable you introduce appliances and applications that provide enhanced security. It s a pretty tight loop of problems and solutions. In today s networking environment things have changed. You can save money by putting telephony on the network. That means VoIP. You can increase productivity by allowing wireless access to the LAN. That means Wi-Fi. Things are great until you have to combine the two. That often leads to problems. Managing a network that includes VoIP and Wi-Fi means more than just learning the black magic that makes each technology work. It also means learning how each technology causes the other to get a little blacker and a little more magical. The goal of this paper is to combine a deep knowledge of protocols quality of service QoS mechanisms and VoIP handsets with the feedback aggregated from training hundreds of IT professionals each year to identify potential problems and solutions when rolling out VoIP on a Wi-Fi network. Basic VoIP Requirements To understand how VoIP communications are affected by wireless LANs one must first understand how VoIP works. Detailing every VoIP protocol and the network requirements of each is outside the scope of this paper but some basic points must be explained. Many VoIP handset manufacturers use the codec because .
