Sample Homework on SME Network

Introduction

Small business enterprise (SME) owners face continuous burden to cultivate income and regulate costs, due to which they need to be efficient in the processes and technology they make use of. The company that will be discussed here is called The Star Traders, which are a SME with 100 employees scattered over 2 branches apart from the main head office. Star Traders are customer service and online order taking company, that take orders from clients from different shopping magazines and catalogues, and then place that order on behalf of the client. They also provide customer service on behalf of their sister companies that manufacture home goods. They have 2 distinct departments, which handle the order taking and the customer service separately. So, one brand is the customer service providers, while the other is the order collection, and the head office manages all main queries regarding customers and employees. However, now Star Traders are re-thinking their entire infrastructure and costs, and are aiming at minimizing both to the greatest extent possible. Since they ran on the traditional switch board network of phones, they feel they need a newer solution that can help the stay efficient and effective.

For Star Traders, it is important to begin by re-evaluating their private company office telephone framework, as it perhaps might be appraising more than they would want. Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is an interchange innovation wherein vocal sound calls, just as video and information, are communicated over the web, rather than the openly exchanged phone organization that is PSTN (Mitel, 2019). In this way, instead of an outdated telephone arrangement, VoIP keeps running on a broadband association. There's no on location gear or foundation to keep up, which can be valuable as its fast and permits concentrating on more assets on maintaining the business as opposed to dealing with the telephone framework. Thus, this report discusses a VoIP solution for Star Traders and suggests a solution design based on their requirements. The network proposed encompasses VoIP and technologies like unified communications network monitoring (IR, 2019) using IP PBX and other devices to regulate customer calls on the VoIP network. Other technologies used are: service gateways, network switches, application servers etc, to manage and operate the network. Since VoIP is the solution to focus on, Star Traders and the services they provide were the most suitable company to be used.

Requirements

The solution required by Star Traders requires the following deliverables in order to meet the SME’s needs:

• A hassle free, minimized network solution that saves on cost and physical equipment
• A secure connection as customer calls sometimes include sharing of important data like credit card information
• Good quality calls and connections given that the company wants to provide the best customer service
• An integrated, cohesive solution that can be monitored easily
• Help minimize the physicality of the company by maybe possibly helping merge both sub-branches under one roof

Solution Design

Network Topologies

The above diagram displays a basic topology set up intended for Start Traders. It includes of a VoIP VPN Interconnect, a local PSTN provider, an SP internal VoIP VPN and other connection devices to help relay the functioning of the whole network. The network will implement a link-based scheme with a shared resource backup, capable of restoring, and will be a mesh topology (Tipper, n.d.).

Solution Description

The solution proposed will make use of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as it is viewed as the best-known option in contrast to the PSTN framework that Star Traders as of now use, as it isn't simply financially savvy yet additionally has a few different advantages that organizations find alluring (Johnson, n.d.). VoIP will permit the transmission of voice and other information over the web convention arrange. The VoIP phone will be associated with a DSL or a link modem interfacing the organization to the Web.

Continuous based information, for example, VoIP traffic and voice programs endure insignificant variety in the measure of postpone influencing the conveyance of their voice parcels. VoIP flow of traffic does not endure parcel misfortune or jitter, as they can significantly corrupt the nature of the voice broadcast conveyed to the end client (Partsenidis, 2014).

The network will deploy VoIP using a SIP gateway, connecting to soft phones that will integrate the entire network and allow the company to manage its operations from anywhere they desire. The VoIP will require a strong internet connection, which will require a fibre optic cable connection to be procured, in order to assure maximum speed and efficiency.

Connected to the PTSN, the calls will be switched over to the VoIP through the Integrated Access Device (IDA). Apps can be installed on employee phones to help them operate from where ever and whenever feasible.

The following diagram illustrates the basic set up of the solution where a VoIP gateway will allow a desktop analogue phone or even mobile phones to be used easily with the network without any hassle, which are called soft phones.

The following table gives a description of the whole requirements for the VoIP setup for Star Traders:

Services and Applications

The following services and applications will be required to implement the solution promptly:

• SIP Voice gateways will be used, since they support a variety of protocols, allowing easy integration with any type of VoIP infrastructure. They are very popular and usually compatible with all VoIP telephony vendors since SIP is the preferred protocol for VoIP communications.

Interfaces and Technologies

The solution will use the following interfaces and technologies:

• IDA VoIP
• Voice Gateway
• Since the voice gateway will be required to have direct internet access to connect to various SIP providers, it would need to be situated within the demilitarized zone (DMC).
• Since VoIP is a cloud-based system, cloud services will be required to host the VoIP for the organization.

Analysis and Evaluation

The proposed solution is best fit for this business and meets all requirements as:

• Business VoIP phone systems are more efficient as they use packet switching.
• VoIP doesn't utilize devoted lines. Rather, the information bundles use switches and the web, and every datum parcel goes through the least clogged and most brief way, which means that the network is fast and efficient.
• Since one of the advantages of VoIP is that it helps provide better customer service, it is the best solution to the company. This will help the company decrease its physical costs in terms of employees and technical set up, and can rather use fewer employees but still appear to be a substantially sized organization.
• The whole solution is cost effective, as was required by the organization.

Conclusion

The solution proposed for the SME Star Traders is a VoIP network that will allow the organization to operate according to its requirements. The proposed business, Star Traders, is looking for a cost-effective solution that can help minimize infrastructure costs as well. The proposed VoIP solution is the best answer to their needs given that VoIP does not require any large amount of hardware and rather operates on software and soft phones, which can be operated from anywhere. The gateways and protocols implemented suit to the organizations need for security and clarity, and above all minimizes costs, as the whole set up is cheap compared to other solutions like PBX and the normal POTS system. The VoIP offers a cloud-based solution to the organization, to which clients can connect over through the VoIP provider and internet connectivity.

References

Mitel. (2019). VOIP SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESS. Retrieved from https://www.mitel.com/articles/voip-solutions-for-small-business

1. (2019). Unified Communications Network Monitoring. Retrieved from https://www.ir.com/prognosis-unified-communications/network-monitoring

Partsenidis, C. (2014). DiffServ QoS model works wonders for VoIP networks. Retrieved from https://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/tip/DiffServ-QoS-model-works-wonders-for-VoIP-networks

Tipper, D. Network Design for Highly Available Available VoIP [Ebook]. University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved from http://www.pitt.edu/~dtipper/Molde/Molde_Slides4.pdf

Johnson, C. What Is PSTN and How Does It Actually Work? | Nextiva. Retrieved from https://www.nextiva.com/blog/what-is-pstn.html