Considering the growing range of IP-based media data found traversing enterprise networks today, including IP telephony, videoconferencing, streaming media, and video surveillance tools, optimal network performance is critical. As discussed in the Info-Tech Advisor research note, “Can Your WAN Cope With Voice, Video and More?” real-time applications place significant new demands on the corporate network infrastructure. However, other variables also factor in when it comes to the overall quality of experience for end users. Understand the scope of issues that determine IP voice and video quality.
Network Performance Is the Priority
The performance of the enterprise network is clearly the most significant factor in determining IP voice and video quality, or Quality of Service (QoS). Network parameters such as delay (the time required for an IP packet to reach its destination), jitter (the variation in delay between arriving packets) and packet loss (the rate of packets lost during transmission due to errors or overflows) have huge effects on real-time voice and video transport. Excessive delay, jitter or loss due to congestion or misconfiguration can make basic communications unintelligible.