A plug and play device designed to prioritise voice traffic ahead of general data traffic.
An increasing number of small to medium sized businesses and enterprises (SME) are transitioning to Voice Over IP (VoIP) telephony solutions to enjoy large savings in call costs while enhancing the quality, flexibility and features of their telephone system.
However, many SME's continue to face challenges in safeguarding call quality when using a single broadband line for all internet traffic. A high proportion of SME's use asymmetric broadband, e.g. ADSL, where downstream bandwidth is plentiful but upstream bandwidth is constrained. When upstream broadband is shared by computers and phones, the computer generated traffic, e.g. email, web and file transfer, can impair the audio quality of phone calls. This is because real-time voice traffic is very sensitive to fluctuations in network speeds, latencies and available bandwidth.
Reliable and consistent phone call quality is essential to business users. Dropped calls or poor call quality results in user frustration, missed opportunities and a degraded customer perception of the business. Sometimes, the problem is solved by adding a separate broadband line and dedicating it to voice traffic. However, this results in additional recurring costs and requires a more complex network configuration. In other cases, where present, enterprise-class network routers are configured to prioritise voice traffic on the network. Unfortunately this typically requires an expensive router, a highly skilled network/IT administrator and recurring maintenance costs. Our recommended solution is to use an Emutex Traffic Shaper.
The Emutex Traffic Shaper is an intelligent plug and play device designed by Emutex to prioritise voice traffic ahead of general data traffic before upstream transmission on a shared broadband line. Minimal networking knowledge is required to install the device. Once installed, it works transparently on the network, automatically sensing the available upstream broadband bandwidth, recognising the voice traffic and prioritising it as it passes through to the broadband modem. The shaper features a web-based user interface, which can optionally be used to monitor traffic statistics and perform advanced device configuration if required. Normally, the device is self-configuring and requires no intervention from the user once installed.
The Emutex Traffic Shaper employs a bandwidth classification and auto-tuning mechanism. When there is no voice traffic present all available bandwidth is assigned to the data traffic. When voice traffic is detected bandwidth is reserved for that traffic (only as much as is absolutely necessary) while other traffic will be restricted. Computer users may temporarily notice a slowing in email and file transfer rates.
The Emutex Traffic Shaper is a small, silent and low-power solid-state network device and is available for purchase from Emutex. The shaper is also available as a software package and can be integrated by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) into routers, gateways and other networking devices. The software can be tailored by Emutex to meet specific requirements. Please contact Emutex for more information.