Huffman Trucking Company Telephony Paper

Running Head: HUFFMAN TRUCKING COMPANY TELEPHONY PAPER

Huffman Trucking Company Telephony Paper

NTC 500 Networking Concepts

University of Phoenix

July 31, 2006

Huffman Trucking Company Telephony Paper

Communication in a business is the key to success. Interpersonal communication is very important in today's often technologically anonymous society. An assessment as to the current Telephone Communication Systems configurations at all four state area locations was made. Recommendations for improvements will be noted after the discussion of the current systems in order of state, followed by specific locale.

Located in Los Angeles, the California locations consist of the CA-Office and the CA-Plant. While currently functional, many improvements should be made to maintain quality of service to Huffman clients. While the CA-Office locale currently utilized a PBX Telephone System with Intercom (POTS), they do not have voice mail or caller ID abilities. The CA-Plant locale, on the other hand, is very fortunate to posses a digital phone system with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

PBX, or Private Branch/Business eXchange, is a telephone exchange that is owned by a private business. When a business owns their own exchange, all of their telephones are connected separately than public telephones are. If a business did not have a PBX, all of the offices phones would have their own line and number, and calls would have to be routed out of the building to a central switch and come back to the intended phone again.

Devices connected to PBXs in offices are usually referred to as extensions, and the PBX equipment is installed onsite. In addition to telephones, many other communication/data devices can be connected to the PBX such as Fax and Modem machines.

The CA-Office location utilizes their PBX with Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS). (POTS acts as an interface for connecting the extensions to the PBX). POTS are used in most homes and are a common two-wire interface. While cheap and operative, it does not allow for data use as effectively as an Internet Protocol interface on the PBX would. POTS can also cause a business to suffer from not being able to detect incoming calls while making outbound calls.

Located in St. Louis, the Missouri location consists of the MO-Office and MO-Plant. Just as the CA-Plant, the MO-Office is currently using a digital phone system. Although a different topology and type of VoIP is in place, both sites benefit from the resources of this modern technology. It is assumed that the MO-Plant is using standard POTS for their telephony needs, for specific systems were not disclosed. Here again, the functions of a POTS is fine for home use, however not recommended for business purposes due to lack of functionality.

The New Jersey locations in Bayonne consist of an Office and a Plant. The NJ-Office also recognized the benefits of a PBX and so utilizes these functions in their system setup, but also lacks the ability to identify callers or access voice mail. They also, as does CA-Office, have their PBX connected to the Plant PBX with the interface of POTS. The NJ-Plant routes their PBX into a Patch Panel for distribution of resources. A patch panel is typically rack-mounted and houses several cable connections. This allows for the convenience of changing the path of a signal quickly without the expense of automatic switching equipment.

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