Riordan Manufacturing: Wan and Legacy Transition Problems

Riordan Manufacturing: WAN and Legacy transition problems

University of Phoenix

NCT520- Networking Management

Riordan Manufacturing: WAN and Legacy transition problems

Riordan Manufacturing's network configuration consists of infrastructure within four locations. The headquarters is in San Jose, CA and the other three are in remote in Albany GA, Pontiac MI, and Hangzhou, China. The investigation and detail required to demonstrate transition of WAN from Legacy to current design shows sources for which any problems may exist. Contributing information about the WAN includes the VoIP data router, satellite between headquarters and China, and T-1 connections between headquarters to both Georgia and Michigan.

Many new technologies are available to help propel a business forward including Riordan. Many consider VoIP to be a new technology that has provided new uses for telephone systems. It has seen much technological advancement since its inception. In the past, one gave little consideration to transporting voice over data circuits. One currently treats voice traffic, because of its high growth rate, as an important application to be given special consideration. VoIP is a natural progression and has changed how consumers and business use the telephone system. (voip.com, 2006).

The voice switches allow connection to analog lines providing a 10/100 Base Twisted Pair (TP) Ethernet connection. With the addition of a VoIP switch, the telephone system provides private dialing, caller id, interoperability with other VoIP systems, and the ability to manage the telephone system over the Internet using a web browser. Features provided with VoIP switch include Quality of Service (QOS), network support, and line trunk group capability. Some of the benefits include interoperability with other networks, scalability to larger networks, and flexibility to allow use of incoming and outgoing trunks. VoIP systems implementation challenges consist of interoperability between multiple voice and data standards; networks transmission characteristics and protocols; regulatory guidelines and maintenance issues. (voip.com, 2006). These exist on top of connection used over satellite to Riordan's China location.

One of the critical drawbacks of VoIP service is its dependence upon another service, an Internet connection. The quality and overall reliability of the phone connection is entirely reliant upon the quality, reliability, and speed of the internet connection which it is using. (Wikipedia, 2006)

Global Implications of VoIP

There will be lot of challenges posed to the existing regulatory frameworks and rules by the VoIP and thereby is considered a truly disruptive technology. VoIP must be regulated like the telecommunications industry. Thus, from legacy to VoIP there is more to consider with an enterprise WAN to support 4 locations.

There are several regulatory issues that concern VoIP technology. IP phones may not provide the reliability, identification, and proper routing of the emergency calls, but all public telecommunications operators provide a service which receives emergency calls and routes them to the nearest emergency call centre. In an age of global terrorism, the calls made from the IP phones are only digital packets and it will be a severe challenge for the law enforcement. Law enforcement is increasingly requiring network operators to provide information on the physical location of the caller in defined circumstances. However, IP addresses do not currently identify the user or the location. Currently carriers provide a range of facilities such as number portability and caller line identification. However, IP networks may not be capable of providing such facilities without new standards. Telephone customers are used to finding numbers by looking them up in a book or telephoning a DQ service, However, such services are more difficult to provide in the IP environment. VoIP operators do not have a universal service obligation and do not have to contribute to the funding of such obligations by other carriers. This may also become an issue of unfair competition. At some point in the future, incumbents will want to close down the remaining conventional exchanges but not all telephony customers will necessarily be using IP phones. This would therefore disconnect them from the public network. This is a similar issue to the proposed switch-off of analogue television in the broadcasting environment. (Darlington, 2003)

Satellite WAN Connections

Satellite