| Everyone with a dedicated WAN connection is implementing on it some kind of Voice over IP solution these days. The setup process is too easy, the cost too low, and the quality of service too high to ignore this application of your data channels. Cisco Packetized Voice & Data Integration might be the best practically oriented Voice over IP (VoIP) book around, if you want to do some reading on the topic. If you're looking for a more academic treatment of the standards and concepts that underlie VoIP, you'll want to supplement it probably with Uyless Black's Voice Over IP or another mostly conceptual text. But engineers with a job to do will appreciate author Robert Caputo's willingness to share stories and lessons from his life's work. Caputo has earned praise for helping to blur the distinction between "voice people" and "data people," a schism that continues to rule many organizations and should be eliminated as voice-over-data solutions become more popular. This book explains voice concepts (PBXs, telephone signaling, and so on) in "data people" terms. It also discusses thoroughly IP concepts such as Quality of Service (QoS). Focusing mainly on the Cisco 3600 family of routers and their voice cards, Caputo gives detailed configuration instructions that include dial-plan design, connectivity with analog phone equipment, and interconnection of geographically separated PBXs (PBX trunking). You'll find plenty of fully listed configuration files here. Bear in mind that this book focuses on VoIP exclusively, without much more than a nod to the specifics of VoIP implementation under Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). There's just one chapter on Frame Relay; this isn't a problem, just a characteristic. Turn to Oliver Chukwudi Ibe's Essentials of ATM Networks and Services for details on ATM, and Jeff Buckwalter's Frame Relay: Technology and Practice for more information on Frame Relay. --David Wall Topics covered: Implementation of a corporate voice infrastructure on an IP network, particularly one that's based on Cisco Systems routers. There's an overview of VoIP technologies here and an introduction to telephony concepts for data-network engineers. Quality of Service (QoS) gets plenty of attention, and there's a detailed explanation of how to develop a system of phone numbers and network addresses (a dial plan). A series of sample configurations, in addition to one that includes an IP voice trunk between two geographically separated PBXs, concludes this volume. |
|
 Excellent VoIP Intro and Reference |
| Review Date: February 11, 2000 |
| Reviewer: , |
| Caputo maximizes detail without including the often extraneous content found in similar texts. This book accommodates the fledgling beginner with a brief but thorough intro into the technologies and protocols referenced in the first few chapters. With the reader "up and running", the author then gives a wonderfully detailed tutorial into the commonly misunderstood subject matter of "Voice over Data" delivery methods. The title includes a multitude of "real-world" examples in the form of client configs the author has worked on. I personally find this far more useful than the more commonly found "lab-configs" which are far too sterile to be of any use in actual day to day operations. The level of detail is second to none with Caputo's "No such thing as a stupid question" approach. This book is a MUST for any network technologists' desk. Although there is a conspicuous absence of any reference to other voice over data delivery methods such as Voice over Frame and Voice over ATM, I believe the omission was a good decision as Voice over IP is itself sufficient subject matter to fill more than an entire text on the subject. |
Great book for network engineers w/o telephone experience!
|
| Review Date: February 24, 2000 |
| Reviewer: R. Wagner, Washington DC, USA |
| The information is geared towards the network engineer that has limited phone knowledge, which was perfect for my own background. The book has excellent technical accuracy and the data is presented well. The book requires relatively strong strength in a networking background because many references are made to associated technologies without explaining them. Explaining such things would be outside the scope of this book. When/if you read this book, try to seek out unfamiliar terms in the index or look them up elsewhere. Most of the data is relevant and worth understanding as you go along. Reading and understanding this book gave me a great understanding of VoIP and I now believe that I can effectively evaluate and implement VoIP solutions. The CCIE program has publicly announced inclusion of VoIP in the CCIE Routing-Switching laboratory exam. Through my experience, I belive that this book is a valuable resource in acquiring the VoIP knowledge necessary to achieve this certification. |
Great book, excellent overview
|
| Review Date: January 3, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Russell Kurtz, Bradley Beach, New Jersey USA |
| Caputo does a great job providing a thorough overview of packetized voice and a broad variey of QoS approaches. The books is also packed with useful figures, tables, and configuration command examples. Today I believe it stands as an excellent introduction to the topic and provides an great basis upon which to dig into even the newest QoS approaches that have evolved since. |
Excellent reference for VoIP
|
| Review Date: January 25, 2000 |
| Reviewer: , |
| This book is very compact, concise and contains a wealth of information that I could not find in any other single reference. It provides a very good introduction to voice technologies for the data engineer and more specific information about the voice capabilities of Cisco routers (although there is no coverage of 800, 1750 or MC3810) with numerous example configurations. Contents, 1.Intro, 2. Packetized Voice Overview, 3. Voice Concepts for Data engineers, 4. QoS for IP, 5.Qos for Frame Relay, 6. Understanding Voice Ports and Dial Peers, 7. Developing a Dial Plan, 8. Integrating It All, 9. Sample Configurations, 10. VoIP Case Study, Appendix. Webliography. The only disappointment is that the book is very IP-centric, VoFR is from an IP over Frame perspective and VoATM gets no coverage. The book is barely over 300 pages, so I don't think this would have been asking too much. |
Cisco Packetized Voice & Data Integration
|
| Review Date: April 12, 2000 |
| Reviewer: , |
| Caputo provides an excellent balance between theoretical background and Cisco specific information. Chapter 3, "voice concepts for data engineers" provides just the right level of information needed to understand voice technology, and the challenges of packetized delivery. Another nice featue is the clearly tabulated facts and figures, which make this book an excellent reference for even the experienced reader. Overall, Caputo has provided a text that contains everything required to understand and implement successful voice and data integrated networks with Cisco technology. |
|
No details are available for this product
No video reviews found for this product.