[WXC/VFX] VoIP Call Quality

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ajobbins

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Topic # 14925 26-Jul-2007 16:58

I'm having some VoIP call quality issues with both VFX and iTalk so I am wanting to do some better QoS on my router to try and prioritise the traffic.

Does anyone know which ports I need to give priority to for both the VFX and iTalk services?

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Reply # 79821 26-Jul-2007 17:09

adamj: Does anyone know which ports I need to give priority to for both the VFX and iTalk services?

VFX and iTalk use different ports, so that strategy won't work out too well.

The best way to do this in my experience is to set your ATA or IP Phone onto a Static IP and then prioritise all traffic originating from that IP address. You will need a router with some good QoS functions in order to do this.

If you want more details let me know.

Cheers,
Grant.

ajobbins

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Reply # 79823 26-Jul-2007 17:11

Well I currently have the router set to prioritise all traffic out of port 4 (The physical port on the router my SPA942 is plugged into) but I am still having issues so thought that maybe i need to try the TCP/UDP Ports.

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ajobbins

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Reply # 79826 26-Jul-2007 17:19

Also, I use iTalk and VFX off the same IP Phone so I can probably prioritise the ports for both as I wont be using more than one at a time.

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grant_k

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Reply # 79833 26-Jul-2007 17:27

Which part of the VoIP call are you having problems with:

Incoming Audio or Outgoing Audio?

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Reply # 79835 26-Jul-2007 17:29

Grant17: Which part of the VoIP call are you having problems with:

Incoming Audio or Outgoing Audio?

both

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Reply # 79849 26-Jul-2007 18:31

What type of router do your have? The simplest and easiest way is to simply use the MAC address of the ATA or phone you have and give it the highest priority. This saves having to mess around with ports.

What do you have your downstream and upstream settings set to in your QoS settings? These should only be set to around 85% of your maximum bandwidth.

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Reply # 79850 26-Jul-2007 18:42

It's a D-Link DI-704UP. It doesnt allow me to set bandwidth, only set the priority to 'Normal' or 'High'

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grant_k

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Reply # 79868 26-Jul-2007 20:11

adamj: It's a D-Link DI-704UP. It doesnt allow me to set bandwidth, only set the priority to 'Normal' or 'High'

Ah, therein lies your problem I think.

Previously I tried a D-link DI-102 VoIP prioritiser, but it didn't make any difference for me.

For some reason, this simple type of QoS doesn't identify the SIP traffic used for iTalk or VFX.

You need to use a router which provides Bandwidth Management and reserve some bandwidth for VoIP traffic as Sbiddle has mentioned.

I use a XyXEL P335U to do this:

http://www.zyxel.com/web/product_family_detail.php?PC1indexflag=20040520161313&CategoryGroupNo=A6099BAB-BF38-4DF3-9F1C-CDDAB94BC016

It is the only router I found for a reasonable price that has true Bandwidth Management rather than just QoS prioritisation which I could not get to work at all.

Another alternative is to buy a Linksys WAG54P2V2 which will prioritise the Outgoing VoIP traffic. But this still won't help with the Incoming traffic which you are having problems with.

In my case I needed to reserve bandwidth for VoIP traffic in both Incoming and Outgoing directions. Having done this, I can now be using the phone simultaneously with downloading or uploading large file attachments, and the audio quality is unaffected. Without Bandwidth Management, it is impossible to understand the caller when downloading large attachments, and impossible for the caller to understand me while we are sending large file attachments.

In my case, I am using a Wireless connection with only 512kbps down/128kbps up. At another site with Max/Max ADSL, we don't use any Bandwidth Management, yet there are no problems with VoIP quality at all. In that case, the available bandwidth is huge compared to the 30kbps each way that VFX uses.

What sort of connection are you using and what are the Downstream and Upstream speeds?

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Reply # 79870 26-Jul-2007 20:17

My DSL modem (Dynalink RTA3120) has an option to "Reserve bandwidth for VoIP calls" however I am only on a Full Down/128 Up plan so I think it will reserve too much of my upstream bandwidth if I turn this on.

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grant_k

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Reply # 79875 26-Jul-2007 20:25

adamj: My DSL modem (Dynalink RTA3120) has an option to "Reserve bandwidth for VoIP calls"...

Try it, but I don't think it will make any difference, because these simple QoS schemes always fail to correctly identify VFX or iTalk traffic in my experience.

In any case, your Dynalink Modem presumably doesn't allow you to specify how much bandwidth should be reserved, so it is of little use. I spent quite a bit of time fine-tuning the settings in my ZyXEL P335U and found that the optimum value for reserved Upstream bandwidth was 32kbps in the case of VFX. Any lower than this, and I got break-up on the Outgoing audio. Any more than this is wasting my Upstream bandwidth for other applications -- from a total budget of only 128kbps -- so I was keen to optimise it as much as possible.

In your case with MAX downstream speed, I wouldn't have expected that you would need to reserve Downstream bandwidth because in theory you should have at least 2Mbps available, so the 32kbps needed for VoIP is trivial unless you have Bit Torrent downloads running...

Now, there's a thought: Are you running Bit Torrents while simultaneously using VFX or iTalk?

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Reply # 79881 26-Jul-2007 20:34

We have 6 PC on the network (Not counting the server) and I had bad breakup on both G729a and Ulaw today with all the PC's off. ISP is Woosh so that could be the problem...

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grant_k

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Reply # 79888 26-Jul-2007 20:54

adamj: ...ISP is Woosh so that could be the problem...

Say no more...

It's time you shifted to Xnet. All the Bandwidth Management in the world won't help unless your ISP is up to snuff.

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Reply # 79893 26-Jul-2007 21:04

The GF won't give up her email address, and the account is in her name

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grant_k

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Reply # 79896 26-Jul-2007 21:32

adamj: The GF won't give up her email address...

I'm sure that Slingshot will let you keep the e-mail address for a very small fee, or perhaps no fee at all.

Orcon give you a "Lifetime Mailbox" which stays available no matter which ISP you are with.

I used to connect via Paradise Net for our site which uses a FS/FS ADSL connection. Since moving to Xnet around 6 months ago, I have noticed that dropouts on VFX never happen, whereas there were the occasional dropouts on Paradise Net.

It's definitely worth investigating a move to Xnet. When Naked DSL arrives in September, you can port your landline number over to WxC and be completely Telecom-free.

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Reply # 79902 26-Jul-2007 21:46

If/when I can get both a)Naked DSL or TCL Cale AND use my VFX service with Asterisk I will probably do this.

Thing is, even if we got a 'lifetime' mailbox from Orcon or something, still doesnt solve the problem she wont give up the address she has now.

We need Email Address portability haha

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