This area offers general information about computer based communication systems



Introduction

If you are planning to replace or augment your home or office communication equipment with computer systems, there are important considerations which should be taken into account.

The following are important factors to consider when implementing communication systems.

Selecting factors which are important from an early stage is recommended.

Emergency Connectivity

In an emergency, is being able to communicate with emergency services important?

There are many points of failure with any communication system. For example when power is disconnected from a desktop computer which has no backup power system, it is no longer able to be used from communication.

Although minimizing single points of failure in a communication system is possible, reducing all points of failure is a prohibitively complex task.



Communication Quality

The quality of communication is always important. Many factors influence communication quality.

When building a communication system it is advisable to draw up a budget for at least implementation and maintenance of the communications system. This is because communication quality is often directly related to the budget.

Once a budget is established then an approximation of the expected quality is possible. If the expected quality is acceptable then the project can go ahead, and will have a better chance of being usable for the communication task for which it designed.

Other factors are also related to quality, these include latency, number of simultaneous participants and availability of the communication service.

Availability

When a communication system rests upon a home or office computer network, there are many systems which can completely stop working. "The term 'single point of failure' describes any part of the system that can, if it fails, cause an interruption of required service from that system".

Therefore, if close to constant availability is a requirement, considerable resources will need to be allocated to the design, implementation, maintenance and expansion of the communication system.

When a communication system relies upon a computer with internet connectivity, then this underlying system will need to be running, in order for the communications system to be available.

If you do not want to miss incoming transmissions, then a suitable notification system that will grab your attention, or will provide a list of missed calls is important. Skype will list missed calls, and also has an optional voice answer machine.

Some communication systems run on independent end point hardware. Cisco offers VOIP Communications solutions. Separate hardware offers certain advantages; reducing the number of services running on a computer, will certainly reduce the number of potential security vulnerabilities.

Like Lucid, Cisco offers managed services. Managed services such as those offered by Lucid and Cisco help maintain quality, availability and accessibility of services.



Accessibility

If wireless communications are a requirement, and the system end point relies on a computer software package, then a wireless computer system will need to be part of the system. The exception to this is if a wireless extension system will provide adequate support to the required features of the software system.

Number of Simultaneous Participants

The more simultaneous participants the more complexity is introduced into a communication system. iChat AV (video chat software) currently supports a maximum of four simultaneous participants. Adding more users with current computer systems and home Internet bandwidth would result in lower quality audio and video. This limitation is an attempt to strike a balance between the number of simultaneous participants and the quality of communications provided.



Balancing Factors

Balancing factors which are of importance to you is key to the setup of a successful communications system. Cost is often the key factor of communications systems. However there may be more important factors for you or your organization.

Selecting the most important factors from the start means you have clear goals to work towards.







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