Octel Unified Messenger Concepts & Planning Guide
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Evaluating the additional network traffic
Implementing Octel Unified Messenger results in the flow of voice data
over the organization’s data network. This section provides the
information required to calculate the additional network traffic generated
by an Octel Unified Messenger system. This calculation is based on
several factors, including:
n The number of voice servers in the voice mail domain (S).
n The number of ports on each voice server (P).
n The usage characteristics.
n The voice encoding rate (32 kilobits per second).
Worst-case network
load
To calculate the worst-case network load contributed by an Octel Unified
Messenger voice mail domain, substitute the number of voice servers in
the voice mail domain for S and the number of ports on each voice server
P into the following formula:
Worst-case network bandwidth = S x P x 32 kilobits per second.
For example, for a site with a voice mail domain containing five voice
servers, each with 24 ports, the worst-case network bandwidth is
5x24x32=3,840 kilobits per second. In addition, it is necessary to apply a
factor to allow for the overheads applicable to the network protocols and
options that are in operation.
This calculation is based on the worst-case assumption that all ports are
recording or playing voice data at the same time. It provides a calculation
of the total network traffic potentially added, but no indication concerning
the direction or path taken by this data.
Dedicated
connection
Average values will be much lower than indicated by the worst-case
calculation presented above. However, they can still represent a
significant load on the LAN connections between the voice servers and
the Exchange servers. For that reason, each voice server in a multiserver
environment should be given a dedicated switched Ethernet spur or
switched token ring segment connecting directly into the backbone
network.