Chapter 7. Improving and Maintaining Voice Quality

After reading this chapter, you should be able to perform the following tasks:

• Identify problems presented by IP networks that affect voice and describe the QoS mechanisms used to address those problems.

• Set up basic QoS configurations, on both Cisco IOS-based Catalyst switches and routers, using Cisco's AutoQoS feature.

• Implement call control on the network using CAC tools and mechanisms.

When human speech is converted to analog electrical signals and then digitized and compressed, some of the qualitative components are lost. This chapter explores the components of voice quality that you must maintain, the methods that you can use to measure voice quality, and quality of service (QoS) tools that you can implement in a network to improve voice quality.