While the University’s core voice network was highly resilient, all the ISDN30 circuit fibres pass through the same small area of central Oxford. The Oxford University Computing Service (OUCS) was concerned that if there were any problems with these circuit fibres, staff and students at the University wouldn’t be able to make or receive any calls.
OUCS therefore decided to see if it was possible to send voice traffic from its Cisco IP-PBX infrastructure over its high bandwidth and physically diverse Janet IP network connections.
Having spoken with many major suppliers who were unable to except voice traffic via Janet without QoS (Quality of Service), OUCS approached InTechnology who, as a Janet-connected provider, were able to work alongside the voice team at OUCS and Cisco engineers to successfully implement SIP trunking across the Janet network.
As a result, the University is now benefiting from increased resilience, reduced supplier dependency, significant scalability and even reduced call costs.
Alan Hillyer, head of telecoms, OUCS said: “InTechnology has provided us with an enterprise-class solution, while meeting a need that some of the bigger carriers are turning their back on.
“In my opinion, InTechnology were really quite brave and entrepreneurial in recognising that their existing ultra high bandwidth Janet connectivity, our own fat pipe into Janet, and Janet’s high capacity meant that the lack of QoS on Janet was irrelevant.
“The call quality is fantastic, probably better than standard ISDN30 quality. It’s very stable and we’re really pleased with it.”
Roy Farrow, divisional product director, InTechnology commented: “SIP trunks offer a host of capabilities above and beyond their ISDN30 counterparts, such as allowing IP-based data services to use the same pipe as a voice service, enhanced disaster recovery features and the fantastic flexibility to scale up and down to meet peak demand.
“As we are already connected to the Janet network, deploying SIP trunks proved to be an extremely cost-effective solution for the University. We are delighted to have provided a solution that has solved their resilience issues and also delivered a host of other benefits.”
Looking to the future, OUCS is looking to develop the system further and configure other traffic to be routed to InTechnology from its PBX. The new system also offers the University the potential to add remote access to its VoIP system, delivered as an InTechnology-hosted system.