Deploying Cisco Voice over IP Solutions

Rating:
Summary: Deploying Voice over IP Solutions
Review: Deploying Voice over IP Solutions is an effective reference for experienced Data and Voice Engineers when they are in the stage of designing, improving or identifying existing problems in the Packet voice infrastructure.

I should stress out that this book is not for beginners who are just getting into Packet Voice technologies as well as engineers who have a simple goal of just passing a certain voice exam. It is more targeted to an audience who has an extensive experience in both the voice and data field. Service provider engineers will have the most benefit utilizing this book. For beginners, I strongly recommend resorting to the VoIP fundamentals written by the same author.

The book starts by introducing traffic models for voice analysis. I find this chapter highly detailed and will probably be difficult (and dry) for most of the engineers out there. Chapter 1 should be more condensed and have less detail for the target audience of this book. However, Chapter 2 to 4 which deals with quality of service and Call admission controls are one of the most useful and relevant in the design and implementation aspects of Voice over IP. These three chapters are well worth the cover book price. As far as the examples, I would strongly suggest the whole capture of the configurations (i.e. sh run) and provide more detail and larger illustrations. The remaining chapters dealt with designing VoIP for Service providers and Managed Multiservice networks which can also be useful to Enterprises who are considering to utilize this emerging service as opposed to an in-house VoIP solution. As a note to the author, maybe it's time to revamp the Cisco Uone unified messaging to the new Cisco Unity. I would also suggest including an e-book copy from a CD.

In conclusion, I find this book very informative for engineers who really want to get an in-depth understanding of the design and troubleshooting of Packet voice networks most specifically when dealing with traffic engineering. I rate this book 5 out of 5 and highly recommended it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but intended for Engineer w/prior VoIP experience
Review: Of late, one cannot read the Wall Street Journal or watch CNBC in the morning without hearing some reference to Voice over Internet Protocol. It is the latest buzz in the business world, with companies such as AT&T and Comcast beginning to pilot Voice over IP (VoIP) products and services to its customers. The detailed technical aspects of VoIP are the basis of the Cisco Press book, "Deploying Cisco Voice over IP Solutions".

As announced in the first line of the Introduction, "Deploying Cisco Voice over IP Solutions" is the sequel of sorts to the Cisco Press book, "Voice over IP Fundaments". Rather than jumping right to a discussion of contents and merits of this book, first a word about what the book isn't. This book is not for the businessperson interested in learning more about the excitement and buzz around VoIP. It is not intended to be an introduction to VoIP, nor is it meant to address basic Cisco VoIP configurations for small and medium businesses (although there are many great configuration examples). Finally, this book is not meant to help you pass any specific certification exam, (although it likely should be on the list of any aspiring CCIE-Voice, such as myself). "Deploying Cisco Voice over IP Solutions" is targeted to engineers in large enterprises and/or service providers who are already comfortable with both the theoretical knowledge and practical experience of Cisco VoIP.

The book opens with a detailed explanation of voice traffic analysis, and specifically the Erlanger Traffic Models. Have your calculator handy and brush up on the algebra! It was nice to finally see a detailed discussion on the "mysterious" Erlanger Models that I've read some much about. This detailed discussion is indicative of the great detail the authors and editors delve into when they discuss other weighty topics such as Echo, CAC, QoS, Fax Services, and Prepaid Phone Services.

My only (nominal) complaint about "Deploying Cisco Voice over IP Solutions" was that it only briefly discusses CallManager. However, I'll let Cisco Press off the hook because they've published other more detailed books on the topic (and hey, CCM is really "just" an application on the VoIP network). There is also a chapter about the theory behind Unified Messaging. Although informative, it references Cisco's older product, uOne, which has been replaced by the more robust Cisco Unity. Perhaps the kind folks at Cisco Press will produce a book relating to that topic in 2004?

Rating:
Summary: More Hit than Miss.
Review: The first few chapters covers various voice analysis - which I found useful: (Traffic, echo, QoS, CAC). The strengths of this book are in the tips, advice and some great scenarios. The weakness is the lack of details, - no running configs, and too few sample configurations.etc. The book tries to cover a broad spectrum of voip - prepaid, pbx, fax, unified messaging. This is where is fails. Each one of these topics should have their own book. I feel as if this book fails to explain in better detail how a dial-peer works, what options (hidden or otherwise) exist and how to overcome common problems. The gatekeeper coverage is lacking (mostly theory which is discussed as if the reader is experienced with Gatekeepers) and I would not recommend this book for a practical setup. It is very apparent that it was written by several authors, the topics are disconnected. It was helpful to some degree - in conjunction with Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony (Cisco Press) and the *very* useful Cisco technical support knowledge base. I would like to see a more comprehensive book that covers all possible configurations for a Cisco router/access gateway(runing-config) and in what cases it would be beneficial, with scenarios. I gave it 3 stars - because I feel that a great void exists in good technical manuals for VOIP, and this book is a step in the right direction.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre, pricey - but still useful
Review: The first few chapters covers various voice analysis - which I found useful: (Traffic, echo, QoS, CAC). The strengths of this book are in the tips, advice and some great scenarios. The weakness is the lack of details, - no running configs, and too few sample configurations.etc. The book tries to cover a broad spectrum of voip - prepaid, pbx, fax, unified messaging. This is where is fails. Each one of these topics should have their own book. I feel as if this book fails to explain in better detail how a dial-peer works, what options (hidden or otherwise) exist and how to overcome common problems. The gatekeeper coverage is lacking (mostly theory which is discussed as if the reader is experienced with Gatekeepers) and I would not recommend this book for a practical setup. It is very apparent that it was written by several authors, the topics are disconnected. It was helpful to some degree - in conjunction with Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony (Cisco Press) and the *very* useful Cisco technical support knowledge base. I would like to see a more comprehensive book that covers all possible configurations for a Cisco router/access gateway(runing-config) and in what cases it would be beneficial, with scenarios. I gave it 3 stars - because I feel that a great void exists in good technical manuals for VOIP, and this book is a step in the right direction.

Rating:
Summary: More Hit than Miss.
Review: This is not a book that is aimed at helping the reader to pass exams. There are no questions, cram sheets or exam hints. Having said that, it does give a very good explanation of Echo, QoS and CAC. The only part that lets it down is that it's explanation of Unified Messaging is based on the older uOne product and not Unity. I found the IOS configuration examples to be very informative and useful in a real world scenario.

Overall, a useful reference book - but not one for passing exams.