Hello all,

I would like to know if anybody has had experience using VoIP on a shared iDirect platform.

Thanks.

It works really well, however there are a few moments:

1) You have to have enough CIR to support each VoIP channel. iDirect has the RTP compression built-in, so each G.723.1 channel needs 11 kbit/s of CIR and each G.729 channel needs 14 kbit/s of CIR. The ISP should guarantee the CIR availability by the SLA on a 24/7 basis.

2) The VoIP traffic should be prioritized on the QoS profile both at the modem and the hub to make sure browsing and other non-realtime traffic won't overlap the voice channel. Some providers can do this - BusinessCom included. Some just put you in a general QoS profile and do not allow any changes.

Once both conditions are met, voice works brilliantly.

We are using VoIP on 3 iDirect shared locations in Eastern Africa.  Works well. 10:1, and 512/512.  Have VoIP on another location, different service provider, 20:1, 192/768.  At times works well, other times seem to be short of bandwidth on the up side.

Please give me details of your service provider and their rates let me see. I am in Nigeria and looking for reliable provider on the iDirect platform.

Dear Alex,

You can have a look at www.future-b.eu - they cover Nigeria very well using iDirect platform on C-band NSS10 (AMC12), as well as Ku-band IS-10 (PAS10).  They also have contention ratios indicated clearly.  Click on the footprint of the satellite that interests you and the pricing will come up.

Thanks,
Jane.

As Maxim indicated, VoIP requires CIR (Committed Information Rate) and QoS.  You can oversubscribe the shared service 10:1 or 100:1 and VoIP will still work well if you have enough CIR and if your network operator is competent and experienced in prioritizing VoIP.

The key is to make sure you select a network operator who does not oversubscribe their CIR.  Most iDirect network operators do oversubscribe CIR, and thus they may have periods during the day when VoIP does not work as well as it should because CIR is not available when needed.  

Once you oversubscribe CIR it is no longer "committed."  The post from GCR would tend to indicate a network operator who oversubscribes CIR.  

I never understood why iDirect provided the ability to oversubscribe CIR as an option.  Unused CIR just goes into the shared pool anyway.  As far as I can tell the only advantage of oversubscribing CIR is to allow network operators to mislead customers when they sell them "CIR," just as contention ratios are misleading.