Customer Reviews

Cisco Packetized Voice & Data Integration

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is very compact, concise and contains a wealth of information that I could not find in any other single reference. It provides a very good introduction to voice technologies for the data engineer and more specific information about the voice capabilities of Cisco routers (although there is no coverage of 800, 1750 or MC3810) with numerous example configurations.

Contents, 1.Intro, 2. Packetized Voice Overview, 3. Voice Concepts for Data engineers, 4. QoS for IP, 5.Qos for Frame Relay, 6. Understanding Voice Ports and Dial Peers, 7. Developing a Dial Plan, 8. Integrating It All, 9. Sample Configurations, 10. VoIP Case Study, Appendix. Webliography.

The only disappointment is that the book is very IP-centric, VoFR is from an IP over Frame perspective and VoATM gets no coverage. The book is barely over 300 pages, so I don't think this would have been asking too much.

The information is geared towards the network engineer that has limited phone knowledge, which was perfect for my own background.

The book has excellent technical accuracy and the data is presented well. The book requires relatively strong strength in a networking background because many references are made to associated technologies without explaining them. Explaining such things would be outside the scope of this book.

When/if you read this book, try to seek out unfamiliar terms in the index or look them up elsewhere. Most of the data is relevant and worth understanding as you go along.

Reading and understanding this book gave me a great understanding of VoIP and I now believe that I can effectively evaluate and implement VoIP solutions.

The CCIE program has publicly announced inclusion of VoIP in the CCIE Routing-Switching laboratory exam. Through my experience, I belive that this book is a valuable resource in acquiring the VoIP knowledge necessary to achieve this certification.

Caputo maximizes detail without including the often extraneous content found in similar texts. This book accommodates the fledgling beginner with a brief but thorough intro into the technologies and protocols referenced in the first few chapters. With the reader "up and running", the author then gives a wonderfully detailed tutorial into the commonly misunderstood subject matter of "Voice over Data" delivery methods. The title includes a multitude of "real-world" examples in the form of client configs the author has worked on. I personally find this far more useful than the more commonly found "lab-configs" which are far too sterile to be of any use in actual day to day operations. The level of detail is second to none with Caputo's "No such thing as a stupid question" approach. This book is a MUST for any network technologists' desk. Although there is a conspicuous absence of any reference to other voice over data delivery methods such as Voice over Frame and Voice over ATM, I believe the omission was a good decision as Voice over IP is itself sufficient subject matter to fill more than an entire text on the subject.

Caputo provides an excellent balance between theoretical background and Cisco specific information. Chapter 3, "voice concepts for data engineers" provides just the right level of information needed to understand voice technology, and the challenges of packetized delivery.

Another nice featue is the clearly tabulated facts and figures, which make this book an excellent reference for even the experienced reader.

Overall, Caputo has provided a text that contains everything required to understand and implement successful voice and data integrated networks with Cisco technology.

I'd have rated this book much lower if it wasn't cram packed full of great information. The problem is, the writing style makes it impossible to read this book from cover to cover if you don't already know everything in it. If ever an IT book was screaming for a glossary, this was the one. The author habitually uses terms and acronyms as if the reader already knew them, and then goes on to define them chapters later. At least on one occassion, I found a term used in chapter 2 defined in chapter 3. The definition of the term used another that wasn't defined until chapter 5. As said, there's no glossary, and the index is entirely too sparse to cover for that omission. Reading this book WILL teach you well, but don't sit down with it without a reference library and/or net connection handy to look up the terms that you can't find any other way.