Putting VoIP to Work: Softswitch Network Design and Testing [Paperback]

Bill Douskalis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0130409596 | ISBN-13: 978-0130409591 | Edition: 1

Putting VoIP to Work is an in-depth technical guide to building VoIP networks using softswitch technologies that addresses key challenges and provides optimal solutions. Bill Douskalis reviews the state of the art in signaling, media transport, and network engineering -- and offers expert guidance on designing and testing toll solutions that meet the needs of both carriers and customers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

• VoIP and softswitching: technical challenges, proven solutions
• State-of-the-art testing techniques for ensuring superior QoS
• Key design approaches for MPLS and differentiated services
• Covers protocols, topologies, and call flows
• By the author of the best-selling IP Telephony

The in-depth, up-to-the-minute technical guide to developing and deploying IP-based telephony.

This is a complete, in-depth technical guide to the challenges associated with building and deploying Voice over IP (VoIP) networks using softswitch technologies—and today's best solutions. Bill Douskalis, author of the best-selling IP Telephony, reviews the entire current state of the art in protocols for signaling, media transport, and network engineering—and presents expert guidance on designing telephony solutions that meet the needs of both carriers and customers. Coverage includes:

• New scenarios for design of VoIP networks based on Class 4 and Class 5 softswitch network technology
• Designing for performance and interoperability: challenges, examples, and comparisons of potential solutions
• Protocols of the new converged networks and design requirements for seamless integration of softswitch applications with the PSTN
• Call flows for SIP, H.323, MGCP, and Megaco
• Testing tips to ensure consistently high QoS in voiceband applications
• MPLS and IP differentiated services in VoIP networks: key roles and integration issues

Nobody has more experience implementing VoIP in large-scale networks than Bill Douskalis—and no book offers more insight for real-world VoIP design, construction, and deployment.

"The book is very well written and provides the practical information on all aspects of a VoIP network in the ever-changing field of communication technologies."

—Dr. Tushar Bhattacharjee, AT&T, Polytechnic University of New York

About the Author

BILL DOUSKALIS holds a BSEE and MS in Mathematics and has been designing, developing, deploying, and troubleshooting network equipment and systems for over 20 years. He has worked extensively with leading telecommunications companies, including AT&T Bell Laboratories; Sprint, where he worked on the state-of-the-art ION Network; and Global Crossing, where he is serving as consulting member of the VoIP architecture team. Bill has also consulted with leading test equipment manufacturers such as Agilent Technologies.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (September 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130409596
• ISBN-13: 978-0130409591
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,313,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Most people will not like this book, March 2, 2005

By 

Mark P. Ardin "mnirvana" (CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Putting VoIP to Work: Softswitch Network Design and Testing (Paperback)

This book will not teach most readers anything practical about VOIP. I am a CCNP, with a BSEE and Masters degree, and this is the first technical book that I have come across in a long time that will not give me even a single paragraph of useful information that I can deliver to my class room of technical students who want to learn more about VOIP. The only value I can find so far, is that the author references a bunch of RFCs that are related to VOIP. Since this author is probably going to keep writing books, here is my message to the author. You probably dedicated many years of your life to VOIP and related subjects, and perhaps this makes you an "expert". But the average technical person in the world would greatly appreciate a layman's term high level introduction paragraph or 2, to each and every single technical subject that you are going to talk about, before you start rattling off protocols like H.248 vs H.245 vs H.323 vs H.225 like on page 4 of your book. My only consolation to having purchased this horrible book is that I bought an inexpensive used one, right here on Amazon. This book had nothing but 5 stars by the previous Amazon reviewers and I trusted their judgement. Boy are they wrong! Amazon has advertized that a book called VOIP for DUMMys will be released in June 2005 and I cant wait for this book to be available. Unfortunately, my class begins next week, so I will be forced to use the dry Cisco books.

2 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The IP infrastructure is still work in progress, September 5, 2003

By 

"misc4333" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Putting VoIP to Work: Softswitch Network Design and Testing (Paperback)

We have spent the better part of the last seven years trying to create a nationwide infrastructure to support IP services and applications. In spite of the great progress, this is still work in progress. A large question still exists. How are we dealing with the physical and security limitations of packet technologies in the wide area? Some of these early concerns were covered in my first book "IP Telephony, The integration of robust VoIP services", sponsored by Hewlett-Packard / Agilent Technologies and published by Prentice-Hall. But that was only the beginning...there is a lot more work that needs to be done before we can safely say we have hit the target of ubiquitous "seamless integration" of applications and services...and let's not forget that in the end, we will have to address the manner in which we access and manipulate large scale and distributed data across the wide area.

In my second book I cover SIP, H.323, SCTP, MGCP, H.248 and other IP protocols with interoperability test cases and call flows. Understanding the enormity of protocol interoperability is only half the battle. The other half is choosing the architecture that will deliver the performance and product features. The new battlefield the will determine the feasibility of a lot of new network designs will be around data access and manipulation. IT systems and network systems tend to want to blend into each other, but can it be done with the state of the art in data base design? More to come...Enjoy the book.

Bill