IP TELEPHONY AT THE AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

A CASE STUDY

WIL DANIELS

MANAGER, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

Established 1991

Public University, Federal Funding

10,000 Students

1,000 staff

6 Campuses

HISTORY of the University

HISTORY ACU Data Network(Pre: IP Telephony)

Yr 1993 - Campus wide networks. Bridged 10base 2 LAN. Inter-State Campuses interconnected via 64K ISDN to AARNET. Mixed IPX TCP/IP network.

Yr 1995 - Campus LAN upgrades. Switched 10mb Ethernet core. Ethernet Cat5 Hubs at edge. Meshed Private 64K

ISDN/Frame Relay connecting Inter-State Campuses, Standardisation on TCP/IP, NT.

Yr 1997 - Lotus Notes, ISDN Video Conferencing

Yr 1991 - No campus wide networks. Individual office networks. 10base 2 LAN, No WAN, IPX based networks.

Yr 1991 - Individual Campus based Key and PABX systems. Inter campus calls via standard phone number.

HISTORY ACU Voice Network(Pre: IP Telephony)

Yr 1993 - All ACU sites integrated via Telstra Spectrum. Unique telephone number plan for each campus. 4 digit number plan.

Yr 1998 - Introduction of Repartee Voice Mail and integration with Telstra Spectrum. Review of ACU Voice Strategy

Approx $1.8million per annum on Voice with Telstra.

Key Factors for Reviewing Voice Strategy

80% of voice traffic is inter-campus with 65% STD.

Ongoing problems with billing.

Difficulty in maintaining accurate Phone Directory information.

Long Add/Move/Change Lead times.

$2.4m DEETYA Grant for Network Infrastructure upgrade of ACU Data and Voice network.

Catalyst for Change

1998

Data Network Upgrade

Yr 2000 - WAN 34M Microwave to AARNET. ATM WAN Transport. Private ACU ISDN network decommissioned.

- LAN Gigabit Ethernet Core 10/100M to the desktop Cisco Works NMS

Yr 1999 - RFPs issued for WAN and LAN components Selection of Vendors ATI and CISCO.

Private PABX network with Switched Permanent Circuits.

Voice Strategy Options

PABX with VoIP trunking. - (Review of the CSIRO experience)

IP Telephony

Long distance telephone traffic to major Australian capital citiesvia VoIP over AARNet

Review of CSIRO Experience

Local area calls transferred from AARNet to CSIRO PABX, thenswitched to local PSTN

6,000 calls per working day

90% saving on call charges

Voice quality is high

Forecasted Cost savings of approx 600K per annum

ACU IP Telephony Decision Criteria

Leverage of LAN/WAN investment

In house Adds/Moves/Changes

Platform for future services.

Confidence from CSIRO experience.

CISCO AVVID solution. Total cost $634,000

ACU IP Telephony Solution

1000 IP handsets . Cisco 7960

12 x Call Managers.

6 x Cisco 3640 ISDN Gateways

CallManager CallManager

End-to-End IP Telephony with Application EnablementEnd-to-End IP Telephony with Application Enablement

Router/GW Router/GW

IP WAN

Migration from Spectrum to IP Telephony- Number Portability- PSTN Access/Numbering- Service Transparency

ACU IP Telephony Implementation Issues

IP Telephony Design Considerations- Layer 2/Layer 3

- QoS- Least Cost Routing- Codec Selection

Voice Mail and Analog Device Support (Fax).

Contingency and Management

Pilot - 3 months Dec 99 to March 2001- 100 Handsets. - Library Pilot Group

ACU IP Telephony Implementation History

Full rollout - March 2001- 1000 handsets- Parallel IP Telephony and Spectrum systems.

Staff Training - May 2001.

Unity Voice Mail Rollout and Integration - May 2001

Full Replacement of Spectrum System with IP Telephony.

STRATEGIC BUSINESS ADVANTAGES OF VoIP

VoIP technology can provide cost savings

Interface to Corporate address book, point & click dialing

Provides one stop interface to voice mail and email

Provides easy roaming facilities

Caveats

Integration issues with some legacy Analogue equipment.

QoS issues must be identified and carefully designed for.

IP Telephony requires a major redesign of network infrastructure

Current network staff can support VoIP installation

Displacement of STD and ISD calls is key to savings

Payback periods are changing as carriers offer more competitivevoice tariffs

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Stephen Kingham, Project Manager and Consulting Engineer, IT CSIRO

Peter Cox, AVVID Systems Engineer, CISCO

Graeme Allen, Consulting Systems Engineer, CISCO

AARNET staff

CISCO staff