VoIP and the Differences Between Analog and Digital Signaling

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:10So in this go, we kick it off by welcoming you to the course.

0:13We'll have a discussion about Cisco certifications

0:15in the event you want to go down that path.

0:17We'll talk about the impact of VoIP today.

0:20And also, we'll look at analog and digital signaling,

0:23see how they operate, and see the differences between both.

0:25So I thank you for taking the journey with me,

0:27and I'll see you in the next video.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:10Hello, and welcome.

0:11My name is Lalo.

0:12And I'm a trainer here at CBT Nuggets.

0:14And I wanted to start off this series

0:16to let you know what to expect from this course,

0:18but also discuss who exactly this course is for.

0:20Maybe you're new to Cisco Voice.

0:22Maybe you took a role with a different team

0:25within your company.

0:25Or maybe you start a new job, where you

0:27are a part of the voice team.

0:29Or maybe you're starting your journey

0:30pursuing Cisco certifications, but notice

0:32that most of the voice certifications

0:34start at the CCNP level.

0:36So if you're in either of those areas,

0:38you're in the right place.

0:39So let's get started, and dive in.

0:41So as I began to explain, this course

0:44is really for two kind of folks.

0:46So maybe you applied for a position, maybe

0:49it's a junior voice admin, or junior administrator.

0:54And within that environment, maybe you have CUCM,

0:57you have unity connection, you have phones,

1:01you also have video endpoints.

1:04You have other applications in your environment

1:07that are integrated into voice, like maybe call recording,

1:10or maybe a call center application,

1:11like Contact Center Express, but at the end of the day,

1:15you're walking into a collaboration infrastructure.

1:19Now this position maybe was internal,

1:21so you came from a different team,

1:23or this is an external position, so you're coming

1:26from outside of the company.

1:28But at the end of the day, you may lack the experience

1:31to fully understand the collaboration environment,

1:34or to administer it.

1:36Maybe your job role requires you to perform moves,

1:40adds, and changes.

1:41So when there's a new hire, or maybe an employee

1:43move to a different department.

1:45Or maybe one end point has a send channel in 1001,

1:49and they want the name change on that endpoint.

1:53Or they want the number of rings before it goes

1:56to voicemail to be different.

1:58So this may be your primary role.

2:01Again, the role of a junior admin,

2:04while the more senior folks, he or she,

2:06take care of the infrastructure.

2:08So my goal here is to lay out the foundation

2:10that you need to fully understand and administer

2:12the environment.

2:13So when you're actually doing that move out or change,

2:15that you understand what a calling search base is,

2:17that you understand what a partition is,

2:20and that we also understand some of the different options,

2:22the different knobs that you can turn within,

2:25CUCM, for example, that will make

2:27you a better administrator.

2:28In the past, I've encountered many folks who

2:30are making changes throughout the environment,

2:32but don't fully understand the impact of those changes.

2:35They just know that that person should

2:37be in this calling search base.

2:38Or this person should be assigned

2:40this number, or this partition.

2:42Quite often, when there's a new member of the team,

2:44and they renew the voice, I often

2:46volunteered my time to kind of show them the ropes.

2:48This is what CUCM does.

2:49Here's a phone booth process.

2:51I would also show them things like here's

2:53a process when we have a new hire,

2:54or when an employee leaves the company.

2:56Or when you see this type of ticket,

2:57this is what we need to address.

2:59So what I was trying to do is take the fear

3:01away of coming to a new environment, especially

3:04new technology, like voice over IP,

3:06but to also make them more comfortable.

3:09And why?

3:09Because I used to be in that spot.

3:11I remember my first day walking into the LAN WAN

3:13team, local area and wide area network,

3:16and they also administered voice not knowing anything

3:19about voice whatsoever.

3:21I was fortunate enough that they gave me an opportunity

3:23to be part of the team, understanding that I

3:26needed a bunch of training.

3:27So I had many mentors show me the ropes,

3:30take the time to show me this is how this works.

3:32And when you see this type of ticket, or this type of error,

3:35this is what this means.

3:36And that really helped with my learning curve, my confidence,

3:39and really helped me launch my career.

3:41And I truly cannot thank those team members enough for what

3:44they did for me.

3:44So that's the same approach I'm going to try to use here

3:47is, to welcome you to the team.

3:49And for you and I to go over different concepts different

3:52technologies.

3:53And we'll definitely go through a lot of demos

3:55where I actually show you a lot of these concepts.

3:57So again, my goal here is to take the fear out

3:59of the technology to make you more comfortable,

4:01and make you a better administrator.

4:04Now maybe you're here because you want

4:06to pursue CISCO certifications.

4:08Now you may remember, or may not,

4:10that there used to be a CCNA voice.

4:12That was retired.

4:14And then we had and a collaboration.

4:18And that included voice and video, then that was retired.

4:22And now we only have the CCNA.

4:25So if we navigate to the current CCNA, as of today,

4:29here we see the exam topics.

4:32But I can tell you that voice is not part of this exam.

4:36Well, there's a lot of good information here.

4:38We have some great content here at CBT Nuggets

4:41that goes over this exam, but there's not really much voice

4:45here.

4:46So if we go out to Cisco's training and certifications,

4:50and I'll scroll down to view career paths.

4:56Let me zoom in here.

4:57So here we have that CCNA exam.

5:00So that's your associate level exam.

5:05Now if you want to take them further,

5:07you can pursue the professional level exams.

5:09So here we have different tracks here,

5:11the enterprise, service provider, data center security,

5:14and we have collaboration.

5:16And here at CBT Nuggets, I have created a content for CLCOR,

5:19also for CLACCM, but if you knew the voice,

5:23there's this gap here.

5:24The expectation before you pursue your CCNP collaboration

5:28is that you have some experience and some knowledge

5:30of the collaboration environment.

5:32And that's where I find a lot of people

5:34have trouble, because they find it a little bit overwhelming

5:37to jump into these books and courses,

5:39because it requires that you have

5:41some experience in the field.

5:44And that's the reason that CBT Nuggets

5:46is allowing me to create a course just

5:47like this, to fill in that gap.

5:50And then of course, if you pass the professional level exam,

5:53and if you're a boss, you can definitely

5:54go over the CCIE, the expert level exams.

5:58So let me go back here.

6:00And I will scroll down.

6:02And here we see entry exams.

6:05So that chart that we previously looked

6:06at, so the associate, professional, and expert.

6:09And here we see entry exams.

6:11And we have here, the CCT collaboration,

6:16standing for Cisco Certified Technician.

6:18So let's go ahead and click this one.

6:20So here's the exam here.

6:22And we also have content here at CBT Nuggets for this course.

6:25But if we look at the exam topics,

6:29we see here this is really for a technician type of job role

6:33where you're deploying endpoints, or replacing

6:35endpoints.

6:36So to scroll down a bit.

6:38So here we have a little bit about the collaboration

6:40environment.

6:41So notice there's a lot of describe here and introduce,

6:44so we don't see configure here, for example.

6:47Here we see the different types of hardware

6:49we would see in our environment.

6:51So luckily, I had so many of this hardware in my lab

6:54environment.

6:55So I was able to demo that in that series.

6:58And then we have a big section here on service knowledge.

7:01So here, we're really focusing on the endpoint.

7:03How to backup and config on the endpoint.

7:06How to connect to it via SSH, how

7:08to upgrade the software on the endpoint itself, how to factory

7:13reset a phone for example.

7:15That will tell you this is what your job role

7:17is within your corporation or your company, then excellent.

7:20But we don't see here how to configure hand pallets,

7:23for example, how to administer CUCM, pointing search bases,

7:28partitions, rail patterns.

7:30That's not covered by the topics of this exam.

7:33So, again, my goal here is to fill up

7:35that gap for those junior admins,

7:37or those voice administrators that are starting out

7:40in their careers.

7:42So what if you are interested in getting CISCO certified?

7:44I initially was going to talk about this in this Nugget,

7:47but I'll save that, so I gave it enough time for the following

7:50Nugget.

7:51So with collaboration, one of the things I tried to demystify

7:54is that we just don't make phones ring.

7:55But the reality is, is that there's so

7:58many different technologies involved with collaboration.

8:02So we have our calling, but we also have conferencing.

8:06We also have video, we have call center.

8:09And call center's definitely a big one.

8:12We have call recording.

8:15We have paging.

8:16So there's a lot of technologies involved

8:19in the whole collaboration field.

8:21And that's why I love collaboration,

8:22because it's so involved, and there are

8:25so many moving pieces to it.

8:26So some final tests before we close out this Nugget,

8:29I invite you to take notes whenever possible.

8:31And unless you're one of these folks with a photographic type

8:35of memory, many of us have to take notes

8:37that we have to reference later.

8:39You can go old school, take a notebook,

8:41you can use a program like OneNote,

8:44but I think you get the idea.

8:46Whenever possible, lab up concepts.

8:49And this is something I've always had to do.

8:51Not only do I have to read about it,

8:53I also had to see it work in action.

8:56And maybe you have a lab at work,

8:58so you have a lab environment.

8:59Or maybe you're fortunate enough to build a lab at home.

9:03Now building a lab at home does take some investment,

9:06it does take some configuration, but I will tell you

9:09that journey becomes very valuable because I can lab up

9:12any concept at home, and I usually

9:14to do so before doing it in a production network.

9:17With a lab environment, you don't have any fear.

9:20So you can easily hit Apply, and OK just to see what happens.

9:27Sometimes you break your lap intentionally or not

9:29intentionally, and that's a good learning opportunity there

9:33as you try to fix it.

9:34It's best for you to have these problems in your lab

9:38than have it in your production environment,

9:39when the company is down.

9:41And you're on a bridge call as everyone is trying

9:43to figure out what happened.

9:45So at the end of this course, I'll

9:46show you how I built the lab environment I

9:48am using throughout the course.

9:50And that can be helpful in the event

9:51that you want to build a lab of your own.

9:53And then finally, dig deeper.

9:55So as I mentioned before, there are

9:57two types of administrators, or engineers,

10:01or wherever your title that you may have,

10:04one that's making changes to the environment,

10:07and then two, one that is not only making changes,

10:11but also understand what those changes are.

10:16And how it affects the environment.

10:18When it comes to troubleshooting,

10:20this person, he or she, will be a rock star,

10:23especially when it comes to troubleshooting,

10:25because they can look at a configuration

10:27and see, oh, the reason we're having

10:29this issue because this option here was set,

10:31compared to someone else who is following a template making

10:36changes and then something goes wrong.

10:38But at that point, they have to get someone involved,

10:40because their troubleshooting skills are not that deep.

10:43And I will tell you this was me at the beginning of my career

10:47just making changes because someone

10:49told me to do it a certain way.

10:51And then later, especially when I had my own lab environment,

10:54I started to dig a little bit deeper, then this became me.

10:59I was making changes to my environment,

11:01but fully understanding the implications

11:03of making those changes.

11:05So when something went wrong, I knew

11:07what area I had to investigate to see

11:11if I can resolve the issue.

11:13All right, so with that, I hope it's been informative for you.

11:16And I would like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:10Certifications and exams.

0:12For some of us, exams, when we hear that word,

0:14we cringe because these exams can be quite difficult.

0:17But once you pass these exams and get certified,

0:19then you're proud of yourself because of the journey

0:22it took to get to that point.

0:23So I want to take some time here to talk

0:25about these exams, how one gets CCNP collaboration certified.

0:29We'll also talk about how one gets recertified,

0:31and we'll also talk about the specialist certifications.

0:34So let's get started and dive in.

0:36So when it comes to Cisco exams, they are very beneficial,

0:38and they look very good on your resume

0:40because it tells someone that you

0:42dedicated time and resources to pass these exams.

0:48That can be very difficult, but the knowledge

0:52that you attain throughout the process

0:54by either reading a book or watching these courses at CBT

0:57Nuggets or relabbing these concepts yourself,

1:00that really goes a long way.

1:02And most employers would definitely recognize that.

1:04So let me give you an example here.

1:07So let's say you went after the Associate Exam,

1:09and you passed the CCNA.

1:12At that point, that certification

1:13is valid for three years.

1:16You may ask yourself, well, how do I

1:17recertify that certification?

1:20And that would be a good question.

1:22And if we go to the recertification policy--

1:25and by the way, throughout this course,

1:27if you see me browse to a URL, I will have that reference

1:30within a document that you can download yourself.

1:33So you can also have that for your notes

1:35or visit that page later.

1:37So if I scroll down a bit and go under How to Recertify,

1:41and let me go here.

1:43So as we just talked about, the Associate Exam

1:45is good for three years.

1:47So we can recertify by taking another Associate Exam.

1:52So that would be the CCNA once again.

1:56Or you can take the Cisco Certified DevNet

1:58Associate or the Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate.

2:02Either one of those will also renew your CCNA.

2:05So let's say you have your CCNA.

2:08You obtain that October of 2022.

2:13Then you pass this exam maybe February of 2024.

2:19So once you pass that CCDA in February,

2:22now both certifications are good until February 2027.

2:29So I think that's definitely neat

2:31that your previous certification of CCNA

2:34also is renewed for another three years.

2:37Now for the associate, you can also

2:38pass one of the concentration exams or technology core exams.

2:44So we see here--

2:46let me scroll back up to the CCNP exams.

2:49So if you have your CCNA and you pass either a technology core

2:54exam or a concentration exam, that also renews your CCNA

3:00for another three years.

3:02You also can attend certain Cisco-approved classes,

3:05for example, and earn CE or Continuing Education credits.

3:11And this can go toward your recertification.

3:13So let's say you go for your CCNP Collaboration, which

3:17requires you to pass the core exam and any one

3:21of these concentration exams.

3:23That will allow you to be CCNP collaboration certified.

3:26So this is also good for three years.

3:29And how would we go about recertifying CCNP?

3:33Before answering that, just know if you pass any of these tests,

3:36each one of these will give you a specialist certification.

3:40So here we go under Cisco Certified Specialist

3:43Certifications.

3:44Let me scroll down a bit.

3:45I'll choose Collaboration, and these are the same as the names

3:49that we see listed right there.

3:53So maybe you are at the beginning

3:55of your journey for your CCNP and you

3:57pass your 300-815 collaboration core control

4:01and mobility implementation.

4:04So at this point, you may not have your CCNP,

4:06but you have your specialist certification,

4:09giving you some credit for passing that exam.

4:13And what's nice about this is that you

4:15can focus on certain technologies deployed

4:17in your environment.

4:19So as we stated, this will definitely give you

4:21your specialist certifications.

4:23But once you pass one of these along with the core exam,

4:27you now become a CCNP Collaboration

4:30certified individual.

4:32So now back to our question, how do we recertify our CCNP?

4:36Let's scroll down a bit.

4:38So jumping back to Specialist real quick,

4:40if you pass one of those exams, also good for three years.

4:42And to renew that, you need to pass another, either the same

4:47or another concentration exam to renew that certification, which

4:52also renews your associate certification.

4:55Now, if you're a CCNP and you want

4:58to renew this certification, then at this point,

5:01we need to pass either one core exam or two

5:05separate concentration exams.

5:07So going back to our list here, so you're already

5:10CCNP certified.

5:11So we need to either pass a core exam in order

5:15to renew that CCNP, or we can choose to take

5:18two concentration exams.

5:20And in doing so, that will also renew your CCNP.

5:24But the beauty in all this is I have this certification

5:28here along with the enterprise.

5:29If I renew my CCNP collaboration,

5:32it automatically renews my CCNP Enterprise certification along

5:36with my CCNA.

5:38So previously, back in the day, when you got your CCNP Voice,

5:42you had to pass five exams to achieve that certification.

5:46And like every other physical exam, this wasn't easy.

5:48So let's say you pass CVOICE, CIPT1, CIPT2, and you pass

5:53CAPPS, you've passed four out of five,

5:56but you will not be recognized until you actually

5:58pass the fifth exam.

5:59And you didn't have to take in that order,

6:01but until you pass all five exams, at that point,

6:03you're recognized as a CCNP Voice.

6:06And this is the beauty about today's specialist

6:08certifications is that along your journey,

6:11you can get recognized for passing a concentration exam.

6:14So even though you may not be CCNP collaboration quite yet,

6:18you are a Cisco Certified Specialist.

6:20This also allows you to focus on certain areas.

6:23So for example, one person could be a CCNP collaboration,

6:26pass the core exam along with the automation concentration

6:30exam.

6:31Someone else might have passed the core exam,

6:33but they also pass Collaboration Cloud and Edge Implementation.

6:37So here we have two individuals, each one

6:39having a different skill set based on the exam

6:42that they passed, focusing on certain technologies.

6:45So in this Nugget, we had a discussion about Cisco exams,

6:48so how one can get certified by Cisco.

6:51We also talked about recertification

6:53because remember, the certifications

6:55are good for three years.

6:56So in order to be recognized as a certified individual,

6:59we saw the way that you could recertify.

7:01And then finally, we saw how there

7:02were specialist certifications that gave you a certain status,

7:06even though you weren't a CCNP yet.

7:08So I stated before, the certification journey

7:10is definitely worth it.

7:11It is a long and hard journey at times,

7:13but at the end of the day, you being certified

7:16can take you a long way.

7:17So with that, I hope this has been informative for you,

7:19and I would like to thank you for viewing.

0:10So in this Nugget, we'll discuss the impact of voice over IP

0:13today.

0:13The way that we communicate today

0:15is definitely different than we did 20 years ago.

0:17We'll also talk about what it means

0:19to have a convergent network.

0:20And we'll see why a business will want

0:22to use voice over IP today.

0:24So the way that we communicate is definitely different.

0:26Like today we're definitely in different times.

0:28I remember being a kid--

0:29that's me being a kid-- and my mom and dad

0:32having to go to payphones.

0:33I was raised in the '80s, by the way.

0:35Or I remember someone leaving a voicemail on your answering

0:39machine, and you had a couple of days

0:41to get back to that person.

0:42And one can go to a park and just enjoy the view

0:45without being bothered.

0:46But now, especially with mobile phones,

0:48this is quite different.

0:49You could be at a park gazing at the water, enjoying the view.

0:53And someone can give you a phone call.

0:55It looks like a shark in the water.

0:57Point being here that anyone is really

0:59a phone call or a text away.

1:01In talking I can be stuck in my car, stuck in traffic,

1:04and partaking on a conference call.

1:07Which I'm sure many of us had done before either sitting

1:09in your car, staying at a coffee shop, or maybe you're on lunch.

1:12And now with video being really popular today,

1:15instead of having an audio conference call,

1:17you easily could be having a face

1:19to face video conference with someone.

1:21Think about instant messaging.

1:24Maybe you have a client like Cisco Webex, for example,

1:28or maybe I am in presence.

1:30In the past if I had a document here--

1:33here's my document-- that I was working on,

1:35I could email that document to someone.

1:38And they can modify it or email it back.

1:41Maybe I can save the document on a network drive.

1:44And then the other person could access that same document,

1:46and get back to me.

1:47But now with a messaging client--

1:49let's say this was James--

1:51I can message James, and either attach this document

1:54right here.

1:54Or maybe it's in a shared team space, for example.

1:57Then James can immediately open up that document,

1:59make any changes to that document on the fly.

2:02Or we can have a conversation going back and forth

2:05through messages that does not involve audio

2:08though a phone call, or video.

2:10Now think about this, how many times

2:12have you been part of a group conversation about a project,

2:14or maybe an application is down, and there's

2:17a full blown conversation but just messages

2:19being sent back and forth.

2:20Someone can put in a URL there, someone

2:22can reference a document, for example.

2:24But all this being done via applications

2:26that are part of our collaboration environment.

2:28Now recently with the pandemic, we

2:30had kids at home, but still able to participate in school.

2:36So your child can have their book,

2:38and still be part of a classroom environment or virtual,

2:43with the help of video conferencing.

2:45This definitely could not have been possible

2:4710 or 15 years ago.

2:48Think about when you call a bank.

2:51I can easily call a main number, and navigate

2:53through option 1, 2, 3, and 4.

2:58Maybe 1 is to open up an account, 2 is to report fraud,

3:023 is for customer service, and then

3:054, maybe we're talking about a business account.

3:08But here we can navigate to the IVR

3:10and eventually reach an agent, and he or she could help you

3:14with any one of those things.

3:15Previously-- and my mom and dad still

3:17do this to this day-- they drive to the bank, which

3:19is a couple of miles down the road,

3:21and wait in line to physically talk to a person.

3:24Now that's only a few examples here,

3:26but I think you get the idea.

3:27But I'm pretty sure all of us can think of many ways

3:30that voice over IP has impacted the way that we communicate.

3:33Not only in our personal lives, but also

3:35in our business and work environments.

3:37So you might have heard the term 'converge networks.'

3:41And for us to understand what that really means,

3:43let's look at a network that is not converged.

3:45So you may have a different network for your data,

3:48different network for voice, different network for video.

3:52So with data, here we can have our computers or our laptops

3:55or our printers, our scanners.

3:57I mean, tons of different devices

3:58that we can have on our data network.

4:00For voice we can have non IP phones.

4:04And those phones require special hardware or special protocols

4:07or special software to manage the environment.

4:10The same applies to our video.

4:12Maybe we have special cables, along with certain kind

4:15of hardware in order to manage that video environment.

4:17But here we see three different networks

4:19that someone or a group of people have to maintain.

4:22So here we see three different dedicated networks.

4:25This is harder to maintain.

4:27So take the example of Voice here.

4:29So maybe we have an old phone system.

4:33And let's say we have a problem with that phone,

4:35or Jane retires and now there's someone

4:37else who is sitting there.

4:39Someone has to come out who is familiar with that phone system

4:42and assist us with making those changes,

4:44or assist us with troubleshooting

4:45why that phone is not working.

4:47Same thing for video here.

4:48Maybe the network guys or those guys and girls

4:50who maintain our network are not familiar with this third party

4:54video system.

4:55So, therefore, every time we have a change or have an issue,

4:57we have to call this third party company to come out.

5:00And, obviously, this does have a cost associated with it

5:04because no one really comes out to fix your stuff for free.

5:07You may have different cabling for all three networks.

5:10You may have different protocols that are being

5:12used for all these networks.

5:15So now when we're talking about a converged network,

5:18we're talking about a network that

5:20can transmit data, voice, and video all on that same network.

5:24So here we don't have a need to maintain

5:26their front infrastructures or their front networks.

5:28All these networks can be administered

5:31by the IT department.

5:33Many times we can use the same network cabling.

5:36So in the back of a Cisco phone, we

5:39have a port that we can connect our desktop to.

5:42So our PC is connected to our phone,

5:44and then the phone is connected to a jack on the wall,

5:47for example.

5:48But here we have not only our computer,

5:50but our phone being used on the same network,

5:53being able to use network cables instead

5:55of proprietary cables used by a traditional phone system.

5:59You could use the same vendor for all three

6:02types of solutions.

6:03So if you want to you can use Cisco for data, for voice,

6:08and for video.

6:09And then these services are easier

6:11to deploy because now we can design our networks especially

6:15when we have new buildings that come up.

6:17And those networks have the ability

6:19to offer all three services.

6:21This is the reason that most cable companies will offer

6:24not only cable TV services, but also internet,

6:28along with phone services.

6:30So they bundle all these services together

6:32because it's going over the same network.

6:34And also today in some areas we have more bandwidth,

6:38definitely making this possible, especially when you're

6:40watching hybrids losing content, like Netflix and 4K,

6:44for example.

6:44Why would a business want to go with voice over IP?

6:47So we have Moves, Adds, and Changes.

6:49So previously you might have had an older telephone system,

6:53and someone had to come out.

6:54And that person, he or she would charge

6:57to perform any Moves, Adds, or Changes,

6:59or to troubleshoot an issue.

7:01So let's say we have Kelly.

7:02And Kelly is moving offices instead of calling someone out

7:06to make that change.

7:07We now have the ability to perform that change ourselves

7:12if it's inside the CUCM, for example.

7:14Kelly can just pick up her phone,

7:16and take it to their new office.

7:17Or maybe she issue a new phone, and someone on the VoIP team

7:21reconfigure their phone remotely.

7:23And then Kelly is good to go.

7:25If we spoke about, it simplifies cabling.

7:28It is not everything, data, voice, and video

7:30are going over that beta network.

7:32These services cannot be administered by IT staff.

7:36We have folks now who are familiar

7:37with your collaboration environment and applications.

7:40And they can either do these MACs,

7:42or they can make changes to the environment

7:44to better serve the business.

7:46You have application consolidation.

7:48So let's say you are a hotel.

7:52You can improve the customer experience.

7:54So maybe you have endpoints in that environment that

7:58can give guests who are staying at that hotel

8:00information about local attractions, restaurants,

8:03room services, weather forecasts.

8:05Maybe they can check out via the phone.

8:08You're providing the ability for that customer

8:10to get all the information using technology

8:13that you have provided.

8:14And this helps your staff because he or she is not

8:17bombarded with phone calls from people

8:19staying at your hotel saying, what's for breakfast today?

8:22Is there anything you do around here?

8:24I'm from out of town, do you know

8:25what the weather forecast is?

8:26Or maybe take a hospital, for example.

8:28So with a wireless phone, that being a wireless Cisco phone,

8:32every nurse could have a phone on them.

8:35So now they can make internal calls all day

8:37long using the voice over IP system.

8:40Maybe they can receive a messages on their phone.

8:43Example, they may be paged by a doctor

8:45or from the patient in room 201.

8:47Or maybe they can receive updates

8:49from hospital systems that would make them

8:52more efficient at their job.

8:53We have toll bypass.

8:55So let's say I had office in Tampa,

8:57also had a office in Chicago, and also

9:00had an office in Las Vegas.

9:02If all these sites were connected together,

9:05then someone from Tampa could call someone in Chicago

9:08as if it was a local call.

9:10I wouldn't have to pay long distance charges, for example.

9:12Why?

9:12Because that phone call is now being made internally

9:15through my network.

9:16We have features like extension mobility.

9:18So you may have a bunch of cubicles, 1, 2, 3, so that's 4.

9:25And each cubicle has a phone.

9:27So I can walk in here, and I can pick any cubicle that I want.

9:30Maybe that one right there.

9:32And with attention mobility, I can log into the phone,

9:35and, therefore, I get my extension.

9:37My name shows up on the phone, along with any other features

9:40I am accustomed to.

9:41So I can use my laptop there.

9:43I can get comfortable knowing that I have my phone there.

9:47Or maybe this is a call center environment.

9:49So if I'm an agent, and this is my cubicle there.

9:52And then we have a problem with my phone here.

9:54So what occurs here is that I am not

9:56able to work because I need someone from IT to come

9:59out and look at my phone, possibly diagnose

10:01it, and troubleshoot it, replace it.

10:03So I can easily lose one hour--

10:06and that's being really generous--

10:08but one hour of time where I'm not taking phone

10:10calls for this call center.

10:11Now this affects the rest of my call center

10:13because now there's many calls in queue.

10:15Customers are having to wait longer than usual because I'm

10:18unable to take phone calls.

10:19But with extension mobility, I can simply

10:21go to a different cubicle, log in, and then continue to work.

10:25Now I can still contact IT about that phone

10:27that's not working there.

10:28But for the time being, can continue

10:30to take phone calls that are coming into the call center.

10:33We have website integration.

10:35Often you go to a website, then a pop up comes up

10:38saying, hey, do you need help?

10:40And you can open up a chat session

10:42with someone, an agent on the other end.

10:45And they can assist you with your customer support issue,

10:48with troubleshooting.

10:49So that customer didn't have to dial a phone number,

10:52they simply went to your website and opted for that chat

10:56that was presented to them.

10:57So with the employee voice over IP,

10:59do we just rip and replace the old phone system?

11:01And the answer is no because that's a drastic of a change.

11:04Now we're doing a Greenfield deployment,

11:06so we are creating a network from scratch

11:09for a new company or a new office,

11:10and that may be different.

11:12So let's say you have 50 offices or locations

11:15in your environment, you may want

11:17to upgrade them to a voice over IP location by location.

11:21So we're talking more of a phased approach.

11:23That would be easier for the adoption

11:25of this voice over IP system.

11:27Plus it gives your IT staff a really great chance

11:30of a successful deployment.

11:31In fact, this is exactly what we did in one of my previous jobs.

11:36So we would go to one of those sites, maybe site A.

11:38And we would sit down with the folks

11:40and say, how many phones do you have?

11:43Keep in mind this is a site that had the traditional phone

11:47system, and we were converting them to voice over IP.

11:49Do you have voicemail?

11:50Do you have a IVR, so a menu that a customer

11:53could choose from?

11:54Do we have any phone numbers that we

11:56have to put over or port over to that new system?

11:59Are there any shared lines?

12:01Do we need switches that provide PoE?

12:03And we'll talk about power over ethernet in a future Nugget.

12:06But the takeaway here is that we will

12:08do a site survey to see what the needs were for that location.

12:12And we took that approach on a site per site basis,

12:16ensuring that we had a successful deployment

12:18as we went from that traditional PBX over to voice over IP.

12:23So in this Nugget, we went over the impact of voice over IP

12:26as we see it today.

12:28It truly changes the way that we communicate.

12:30We also talked about converged networks,

12:32and why we would want to use voice over IP today.

12:35So I hope this has been informative for you,

12:36I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:10I find many things truly fascinating--

0:11the fact that we can just turn lights on and off

0:13in a flick of a switch.

0:15The fact that I can compose an email, hit

0:17send, and someone on the other side of the globe

0:19can receive it immediately.

0:20The simple act of making a phone call is no different.

0:23Years ago, when it was common to have a house

0:25phone, how many folks picked up the receiver and made

0:27a phone call and never thought twice about the process?

0:30So in this Nugget, I want to discuss analog

0:32signaling when it comes to the traditional phone system.

0:34We'll also talk about some of the limitations and noise

0:37on line.

0:38And this is a good conversation to have,

0:40especially if you're new to voice.

0:41I, like many folks, were new to voice at some point in time

0:44in their career.

0:45And then we'll follow up in the following Nugget

0:47where we compare this to digital signaling.

0:49So let's get started and dive in.

0:51I often wonder what people thought when

0:53the telephone first came out.

0:55I wonder if people saw the potential of the telephone,

0:57or they were like, telephone, who needs them?

1:00One of my first jobs was working at Best Buy.

1:02And I remember when there was a big announcement that they

1:05had launched BestBuy.com.

1:07And many of us sat around and discussed,

1:11why would anyone go to a website and buy something?

1:14Why not just go to a store, walk in, then look around,

1:18and make your purchase?

1:19And we were like, this would never last.

1:22So silly.

1:23And now today, most of our purchases occur online.

1:28In fact, many businesses exist today

1:30because they serve their customers online.

1:32They don't even have a building that you can walk into.

1:35So often wonder, when they created the telephone

1:38if people at that time really realized

1:41how that invention would change the way that we communicate

1:44today.

1:45So for many of us, when we were younger, maybe

1:47you had a telephone inside your house.

1:49So this phone was connected to a port, an RJ11 port.

1:52And beyond that port, there was cabling,

1:54copper wires, that connected you to the CO,

1:57or the Central Office.

1:59In the US, it's referred to as a CO, or Central Office.

2:02You might have heard this also referred to

2:04as a public exchange.

2:06But a CO is a building that contains

2:08all types of switching equipment that the telephone

2:11company maintains.

2:12So you would purchase a telephone line

2:14from the phone company.

2:15They would assign you a phone number.

2:16And anyone in the world can call you

2:18by dialing that specific phone number.

2:21And a copper wire connected you to the PSTN.

2:25Now, the PSTN is short for Public Switched Telephone

2:27Network.

2:28And it's really this gigantic network

2:31that transmits voice data.

2:33And this PSTN has been around since the 1800s.

2:36And this network is a circuit-switched network.

2:40And we'll see here shortly why they call it circuit switched.

2:43So let's say you had additional homes.

2:45They also would have their own phone lines, each phone

2:49line being connected to the CO.

2:52This makes sense because if you have a connection to the CO,

2:56then the CO could facilitate those phone calls.

2:59So this makes better sense than having a connection between all

3:02these homes.

3:03And we have a connection here, here, here, here.

3:07And I think we get the idea.

3:08So we all connect to the central office instead.

3:11And they manage the infrastructure.

3:14So when Pedro goes off hook, he hears a dial tone.

3:17He may dial the phone number for this pet store.

3:19So that phone call goes from his home,

3:21through those copper wires, over to the CO,

3:26and they route that call appropriately till eventually

3:29it gets to that pet store.

3:30And then that phone is ringing.

3:32So someone answers that phone call.

3:35And now we have a dedicated circuit between Pedro

3:38and that pet store.

3:39And this is why the PSTN network is

3:41called a circuit-switched network, because you

3:44have a circuit between the source

3:46and destination during the entire duration of that phone

3:49call.

3:50So when Pedro is talking here, how

3:52do we have his voice carried over to the front end

3:55to whoever he's talking to at the pet store?

3:58His voice is converted to electrical signals.

4:03And those signals carry the property of that voice, maybe

4:06the volume that Pedro is talking at, his pitch.

4:08The properties of that copper wire, the electrical signals,

4:12the voltage and frequency and current,

4:14that is used to transmit Pedro's voice to the other end.

4:18And those signals are converted back to sound.

4:21And that's how the other person on this end

4:23is able to hear Pedro's voice.

4:25And these same electrical signals

4:27are used for signaling purposes to determine

4:30if a phone is on hook.

4:32So this is where the receiver is currently on the phone.

4:36It can help us to determine if the phone is off hook.

4:39So if someone picks up this receiver, at that point,

4:42we hear a dial tone, when the phone is ringing.

4:45Or maybe we call someone, and the phone is busy.

4:48So all these messages are being sent over electrical signals.

4:52So as I mentioned before, this phone plugs into an RJ11 jack.

4:57In fact, let's go out to Amazon.

5:00Here's a good picture here.

5:01This is a network connection.

5:03So this is RJ45.

5:05And if we scroll down a bit, here we see a RJ11.

5:09So it's kind of tough to see.

5:11But if you ever see it physically in person,

5:13this jack here is smaller than a network jack in

5:18regards to size.

5:20And you can kind of tell that here based on this picture.

5:24So going back to our phone here, how does the phone

5:26know that Pedro pressed 1 or pressed 3.

5:29After all, we need to dial phone number

5:31to be able to reach that pet store.

5:33And that's done via DTMF, Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency.

5:38And DTMF is really the sounds that

5:40are created when a certain key is being pressed.

5:43And this is exactly how we interact with the phone system,

5:46for example, so it knows what number that we want to dial.

5:48Or maybe you are dialing an IVR and want

5:52to hit option 2 for sales, for example.

5:55DTMF is how the IVR knows that you have pressed option 2.

5:59So for example, if we hit option 1 here,

6:01there's actually two tones being transmitted

6:03at the same time, hence the name dual-tone, multi-frequency.

6:08So in fact, there's a neat site--

6:12Online Tone Generator.

6:14And here it allows you to hit the different keys.

6:17So if I hit 1, [TONE PULSING] you can hear 1 there.

6:20Now I'll hit 9, and you should hear a difference.

6:23[HIGHER TONE PULSING] Then we go 1.

6:25[ALTERNATING TONES PULSING] How about 0?

6:27[TONE PULSING]

6:28So you can see if I dial 190, their tones are different.

6:31[TONES PULSING] And again, the reason being, when I

6:35hit 6, for example, we have two different frequencies being

6:38transmitted at the same time.

6:40So one of the problems with analog signaling

6:42is the distance limitation.

6:45Those signals, which are strong at first,

6:49begin to fade over time.

6:50And that's why throughout the infrastructure

6:52we have repeaters.

6:54And what they do is regenerate that signal

6:57as it gets from a source to a destination.

7:00So this increases the distance that analog signal

7:03could possibly travel.

7:04But these repeaters cannot differentiate between the voice

7:09traveling over that telephone wire and also any noise.

7:13So for example, if you had static on that line,

7:17as that analog signal gets sent to point A to point B,

7:20that noise will also be regenerated by those repeaters.

7:25So possibly, when that signal gets to a destination,

7:28the sound may be distorted, or it just

7:30become difficult to understand because of that noise that

7:33also was regenerated.

7:35And shortly here, we'll talk about different types of noise

7:37that might exist on an analog signal.

7:40So another limitation could be wiring requirements.

7:43So imagine if you are a business and you needed many phone lines

7:47to come into your business.

7:49So let's say this building had 15 people.

7:52So you may see a scenario where you have 10 to 12 phone lines

7:58to accommodate your business.

8:00So that's 10 to 12 different set of copper wires.

8:03And you might have seen this before.

8:05Here's an example of a business with copper wires being

8:09terminated on these blocks.

8:12And this can become quite messy.

8:14But here's another picture there.

8:15And what needs to happen is that someone

8:17needs to have a butt set, take these clips here, and that's

8:21how we would connect to that phone line.

8:23Maybe we're trying to identify what phone number that line is.

8:27So this here could be your phone lines coming in from the PSTN.

8:33And then this could be the copper lines

8:35throughout your building.

8:37So let's say if Kelly is moving from the first floor

8:40to the fifth floor--

8:41let's say it's right here, for example--

8:44then we have to move that line to the connection

8:47in her new office.

8:47That could be right there.

8:49But many times these connections are not labeled correctly.

8:53So you have to find which one is 813-555-7777.

8:59And that's where you would use your butt set here.

9:02And once you identify it, at that point,

9:04you have to start moving or punching down copper wires

9:08to a different location.

9:10So when it comes to line noise, what

9:11are some examples of line noise?

9:14We'll go to another site here.

9:17And I will have a document that you

9:18can download that references all these URLs

9:21that I'm browsing to.

9:22But this one is recognizing and categorizing

9:24symptoms of voice quality problems.

9:27Now, I like this site because they actually

9:29have some samples of what you could hear out in the field.

9:34So one example you may hear is clicking.

9:36So let me turn my volume up.

9:38Let me see if we can hear this.

9:40"Green is the color of her kind, quickness of the eye

9:45deceives the mind.

9:48Envy."

9:48Now, I have no idea what that guy is talking about,

9:50but there's clipping that you can hear

9:52or pauses in that conversation.

9:55So it's almost cutting off what that gentleman is saying.

9:59Let's see what else we got.

10:01Scroll down a bit.

10:02Here's crackling.

10:04[CRACKLING INTERFERENCE]

10:09[INAUDIBLE]

10:11So many of us have heard that before.

10:13Let's do one more example.

10:16And how about hissing?

10:18[INAUDIBLE]

10:24So I hope you can hear that hissing in the background.

10:27And there are only a few of the noises

10:30that you may hear on an analog line.

10:32And then many times, if you check out your infrastructure

10:35and that seems to be OK, so you check your wiring.

10:39Everything looks good on your end.

10:40You have to get with your telephone company.

10:43And then they come out and check their infrastructure--

10:45so their cabling to your building, for example,

10:48to see if there's an issue with that wiring.

10:51Or there could be a problem with the CO

10:52to wherever that circuit is terminated at.

10:55So what could cause that line noise?

10:57Faulty wiring.

10:58So maybe the copper wire is not shielded properly.

11:01Or maybe it's not punched down all the way

11:03on that punch block.

11:04It could be the weather.

11:06So for example, we used have one building where when it rained,

11:12the ground around that building got really saturated.

11:15That's my water.

11:17And then we would get complaints saying,

11:18hey, I have static on the line, or I have whatever issue

11:22when I'm making a phone call.

11:23And what happens here is that the moisture

11:25gets on those copper lines and causes some of that line noise.

11:29We have corrosion.

11:30Some of these wires are exposed to the elements.

11:33So over time, those copper wires corrode

11:36and induces some of this noise or maybe

11:39electrical interference.

11:41So humming is caused when your copper wire may

11:44be too close to power lines.

11:46This is one example where electrical interference

11:48may cause line noise.

11:48So in the following Nugget, we'll

11:50talk about digital signaling and how

11:52that differs from the analog.

11:54And in closing, there are some parts

11:55of the world that are doing away with the PSTN.

11:59They're telling businesses they have

12:01to migrate to voice over IP, or they will no longer

12:05have any phone services.

12:06And the reason being because a lot of this infrastructure

12:09for the telephone company is older and expensive

12:12to maintain.

12:13So in this Nugget, we went over analog signaling.

12:16We saw how it worked.

12:17Here we are using electrical signaling

12:19to transmit the sound of your voice from you, the source,

12:22over to the destination.

12:24And this is done over the PSTN.

12:26We also spoke about DTMF, some of the limitations

12:29of analog signaling.

12:31And we also talked about possible line noise

12:33that you may encounter on an analog line.

12:36So I hope it's been informative for you.

12:38And I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:10In our previous Nugget, we had a discussion

0:12about analog signaling.

0:13That's when our voice or the sound of our voice

0:16was carried over electrical signals.

0:17Now, when it comes to digital signaling,

0:19we'll see that the difference comes down to 1's and 0's.

0:22So in this Nugget, we'll discuss digital signaling and why

0:24it was beneficial for the PSTN to switch

0:27from analog to digital.

0:28So around the 1960s, the telephone company

0:32was transitioning from analog to digital.

0:35When making a phone call, we still had the analog voice,

0:38but it was being digitized upstream.

0:41And this allowed telephone companies

0:43to increase the capacity within their networks.

0:47So here we're transmitting more phone calls simultaneously

0:52over that same copper wire.

0:54So the sound of your voice is being converted to 1's and 0's.

0:59And this is done via PCM, or Pulse Code Modulation.

1:05So here we are sampling the data,

1:08and we're converting each sample to some type of numeric code.

1:14So let's say this was the sound of your voice.

1:16We're sampling that data many times over a time period.

1:21So the time frame here could be 1 second, each sample having

1:26some type of numerical value.

1:27So in analog, we had a limitation of distance.

1:33And this really wasn't a problem with digital signaling,

1:36the reason being because we're transmitting

1:381's and 0's across the wire.

1:40And we're doing so along those same lines

1:42that we're using to make our phone calls.

1:46So there was a gentleman whose name was Harry Nyquist.

1:50And he found that he could reconstruct audio streams

1:52by taking samples that numbered twice the highest audio

1:57frequency that was being used in the audio.

1:59If that sounds confusing, raise your hand please.

2:02So let's break that down.

2:04So the average human ear can hear frequencies

2:09from 20 to 20,000 hertz.

2:13And as you get older in life, that number decreases.

2:16Human speech can be heard from 200 hertz

2:20all the way to 9,000 hertz.

2:24Now, studies find that understandable human speech--

2:29and I'll abbreviate it by HS--

2:31is from 300 to 3,400 hertz.

2:35So when we say understandable, we

2:37have enough sound quality there to identify the remote caller

2:41and their mood.

2:42So Nyquist was looking at the frequency

2:46from 300 to 4,000 hertz.

2:50Going back to the statement I made earlier,

2:52Nyquist found that he could reconstruct audio streams

2:55by taking the samples that numbered twice the highest

2:58audio frequency.

2:59So here, the highest numbered frequency is 4,000.

3:04So multiply that times 2.

3:07We have 8,000 samples that are being taken every second.

3:13Remember each sample having its own numerical value.

3:18Now, there's 8 bits in each sample.

3:21So you multiply that.

3:22That gives us our 64,000 bits per second,

3:27or this gives us our 64 kilobits per second.

3:32Now, we haven't gotten to codecs yet,

3:33but G.711 is a popular codec.

3:37This codec is uncompressed, but this codec

3:39consumes 64 kilobits per second per phone call.

3:44So definitely, there is no coincidence

3:46between these two right there.

3:48So after all that, what I want you to walk away with

3:51is that digital signals use numbers

3:54to represent the voice that is coming out of your mouth, which

3:59is different than analog which is using electrical signals.

4:02So when you see the term digitizing voice,

4:05we're taking our analog, converting that to digital.

4:09Then on the other end, that digital

4:12is converted back to analog.

4:14And that person hears a sound of your voice.

4:17And with digital signaling, we're

4:18able to make more phone calls over that same copper wire.

4:23This is a very big reason why telephone companies

4:25went from analog to digital.

4:28We are less susceptible to noise compared to analog signals.

4:34And during data transmission, that digital signal

4:38can be checked for errors and then corrected

4:41as it goes from a source over to a destination.

4:43And then we don't have the distance limitation

4:46that we had with analog signaling,

4:48because we're not dealing with electrical signals.

4:50I hope this has been informative for you,

4:52and I would like to thank you for viewing.