As part of its global strategic alliance, Extreme Networks and Avaya work together to help customers build open standards-based converged networks to support the integration of advanced communications applications. This includes switches and IP telephony and communications software that is proven interoperable
The Tolly Group evaluated the Extreme Networks core/edge LAN infrastructure's ability to deliver "triple play" voice, video and data applications in networks with varying levels of congestion.
Specifically, the test benchmarked behaviour when congestion occurs on the "ingress" (inbound) data path to the switching backplane of a core Ethernet switch, which can be more demanding than when congestion occurs on the "egress" (outbound) port from a core switch back to out to the network edge. With converged voice and video becoming primary applications within the corporate enterprise and where many traffic streams converge on a single network, it is essential for organisations to implement highly available networks that can readily prioritise traffic.
In measuring Quality of Service (QoS) for converged applications, The Tolly Group evaluated the effectiveness of network switches' capability to protect and deliver prioritised voice, video, and data traffic when there is congestion going to the switch backplane. Extreme Networks' BlackDiamond 8800 and 10K modular switches and Summit 400 fixed switches were able to deliver 100 percent of voice over IP (VoIP) calls and deliver toll-quality voice when the low-priority background traffic load increased.
"There is a perception by some that in order to support 'triple-play' services effectively, users need to deploy a homogenous transport infrastructure, with switches and IP telephony all from the same vendor," said Kevin Tolly, president/CEO/founder of The Tolly Group. "Our Avaya/Extreme testing confirms that simply is not the case. Users can blend high-quality IP telephony products from Avaya and deploy them over an Extreme Networks transport network and achieve a high level of performance."
"The Tolly Group testing demonstrates QoS performance leadership and shows how customers can rely on Extreme Networks to deploy a 'triple play' network infrastructure for voice, video and data, with traffic prioritization and high availability," said Richard De Soto, director of IP telephony strategic initiatives for Extreme Networks.