Equivoice Infrastructure

EquiNET is the Equivoice IP communications infrastructure. EquiNET is designed to efficiently transmit VoIP traffic by creating a metropolitan IP Centrex network. The network consists of an edge router connected to the public Internet via a fast Ethernet connection. Client sites are connected to the network via a data T1 line that uses PPP encapsulation for data traffic. The T1 terminates in a DS3 HUB on the edge router.

Equivoice installs and maintains a Cisco 28xx router on the client site. These routers have two Ethernet interfaces. The first interface is given a public IP subnet. The client uses this interface to access the public Internet. Equivoice assigns a private IP segment to the second interface. This interface is used only for VoIP. The private segment is part of a 10.0.0.0 network that Equivoice uses for its VoIP service.

IP telephones are connected to the network via a Cisco Catalyst Data Switch. Each phone has a two-port Ethernet switch. One port connects the IP phone to the data switch. The other port can connect a PC to the data network. This enables a complete workstation with phone and PC to be supported by a single CAT 5 cable.

The IP phones are placed in their own VLAN, no other devices are allowed on this VLAN. The IP addresses of the VLAN are part of the 10.x.x.x. Network (subnet), assigned to the private network Ethernet interface. This Ethernet port is the default gateway for the IP telephones. The client’s data devices use the public Ethernet segment and the LAN topology can be customized to meet the client’s unique requirements. Using a separate VLAN for IP telephones minimizes their network design impact.

This topology is made possible by the use of 802.1q frame tagging. 802.1q allows a PC and IP telephone to use the same port on a data switch, and to be members of a separate VLAN. This infrastructure enables Equivoice to minimize or eliminate the critical network issues associated with VoIP.

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