Configuring Security, Quality, and Network Features
Ensuring Voice Quality
120
Cisco SPA and Wireless IP Phone Administration Guide
6
Bandwidth Requirements
Depending on how you have your IP phones configured, each call requires 55 to
110 kbps in each direction. Therefore, using G.729 as the voice codec setting, and
with an average business-grade broadband Internet connection supporting 1.5
Mbps downstream and 384 kbps upstream, a total of seven (7) simultaneous
conversations can be reliably supported with adequate bandwidth available for
file downloads.
Cisco recommends using the Cisco IP phones with QoS-capable networking
equipment that can prioritize the VoIP application traffic. QoS features are
available on many data networking switches and routers. A QoS-enabled router
prioritizes the packets going upstream to the ISP.
The following table approximates the bandwidth budget for each side of the
conversation (in each direction) using different codecs and number of calls. This
table is based on the following assumptions:
•
Bandwidth calculated with no silence suppression
•
20 millisecond of payload per RTP packet
Codec
Est.
Bandwidth
Budget
2 Calls
4 Calls
6 Calls
8 Calls
G.711
110 kbps
220 kbps
440 kbps
660 kbps
880 kbps
G.726-40
87 kbps
174 kbps
348 kbps
522 kbps
696 kbps
G.726-32
79 kbps
158 kbps
316 kbps
474 kbps
632 kbps
G.726-24
71 kbps
142 kbps
284 kbps
426 kbps
568 kbps
G.726-16
63 kbps
126 kbps
252 kbps
378 kbps
504 kbps
G.729
55 kbps
110 kbps
220 kbps
330 kbps
440 kbps
NOTE:
The use of silence suppression can
reduce the average bandwidth budget by 30%
or more.