Network Integration

Telephony

Voice communication has been a part of every business for the past 100 years. In the age of live streaming data and instant contact to anywhere in the world telephone systems are often second in thought or even over looked all together. Telephones are still a fundamental part of any business and being so, should be maintained with the care often only given to data communications. Huffman Trucking has a somewhat standard telephone system in place at each of its locations. For all but one of its locations it uses a standard PBX (Private Branch Exchange) system. The California Plant uses a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system. PBX systems have been the standard for many years but lately VoIP is beginning to pick up a fare share of the market.

VoIP opposed to PBX, has much more functionality over the internet and in the long run is much cheaper. Switching all Huffman Trucking locations to VoIP standardizes system maintenance as well as function. The first thing that must be done is all phone wiring, Cat3 and Cat5 cabling will need to be replaced with Cat6 cable. This will extend the network cable life by at least 10 to 12 years. Installing a Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 3000 (BE3000) at the California Plant will cover the voice needs of the whole company. The BE3000 provides up to 300 users/400 devices to 10 different locations (9 remote). It uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for all line-side devices, SIP trunking and PC-based attendant console that can be used by low level IT personnel to manage call switching. The BE3000 also supports applications like Cisco WebEx Connect and Cisco IP Communicator. It also supports voicemail, callback, shared line, call forward, caller ID, Call hold, teleworker, conferencing, video calling (with Cisco 8900 series phones) and software line phones.

Topology

Huffman Trucking is defiantly dated when it comes to network topology. Four out of its eight locations use an...