eSpace 7950 IP Phone - Bad sound quality

The customer was experiencing bad sound quality with his eSpace 7950 IP phones mostly when holding conferences with external parties.

None

1. I checked the IP phone version.
              Found out that the IP phones version was not up to date.
              I suggested to the customer to upgrade the IP phones to the latest software version.
2. I checked the environment/topology where the calls were made.
              The customer was making conferences with external parties. This meant long duration calls and a lot of bandwidth used.
3. I checked the codec negotiated by phones by asking a wireshark trace.
              I analyzed the wireshark trace and found out that the customer was using G.722 codec, which takes a lot of bandwidth compared to G.729 for example. I suggested to the customer to change the settings on the IP phones from G.722 to G.729A/B. You cand find this setting on the IP phone web manangement page in the Advanced - > Media - > Voice Codec Priority tab.
4. I checked if customer had any QoS policies implemented.
              I noticed in the wireshark trace that customer sent back, that there were no COS or DSCP tagged packets.
              I checked the qos configuration on the IP PBX with these commands:


[%eSpace U1980(config)]#show qos mode
                           
Vlan function: disable

====  Command executed success !  ====

[%eSpace U1980(config)]#show qos rule

QoS Rule

Ruleid Rulename Protocoltype Beginport Endport Vlanid Vlanpriortity Rfctype Rfcpriority
------ -------- ------------ --------- ------- ------ ------------- ------- -----------
0      ---      OTHER        ---       ---     0      0             ---     ---
Rfcservertype
-------------
---

====  Command executed success !  ====


There was no QoS configuration.



5. After the customer updated the IP phones software version and changed the codec to G.729A/B, the sound quality was back to normal. 

1. I checked the IP phone version.
2. I checked the environment/topology where the calls were made.
3. I checked the codec negotiated by phones by asking a wireshark trace.
4. I checked if customer had any QoS policies implemented.

Always check the bandwidth requirenments for your needs and also take QoS implementation into consideration.