Addressing challenges for automating network readiness assessment service for unified communications

With the increased demand for voice, video and social networking over the network, it is important to ensure the underlying network infrastructure is ready to accommodate the extensive traffic generated by Unified Communications. Voice and video traffic by nature are sensitive to jitter, latency and packet loss, and if the network is not voice/video ready, users won't have a satisfying experience. Network Readiness Assessment (NRA) service is intended to evaluate the network in order to detect whether it is voice/video ready or need enhancements, in which case plans and recommendations for enhancements should be proposed. Automating the NRA service involves a few challenges such as analyzing configuration of hundreds of infrastructure devices for large enterprises. In order to provide a successful service at the customer site, different challenges including logistic challenges must be addressed. In this article we list a few of challenges we have faced when automating Network Readiness Assessment service and explain the solutions we have adopted to address each of these challenges.