MSPs with a large installed base of SMB networks or large enterprises with hundreds or thousands of branch office networks can use this platform to efficiently design and manage the lifecycle of these converged media networks. A typical deployment consists of one micro-appliance deployed per branch office/SMB site. The PacketSmart platform is deployed at the MSPs data center or at the IT headquarters of the large enterprise. A central expert team would then use the GUI to deliver network lifecycle management services to each branch office/SMB network.

The PacketSmart MSP platform is ideally suited for both Telecom MSPs with a large SMB installed base, and large enterprises with hundreds or thousands of branch office sites. Traditional telecom MSPs who deliver converged media bundles (VoIP, Video, and NextGen application services that are built on top of VoIP and Video) can use the PacketSmart platform for the following:

• Equip their field technicians with a simple to use solutions to ensure the proper design of the end-to-end converged media network to the internal "Demarc" at every customer site
• Verify and document the proper deployment of converged media services at each customer site
• Monitor per-second SLA conformance of services delivered to each customer site
• Perform periodic end-to-end capacity assessment for converged media services
• Troubleshoot complex issues using a central expert team without retraining field techs

Large enterprises with hundreds or thousands of branch offices (e.g. banks, retail chains, etc.) can use the PacketSmart MSP platform to centralize their network design and management functions at their IT head office. The PacketSmart MSP platform enables enterprises to:

• Ensure the proper design of LAN and WAN elements to support VoIP and other converged media across their entire enterprise network
• Verify and document the proper deployment of converged media services at each branch office site
• Monitor SLA conformance of converged media services at each branch office site
• Perform periodic LAN/WAN capacity assessment for converged media services
• Troubleshoot complex issues from the IT head office without requiring an expert at every branch office site

"Network Design" was never a required part of deploying data networks. The forgiving nature of popular network protocols like TCP meant that anyone could setup a data network by interconnecting network elements like switches, hubs, and routers. This is however not the case with converged media networks that have to carry VoIP, video, and data.

For example, VoIP, which uses approximately ten times more packets than data, is badly affected by small packet loss and congestion in the order of milliseconds. A delay of over 100ms in a data network could bring down the quality of a VoIP call, while such a delay would be of no significance to a data session. Similarly, a loss of a few data packets would make no impact to a data session, but a similar loss on a VoIP call could make the call incomprehensible to the listeners.

Though several QoS schemes are available to assist in ensuring the good quality of converged media services like VoIP and Video, the choice and verification of the efficacy of these schemes on a given network is complex. The PacketSmart MSP platform provides MSPs and multi-site enterprises a powerful and simple network design solution for constructing converged media networks (or help in correcting existing ones) with good end-to-end QoS for carrying VoIP and data.

"Monitoring" for data networks is a nice-to-have capability, but not an essential requirement. Since data network protocols are very forgiving, most users do not even notice minor network degradations till the problem causes major productivity issues. However, this is not the case once VoIP and Video are deployed on a network. A minor congestion that causes a mere 100 millisec delay will significantly impact the quality of VoIP calls. Therefore, considering the fact that networks evolve over time, it is imperative to adopt a lifecycle approach to managing converged media networks. Such a lifecycle consists of network design, network verification, network troubleshooting, and network monitoring functions.

The PacketSmart MSP platform provides MSPs and multi-site enterprises a powerful and simple lifecycle management solution to manage their end-to-end converged media networks all the way to the internal demarc at each of their customer/branch-office sites. The extreme scalability of the PacketSmart MSP platform means that hundreds of thousands of customer sites can be managed from a single centralized hosted infrastructure.