White Papers, Presentations and Surveys

Simplifying Deployment, Security and Management of DNS/DHCP Services

Many organizations have completed at least initial deployments of voice over IP (VoIP) services within their enterprises, or as a service offering for subscribers. Many others are in the process of deployment or are in the planning stages for such a deployment.  Pockets of further convergence of video, conferencing, unified messaging, and related IP-based communications applications are emerging within organizations as well. With much if not all of the organization’s communications applications running over an IP network, the criticality – not to mention visibility – of maintaining uptime of the network increases dramatically. 

Among the key elements underpinning the foundation of the IP network, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) are critical to proper initialization and usability of IP applications. If a user’s computer cannot obtain an IP address, or a VoIP phone cannot initialize via DHCP, users will call the help desk. From their perspective, the network is down. Likewise, if they are unable to connect to applications or other voice users due to DNS failures, they will also consider the network down. There are many services and protocols used by various IP applications, but DHCP and DNS are used by nearly all IP devices for every application for proper initialization on the IP network and for easier usability for network users. This white paper will offer approaches to streamlining efforts to keep IP networks up and running for critical DHCP and DNS services.