This page gives a brief discussion and outline on the progress of my project. Listed are the milestones that have been set and met to-date. Links to details in pdf (portable document format) / doc (MS document) format will be accessible from this page.

Project Progress:

Project accepted on: 5 March 2007

Project proposal finalized on: 13 March 2007

Project proposal presented on: 13 March 2007

Project progress report presented on: 31 July 2007

Final draft of literature review submitted on: 6 August 2007

Final draft of short paper submitted on: 28 September 2007

Project findings report presented on: 29 October 2007

Project write-up/report submitted on: 5 November 2007

List of all milestones: DOC | PDF

Term 1:

- learn more about the UNAM network. For about 2 years the VoIP node at UNAM has not been looked at. My project task is to re-establish the link and try to solve majority of the problems that were faced when the node was first established. The main problem was unreliable bandwidth. The trade-off that VoIP has is between bandwidth and quality. We will have to find a seemingly perfect balance between the two for the link to work.

- visit to UNAM and findings (02/04/2007 - 05/04/2007): DOC | PDF

Term 2 :

- In this part of the project the main objective/milestone is setting up iLanga on the UNAM side. After inspection of the UNAM network in term 1 and iLanga box we decided to make a new installation of iLanga at the UNAM side, prioritize RTP and SIP traffic from Rhodes pbx to UNAM, make modifications for a more efficient codec.

- visit to UNAM and findings (25/06/2007 - 19/07/2007): DOC | PDF

Term 3 :

- The main objective/milestone is to develop a network test-bed that emulates the Rhodes University - University of Namibia Internet link. The purpose of the test bed is to identify the network threshold for VoIP connections over a congested network and to find a way to maintain an intelligible voice conversation. The results of this milestone will be used for final implementation of the VoIP link.

- develop test-bed and conduct tests, submit a short paper on preliminary findings (07/09/2007 - 01/10/2007): DOC | PDF

Term 4 :

- Term 4 is the wrapping up phase of the project. The core part of this term is to finalize project write-up (thesis) and present project findings (final presentation). Establish whether or not the set objectives were achieved - how and why. The results and knowledge gained through terms one to three will be used to consolidate this project.

- complete VoIP deployment on live network, summarise test analysis, present final findings presentation and submit project thesis (02/10/2007 - 05/11/2007): DOC | PDF