Frequently Asked Questions
If you have any questions not described here, please contact us on support@voiceix.net.

What do I technically connect to VoiceIX?
VoiceIX Direct™
You interface with VoiceIX Direct™ with what is called a Session Border Controller (SBC), a box that forms the interface between your internal voice handeling and the external voice handeling with other parties.
It is of course not required that this SBC is technically a different box then the voice servers use internally: the same box can functionally double is voice server on the inside and SBC on the outside.

VoiceIX BGP™
You interface with VoiceIX BGP™ with a BGP4 router. Your router advertises the more specific routes (IP addresses) of your voice servers to peers, to make them reachable for peers. Your regular voice services are connected behind your router.

VoiceIX Private™
In a Private service, subscribing parties jointly define what peering technology is used and inherently what hardware is connected.

So is there need for a BGP4 router?
With VoiceIX Direct™ there is no need for a BGP4 router. SBC's connect to the shared ethernet and interface directly with eachother, eliminating any router hops and potential routing instabilities, delay and jitter.

With VoiceIX BGP™ a BGP4 router is a requirement.

With VoiceIX Private™ parties jointly decide whether or not they use BGP for peering.

What voice protocols are used on VoiceIX?
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the preferred protocol for voice exchange on the VoiceIX, but other protocols (e.g. H.323) are allowed.

How much SBC's can I connect?
VoiceIX Direct™
We use port security, enforcing that only the agreed amount of MAC addresses (SBC's) is visible on the port. We advise parties to connect with two SBC's on the VoiceIX network for redundancy purposes. However, our NOC can raise the limit to allow more SBC's if there are clear technical redundancy requirements for that.

VoiceIX BGP™
Here we see only the MAC address of the router which connects you to VoiceIX: all voice servers are hidden behind your router, so you can have a virtually unlimited amount of voice servers which interface with your peers.

VoiceIX Direct™
We use port security, enforcing that only one MAC address is visible on the port.

How about number plans?
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the preferred protocol for voice exchange on the VoiceIX, but other protocols (e.g. H.323) are allowed.

What VLAN ID does VoiceIX use?
VoiceIX Direct™ uses VLAN id 21.
VoiceIX BGP™ uses VLAN id 23.
VoiceIX Private™ uses a VLAN which is assigned upon ordering.

When multiple NL-ix services are combined on the same port on the NL-ix infrastructure using dot1.q VLAN tagging, this id is visible.
However, dedicated VoiceIX ports are generally untagged, so then this VLAN ID is not visible.

How does priority queueing work?
Priority queing is gradually implemented on the NL-ix infrastructure on a per-VLAN basis on the network edge. Thus all traffic on the VoiceIX VLAN is classified has high priority low-jitter traffic and forwarded accordingly.

Participants can (and are advised to do so) priority tag VoiceIX traffic within and on the edges of their own network. However, VoiceIX does send the traffic to customers witout a priority tag and does not accept customer priority tags: VoiceIX overwrites those with it's internal priority tags.

What physical interfaces are used?
For 100 Mbit/s connection UTP is used. For 1 Gbit/s connections multimode fiber is used.

At what datacenters are VoiceIX ports available?
VoiceIX ports are available at the following NL-ix datacenters.

What subnet is used on the VoiceIX peering VLAN?
The block 193.201.148.192/26 is used on VoiceIX Direct™.
The block 213.207.27.0/26 is used on VoiceIX BGP™.
In VoiceIX Private™ parties jointly decide upon the subnet which is used.