1) Best-Effort QOS This configuration is the most inefficient and one that most network routers are configured by default. Voice traffic may sound fine with this configuration, although any large data downloads will easily interrupt voice conversations.

2) Differentiated Service One way to solve the problem of competition between voice and data packets is to configure routers to simply determine the difference between the two types of information, then handle them accordingly. Differentiated service allows for routers to use different schemes for handling the two types of traffic.

3) Dedicated Service Routers can be configured to ensure that sufficient bandwidth is always available for voice traffic. This configuration tells the router to never use the dedicated bandwidth for data transmission. Although it can be complicated to configure routers with dedicated service, it does a good job of eliminating the problem of data traffic interfering with voice communications. One major disadvantage, however, is that the "dedicated" portion of the network will go unused when there is no voice traffic.

4) Guaranteed Service The most complex and expensive option to packet competition is guaranteed service. This configuration allows routers to set up dedicated but temporary bandwidth for each individual call. When a call has ended, the bandwidth then becomes available for other voice calls or data traffic.

The ability to use data networks for voice applications is an attractive one although not always simple and straightforward. Proper planning and testing will help you avoid the inevitable pitfalls of configuring voice applications over data networks.