Communication Issues for Small and Medium Enterprises

This chapter considers communication issues for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from both provider and customer perspectives. SME communication infrastructure at the individual site should usually be built around Ethernet-based local area network with a remotely manageable integrated access device that enables high speed Internet access, virtual private networking, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) functionality and collaborative services. We further address several open quality of service (QoS) issues that include: service level agreements, signaling for quality of service and management aspects. The proposed framework for service management encompasses interfaces for QoS-aware and legacy applications, generic service level specification, functional model of service negotiation and management policies.