In the wake of the pandemic, video conferencing has emerged as a cornerstone of daily collaboration, whether in the traditional office setting or while working remotely. However, users often encounter frustrating issues such as sound problems, video malfunctions, or connectivity disruptions, especially during critical meetings.
What might cause the issues?
The prevalence of WiFi usage in accessing networks introduces several factors that can impact video conferencing quality:
Poor WiFi Quality: Issues such as low Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) can often be resolved by simply moving closer to the Access Point (AP).
High Channel Utilization: Conflicting channels with other APs can be mitigated through strategic channel assignment.
Congestion of LAN Traffic: High levels of broadcast/multicast traffic or other network activities can affect video conferencing quality since all WiFi traffic passes through the LAN.
Why You Need EnGenius AVXpress
EnGenius AVXpress: the end-to-end QoS solution for key AV applications
EnGenius AVXpress offers an end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) solution specifically designed for crucial audio/Video (AV) applications including video conferencing, multi-media streaming and gaming. It enables users to prioritize traffic based on its importance, ensuring that critical applications receive the necessary bandwidth and low latency for uninterrupted operation.
How It Works:
EnGenius AP will remark DSCP to those traffic to make sure it also gets the same level of priority through EnGenius Swtiches to reach end-to-end priority/
Application-Aware Technology:
When "Application Aware" is enabled under Configure > Access Point > SSID > Application Control, users can see the application analysis on the dashboard.
Performance Impact: "Application Aware" will impact AP performance to some extent. Users concerned about this impact can disable it.
Traffic Prioritization Levels:
When "AVXpress" is enabled under Configure > Access Point > SSID > Application Control:
General: Traffic is treated as normal, with no special prioritization, just like AVXpress is disabled.
Fast: This setting gives traffic a higher priority than "General" but lower than "Express."
Express: Provides the highest priority for critical applications like video conferencing and gaming.
Important Points to Note:
If users put any video conferencing/streaming/gaming to "Express" priority, which also means those applications will share the priority as Voice, so if the traffic is high, then it will impact "Voice" quality.
Compatibility:
NOT a Pro feature and works on both Cloud/Fit AP (not available to WiFi 5)
Required Firmware Versions:
ECW: v1.x.75 or above
Fit AP: v1.0.45 or above
AVXpress Test Result
As an example, Microsoft Teams has suggest video conferencing average latency <100ms with peaks not exceeding 300ms for better conferencing experience. Following is the test results of a mixed Teams video conference traffic with other heavy traffic both on WiFi and wired networks.
Before Enabling AVXpress:
Microsoft Teams experienced an average latency of 300ms, with peaks reaching 550ms.After Enabling AVXpress and prioritizing "Video Conferencing" to "Express":
Microsoft Teams reported an average latency of less than 100ms, with all spikes also lower 300ms, indicating a significant improvement in video conferencing quality.
Technical Details
QoS Overview
When the traffic on a link exceeds its capacity to handle, a network experiences congestion, much like a traffic jam on a road. Once this happens, some packets will be dropped.
Quality of Service (QoS) prioritizes certain important types of traffic. This ensures that critical applications (such as voice and video conferencing) or services receive sufficient bandwidth and low latency to operate without interruption or delay, even during periods of severe network congestion.
End-to-End QoS is required to make sure that the critical traffic has higher priority from WiFi AP to wired switches.
EnGenius AVXpress Solution
EnGenius AVX technology in AP is an application-aware technology to
Make the Voice/Video or any “most-concerned” traffic to use more WiFi space.
Mark the traffic with well-known priority DSCP value, so the switch can recognize and prioritize the traffic, so the application can have “Express Pass” throughout the whole EnGenius Network.
In wireless networks, the Wireless Multimedia (WMM) standard is used for QoS and has similarities with DiffServ. WMM defines four traffic categories: voice, video, best effort, and background. Devices that support WMM and request a higher level of service (such as Wi-Fi phones) will receive higher priority on the EnGenius wireless network.
DSCP value to be assigned to General, Fast and Express in AVXpress
General: 10
Fast: 34
Express: 46