How to Use Network Planner of Teams Admin Center

The Network Planner tool in Teams Admin Center provides network administrators with an accurate prediction of how much network traffic will be generated by Microsoft Teams in their organization. This tool is an essential part of planning a successful Teams deployment, as it helps ensure that your network is properly configured to handle the increased traffic that comes with using Teams. In this article, we’ll explore how to use Network Planner in Teams Admin Center to ensure that your organization’s network is optimized for Microsoft Teams.

1. Understanding Network Planner Before we dive into how to use Network Planner, it’s important to understand what it does. Network Planner helps you assess your network’s readiness for Teams by analyzing your network topology, estimating the volume of Teams traffic, and recommending network changes if necessary. The tool provides information on the following:

• Network capacity requirements for Teams
• Network requirements for video, audio, and screen sharing in Teams meetings
• Network requirements for Teams calling
• Network requirements for Teams app sharing and file transfers

2. Launching Network Planner To access Network Planner, log in to Teams Admin Center and click on the “Network Planner” option in the left-hand menu. This will take you to the Network Planner dashboard, where you can start a new assessment.
3. Creating a New Assessment To create a new assessment, click on the “Create a new assessment” button on the dashboard. You’ll be prompted to enter information about your organization’s network, such as the number of users and the geographic location of your data centers. Once you’ve entered this information, click “Create” to start the assessment.
4. Running an Assessment Once you’ve created an assessment, you can start running it by clicking on the “Run assessment” button on the assessment dashboard. Network Planner will analyze your network and provide you with a report on the network requirements for Teams.
5. Interpreting the Assessment Results The assessment report will provide you with information on the following:

• The number of network endpoints required for Teams
• The bandwidth required for Teams
• The network capacity required for Teams
• Recommended network changes to optimize your network for Teams

6. Making Network Changes If Network Planner recommends network changes, it’s important to implement them before deploying Teams in your organization. These changes may include upgrading your network bandwidth, configuring Quality of Service (QoS) settings, or configuring firewalls to allow Teams traffic.
7. Re-running Assessments It’s a good idea to re-run Network Planner assessments periodically to ensure that your network is still optimized for Teams. You can create new assessments or run existing assessments again to see if any changes need to be made.

Frequently Asked questions