Network Planning & Readiness

Why network matters for Teams

Bandwidth requirements by workload

Teams uses different amounts of bandwidth depending on what users are doing:

Bandwidth per user per stream (upstream + downstream)

Feature	Minimum	Recommended	Best Quality
Audio call (1:1)	30 Kbps	60 Kbps	130 Kbps
Video call (1:1, 360p)	150 Kbps	500 Kbps	1.5 Mbps
Video call (1:1, 1080p HD)	1.5 Mbps	2.5 Mbps	4 Mbps
Group video (gallery view)	500 Kbps	1 Mbps	2 Mbps+
Screen sharing (no video)	50 Kbps	250 Kbps	500 Kbps
Town hall / webinar (attendee)	500 Kbps	1 Mbps	1.5 Mbps

Key exam point: These are per user, per stream figures. A building with 200 users on video calls simultaneously needs 200 × the per-user bandwidth. This is why capacity planning matters before rollout.

💡 Scenario: Tara's voice migration bandwidth planning

Tara Chen at Pinnacle Corp is migrating 2,000 users from their legacy Cisco PBX to Teams Phone. Her CIO Lisa asks: “Will our network handle it?”

Tara’s calculation:

• Peak concurrent voice calls: ~15% of users = 300 simultaneous calls
• Bandwidth per call: 130 Kbps (best quality, per direction) × 2 directions = 260 Kbps
• Total voice bandwidth: 300 × 260 Kbps = 78 Mbps
• Add video meetings: another 200 users at 1 Mbps each = 200 Mbps
• Headroom (20% buffer): ~55 Mbps
• Total required: ~333 Mbps of dedicated media capacity

Current internet link: 500 Mbps — enough, but Tara recommends QoS marking to prioritise voice traffic and a split-tunnel VPN so media goes direct to Microsoft 365.

Network Planner

Network Planner is a tool inside the Teams admin center that helps you model bandwidth requirements:

1. Navigate to: Teams admin center → Planning → Network planner
2. Create a network plan — add your sites (offices, branches)
3. Define personas — how many users per site and what they’ll do (audio, video, screen share)
4. Run the report — Network Planner calculates required bandwidth per site

The output tells you whether each site has enough bandwidth for the expected Teams workload, or if upgrades are needed.

Exam tip: Network Planner is for pre-deployment planning. It doesn’t monitor live traffic — that’s Call Quality Dashboard (CQD) and Real-Time Analytics, which are in Domain 4.

Ports and protocols

Teams uses specific ports and protocols for different traffic types:

Traffic Type	Protocol	Ports	Notes
Audio	UDP	50000–50019	Real-time media, UDP preferred
Video	UDP	50020–50039	Real-time media
Screen sharing	UDP	50040–50059	Application sharing
Signalling	TCP	443 (HTTPS)	Control and signalling
Media relay (fallback)	TCP	443	When UDP is blocked

Critical exam knowledge:

• Teams strongly prefers UDP for real-time media. TCP introduces head-of-line blocking, which degrades call quality.
• If firewalls block UDP ports 50000–50059, Teams falls back to TCP 443 — calls still work but quality drops.
• All Teams traffic goes to Microsoft 365 endpoints — specifically the “Optimize” category URLs and IPs published at aka.ms/o365endpoints.

💡 Exam tip: UDP vs TCP for media

A common exam question pattern: “Users report choppy audio despite sufficient bandwidth. Firewall only allows TCP 443. What should you recommend?”

Answer: Open UDP ports 50000–50059 outbound. TCP fallback works but introduces latency and jitter that degrade real-time media quality.

Network assessment tools

Microsoft provides two tools for testing network readiness:

Network assessment tools

Feature	Purpose	Where to Run	What It Tests
Teams Network Assessment Tool	Tests media quality from a specific endpoint	Install on a PC at each office	Packet loss, jitter, latency, reorder ratio to nearest Teams media relay
Microsoft 365 network connectivity test	Tests broad M365 connectivity from a location	Run in a browser at aka.ms/netonboard	DNS, TCP connectivity, UDP media path, comparison to nearby Microsoft network entry points

Teams Network Assessment Tool:

• Download from Microsoft, run on a Windows PC
• Simulates a Teams call to the nearest media relay
• Measures packet loss, jitter, latency, reorder ratio
• Results compared against Microsoft’s quality thresholds:
  • Packet loss: less than 1%
  • Jitter: less than 30ms
  • Latency: less than 100ms (round-trip)

Microsoft 365 network connectivity test tool:

• Browser-based at aka.ms/netonboard
• Tests connectivity to multiple Microsoft 365 services (not just Teams)
• Shows your network egress location relative to Microsoft’s front-door servers
• Identifies if traffic is being backhauled (routed through a central location instead of going directly to Microsoft)

Scenario: Jaylen troubleshoots remote worker quality

Jaylen Scott at RemoteFirst gets complaints from three remote workers in different countries about choppy audio. He asks each to run the Teams Network Assessment Tool from their home office.

Results:

• Worker 1 (Germany): Packet loss 0.2%, jitter 15ms, latency 45ms → PASS (issue is likely device/headset)
• Worker 2 (Brazil): Packet loss 4.5%, jitter 55ms, latency 180ms → FAIL (ISP issue, recommend wired connection + QoS on home router)
• Worker 3 (Japan): Packet loss 0.1%, jitter 10ms, latency 250ms → FAIL on latency (backhauled through company VPN in US — recommend split-tunnel VPN)

🎬 Video walkthrough

🎬 Video coming soon

Network Planning for Teams — MS-700 Module 1

Network Planning for Teams — MS-700 Module 1

~11 min

Flashcards

Question

What UDP port ranges does Teams use for real-time media?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

Audio: 50000–50019, Video: 50020–50039, Screen sharing: 50040–50059. If UDP is blocked, Teams falls back to TCP 443 but quality degrades.

Click to flip back

Question

What are Microsoft's quality thresholds for Teams calls?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

Packet loss: less than 1%, Jitter: less than 30ms, Round-trip latency: less than 100ms. The Teams Network Assessment Tool tests against these thresholds.

Click to flip back

Question

What's the difference between Network Planner and the Teams Network Assessment Tool?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

Network Planner (in Teams admin center) models bandwidth needs pre-deployment. The Assessment Tool (installed on a PC) tests actual network quality by simulating a call to the nearest media relay.

Click to flip back

Question

Where do you find Network Planner in the Teams admin center?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

Teams admin center → Planning → Network planner. You create sites, define personas (user profiles), and generate bandwidth requirement reports.

Click to flip back

Knowledge Check

Knowledge Check

Tara at Pinnacle Corp is planning the Teams Phone rollout. She needs to estimate bandwidth requirements for 300 simultaneous voice calls. Which tool should she use first?

ATeams Network Assessment Tool — install on PCs to test call qualityBNetwork Planner in the Teams admin center — model bandwidth per siteCCall Quality Dashboard — monitor live call metricsDMicrosoft 365 network connectivity test — run in a browser

Check Answer

Knowledge Check

Remote workers at RemoteFirst report poor audio quality during Teams calls. Jaylen runs the Teams Network Assessment Tool and finds packet loss at 3.5% and jitter at 45ms. Which metrics FAIL Microsoft's quality thresholds?

AOnly packet loss — threshold is less than 1%BOnly jitter — threshold is less than 30msCBoth packet loss and jitter exceed thresholdsDNeither — these values are within acceptable limits

Check Answer

Knowledge Check

A Teams admin discovers that a branch office firewall blocks all UDP traffic. Users can still make Teams calls, but audio quality is poor. What is the BEST recommendation?

AIncrease the internet bandwidth at the branch officeBOpen UDP ports 50000–50059 outbound on the firewallCConfigure Teams to use only TCP for media trafficDDeploy a local SBC for Direct Routing at the branch

Check Answer

---

Next up: Security Roles, Alerts & Defender — how to protect your Teams environment with the right admin roles, alert policies, and Defender XDR threat protection.