Advanced Voip Testing Tools

By Author: Ned Shaffer
Total Articles: 332
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The coming of Internet protocol Communications to the world’s networks means that not just service providers and enterprises, for communications equipment manufacturers and communications computer programs developers must take into account a complex, hybrid TDM Or packetized network and how this impacts on Service quality (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE). Test applications must deftly handle everything from legacy analog and digital telephony to today’s Voice over internet protocol and IP video networks. Moreover, the number and variety of devices plugging into this “network of networks” has multiplied as well. To test the caliber of real-time IP communications in such an environment, today’s makers of test and measuring equipment and services have devised a multitude of software and hardware including handhelds, portables, benchtops, and rackmount check platforms for field, lab, data center and central workplace operation.
Some providers are making the quality a recent international contact quality study implies that Cable VoIP using low-compression CODECs actually sounds better and ...
... connects calls faster than traditional PSTN (define - news -alerts) service. As customers spread the word regarding VoIP as a cost-effective, high-quality alternative to traditional phone service, service providers will experience ever-stronger demand.
Maintaining service quality throughout large-scale deployment, sometimes in order to millions of subscribers, is really a key challenge operators must tackle in order to capitalize on VoIPs early achievement. As high-priority, real-time voice packets begin to fill networks, quality must be monitored and optimized or service quality will begin to deteriorate.
Active and Passive VoIP testing solutions
To ensure efficient VoIP deployment and continuing service quality, providers rely on passive and active test solutions for provisioning, monitoring and service level fault administration. Passive and energetic telephony testing methods were first produced by carriers over 20 years ago to measure the quality of digital PSTN voice networks. In traditional telephony, passive test systems are used to measure signaling performance, whilst active bit-error-rate (BER) testing is used to monitor PSTN call high quality. The same techniques get their analogs in the VoIP globe. Passive testing entails either collecting visitors statistics from softswitches, media gateways, and other network elements, or requires putting test probes at proper network locations to sniff live IP traffic and remove VoIP packets. A variety of algorithms examine packet header and payload information to calculate call signaling performance and some basic quality metrics like MOS, packet loss, jitter, and latency.
Passive testing options have known limitations, some of which are specific to VoIP programs. Since passive testing relies on measuring reside VoIP traffic, it cannot be used for provisioning or even pre-deployment testing, necessary to ensure customers expectations and service level agreements is going to be met after installation. Security concerns around VoIP have resulted in elevated packet-level encryption, rendering all of them invisible to passive test systems. Adding to the problem, probes can only evaluate traffic on an operators IP network, providing limited visibility in to the majority of calls which take hybrid paths over partners PSTN, Internet protocol, and mobile networks. Since call high quality is affected by analog/IP conversion (CODECs), echo cancellers, customer premises equipment, wiring, firewalls, encryption algorithms, as well as network policies outside the reach of unaggressive probes, measurements from these methods cannot accurately signify user-perceived end-to-end call quality.

Despite the challenges faced by service providers deploying Voice over internet protocol, it is possible to rapidly scale subscribers while maintain PSTN-grade service quality. A built-in, comprehensive test strategy that encompasses Voice over internet protocol delivery from day-of-install to proactive service monitoring can be addressed using automatic, active test systems.
With a test platform, a service quality concentrate can be integrated into existing operational support systems, fault management systems, and existing business processes giving the visibility required to contend in todays competitive telephony landscape.

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