Multiple system operators (MSOs) have gained a strong competitive position against telcos by offering telephony services to their cable customers. Cable telephony revenue has more than doubled in the last five years, and is expected to reach $10 billion in 2009.
By bundling Voice over IP with existing television and high-speed data services, cable providers attract subscribers with discounted calling rates and value-added features such as on-screen Caller ID and video calling. At the same time, the evolution toward a converged network allows providers to establish consistent standards and implement a single management system that can greatly help to reduce internal costs.
However, the quality and performance of cable multimedia services are susceptible to many of the same impairments that can degrade similar services delivered over fiber or DSL, as well as problems unique to the HFC network. These can include ingress noise on the upstream link, problems caused by bad weather, wiring problems on the customer LAN, and echo generated between the trunking gateway and subscriber phone. Quality degradation is often transient, and may not be reproducible during troubleshooting.
To effectively manage VoIP quality, cable providers need a way to non-intrusively monitor the performance of every call. Telchemy's software solutions for performance monitoring, subscriber testing, and advanced troubleshooting are fully compatible with DOCSIS and PacketCable standards, allowing cable service providers to remotely measure call quality for every subscriber and to quickly diagnose performance problems, both before and after service deployment.
VQmon®/EP is a powerful software VoIP performance analysis agent designed for integration into cable MTAs, IP phones, media gateways, ONUs, residential gateways, mobile handsets, traditional TDM gateways, and hybrid IP/TDM systems. VQmon/EP non-intrusively monitors each user's service quality and generates RTCP XR and SIP RTCP Summary reports that allow service providers and network managers to quickly pinpoint the source of performance problems.
SQlive™ is a compact drop-in software solution for IP video performance monitoring. SQlive can be installed or embedded in a range of CPE, including IPTV set-top boxes, to obtain real-time quality feedback from the customer premises and perform advanced remote troubleshooting.
SQmediator® is a sophisticated performance management application for Voice over IP that collects, correlates, and analyzes QoS/QoE reports sent by VoIP endpoints. SQmediator's intuitive dashboard web UI features interactive Flash charts that provide real-time access to call quality reports, alerts, and rapid problem diagnosis for all monitored calls in your network.
DVQattest® is an active testing and troubleshooting solution utilizing compact software test agents that can be easily downloaded to residential VoIP, IPTV, or Triple Play subscriber desktops to perform a range of configurable tests. This system enables service providers to perform fast pre-deployment testing of new subscriber throughput and service quality, and supports advanced remote problem diagnosis that can help reduce the number of costly truck rolls.
For more information, see the Application Note Managing Cable Telephony Services or contact us.