Residential Voice over IP services are typically delivered over cable or DSL broadband access, and can present a range of practical management difficulties. For example, VoIP calls may originate from soft clients or residential gateways, and the resulting packet streams may be sent directly between subscribers' homes without passing through the service provider's IP network. This scenario renders conventional methods of performance monitoring and troubleshooting difficult or impossible.
VQmon® provides an ideal solution for residential VoIP service management. VQmon is integrated directly into soft clients and residential gateways, non-intrusively monitoring calls and reporting call quality and diagnostic data through RTCP XR and SIP.
RTCP XR (RFC3611) reports are exchanged between VoIP endpoints—for example, between residential gateways and soft clients, or between residential and trunking gateways. This helps each endpoint to calculate more accurate call quality metrics, enables each endpoint to report call quality for both directions and potentially enables adaptive configuration of endpoints to circumvent problems.
RFC6035 SIP RTCP Summary reports are sent by VoIP endpoints at the end of a call, and are collected, analyzed and aggregated by SQmediator®. This allows the service provider to analyze both overall service quality and troubleshoot individual calls and subscriber problems.
The widespread availability of VQmon in both products and software and silicon solutions makes this a viable short term solution for residential VoIP service providers. In addition, the wide range of VQmon-based VoIP test equipment available ensures that probes, analyzers and handheld test products are available to support in-depth troubleshooting if needed.
VQmon®/EP is a powerful software VoIP performance analysis agent designed for integration into IP phones, cable MTAs, 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 enable service providers to quickly pinpoint the source of performance problems.
SQmediator® is a sophisticated performance management application for Voice over IP that collects, correlates, and analyzes RFC 6035 QoS/QoE reports sent by VoIP endpoints, including IP phones equipped with VQmon/EP. 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 about performance management solutions for residential Voice over IP, see Telchemy's series of free Application Notes or contact us.