When streaming video on your laptop or calling a distant relative through Skype (News - Alert), there can sometimes be a few hiccups such as a dropped call or slow connectivity. Telchemy, with their SQmediator, an innovative Voice over IP (VoIP) mediation application that collects, correlates, analyzes, and displays call quality reports received from a wide range of VoIP endpoints, is there to help improve the VoIP service.

 

The SQmediator collects Quality of Service/Quality of Experience (QoS/QoE) reports sent by endpoints—like IP phones and gateways—at the end of each call and at periodic intervals during calls. Company officials say that the SQmediator then checks the validity of the reported data, automatically correlates related reports, and stores the data in an SQL database in the form of call quality records.

 

Telchemy (News - Alert) officials say that to accurately assess VoIP call quality and diagnose problems, “service providers and network managers need to monitor every call, preferably at the IP phone on each user desktop or customer premises.”

 

If we lived in a perfect world, VoIP services would work perfectly and calls would come in crystal clear but unfortunately, officials say, in the real world VoIP services can be affected by an array of problems including packet loss, jitter, noise, and echo.

 

These problems may not happen every time a VoIP service is used, or it may happen occasionally, this is the reason why detecting and fixing these mishaps are difficult.

 

Key features of the SQmediator include:

 

• High Performance – a single SQmediator server can support tens of thousands of VoIP endpoints

• Expert Analysis of Data – intelligent diagnostic technology identifies potentially service-affecting problems

• Automatic Correlation of mid-call and end-of-call reports, system alerts and warnings

• Multiprotocol Support – SQmediator supports SIP RTCP Summary Reports and other key reporting protocols

• Interactive Web UI - Dashboard layout with interactive charts provides convenient graphical view of call quality and performance

• Web Service API for integration with NMS/OSS systems

(Enterprise and Service Class editions of SQmediator)

 

Officials say that “detailed quality metrics for every call are provided via an interactive Web user interface (UI), and can also be reported to external management applications via a Web service API. SQmediator allows you to easily view current and historical call quality information and to monitor the overall health of VoIP services in your network.” 

 

Telchemy’s SQmediator is also a diagnostic tool that has Expert Analysis technology. Expert Analysis can identify problem conditions and help network managers quickly resolve or even prevent those mishaps that can disrupt service quality.

 

For service providers and enterprise network managers looking for a way to monitor their VoIP services can rely on Telchemy’s SQmediator. Officials say that the distributed performance management model for Voice over IP provides a “scalable and cost-effective approach for Service Providers and Enterprise network managers to monitor VoIP service quality as perceived by the user.”

 

In the distributed model embedded agent software, such as Telchemy’s VQmon, is integrated into IP Phones, Gateways, Softphones, and other VoIP-enabled endpoints that provides real-time call quality reports both during and at the end of calls. These reports are sent to SQmediator, which correlates, aggregates, and analyzes the data.

 

For more information on how Telchemy can help visit their Website or learn more about them on their 3G, VoIP, IPTV Performance Management channel here on TMCnet.