VoIP Peering: Service Quality Monitoring a Valuable Tool
March 25, 2010
By Stefania Viscusi, Assignment Desk Editor
As the success and growth of VoIP continues, network operators are under more pressure than ever to deliver quality services - even while bandwidth resources are being strained.
One specific area in which the pressure has become apparent is VoIP peering. Some high-profile disputes between peering partners have even led to connections being severed – hurting both the end-user and the operators’ business.
Bedford, Mass.-based Empirix (News - Alert), offers service quality assurance solutions that help maintain the quality of the user experience for business-critical voice, data, video and mobile services.
During a recent podcast session, Dan Teichman, director of product marketing for Empirix’s Service Assurance Group discussed VoIP peering and how Empirix helps ensure the highest level of service quality is delivered to subscribers.
Teichman said peering is a well established process for exchanging traffic between service providers by connecting their networks and that the connectivity for VoIP peering uses IP packet-switched infrastructure rather than TDM or circuit-switched infrastructure and takes advantage of transcoding free operations – meaning the call doesn’t have to traverse from IP to TDM and back to IP.
Strain in a peering relationship, Teichman noted, is caused because sharing is not happening between equal partners. “So, traffic volumes, accounting for those traffic volumes, availability, reliability of the connections and service quality of the connections, can all become reasons where strain between partners can occur.”
How can carriers mitigate these risks and ensure their peering ecosystem is delivering the highest level of service quality for subscribers?
The simplest way, according to Teichman, is to establish service level agreements, partner specific quality targets and problem resolution processes.
Without adequate monitoring solutions, Teichmin said difficulty creeps in because its hard to uncover what the service quality was, what the faults were, and so on.
As a solution, Teichman suggests choosing a use a carrier who focuses exclusively on IP peering including VoIP as a way to minimize the overall work and complexity involved in VoIP peering.
Or, Teichman said, an investment in a service quality solution that can monitor the interconnection and deliver valuable information for the service provider will make it possible to deliver high quality services.
For more, check out the VoIP Monitoring channel on TMCnet
Stefania Viscusi is an assignment editor for TMCnet, covering voice and Voice over IP technologies. She also oversees production of TMCnet's e-Newsletters in the areas of Internet telephony and speech technology. To read more of Stefania's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi