In today’s telecom market, it is becoming more and more vital for service providers to offer enterprise-grade VoIP. This isn’t possible without solutions designed to test VoIP deployments—and detect problems before the customer does. Both active and passive test equipment is needed to perform comprehensive testing.

 

Both of these test methods will be discussed at an ITEXPO session titled “Managing Hosted Enterprise VoIP Service Quality,” scheduled for 3:30-4:15 p.m. on January 25. The session is being presented by Michel Nadeau, senior director of Tektronix’s active test division (formerly Minacom (News - Alert)).

 

As the title suggests, Nadeau will be focusing on best practices for managing hosted VoIP deployments. The techniques discussed will be illustrated with case studies from three major providers.

 

At the core of the presentation is a focus on the differences between passive and active VoIP test solution, and how they can complement each other to effectively detect potential problems before they become problematic for customers.

 

Scott Sumner, senior manager of active test products at Tekronix, told TMCnet during a recent phone conversation that there are two main pieces to the VoIP testing puzzle: signaling and media. In a hosted environment, he said, monitoring signaling is relatively easy because this is an on-site function.

 

Monitoring media, however, is more challenging because it is an off-site function, Sumner said. In fact, media problems in a hosted environment can’t be detected using a passive probe; for this, active testing is required.

 

Sumner said that attendees of Nadeau’s session will be walked through techniques that combine passive and active VoIP testing for complete coverage.

 

For more information about IMS and VoIP test solutions, please visit Tektronix’s (News - Alert) TMCnet.com channel, VoIP Test Solutions.

 

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