Testing & Monitoring
Solutions
Telephony Network Analyzer
Agilent Technologies, Inc.
395 Page Mill Rd.
P.O. Box 10395
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Tel: 650-752-5000
www.agilent.com
Agilent Technologies, Inc., has enhanced its installation and maintenance
portfolio for service providers and enterprise network operators by adding
new capabilities to its Telephony Network Analyzer software. These
capabilities are expected to significantly reduce the cost of testing voice
quality on Voice-over-IP (VoIP) networks by providing non-intrusive Mean
Opinion Scores (MOS) on live VoIP calls. The new release offers
non-intrusive voice quality testing calibrated to the ITU P.862 standard,
PESQ.
The Telephony Network Analyzer includes new measurement technology from
Psytechnics, the inventors of PESQ, which
allows users to make incredibly accurate measurements on live VoIP calls.
Other enhancements include the following:
- The ability to see how end users are experiencing their service with
non-intrusive MOS;
- More detailed analysis of VoIP packet loss, jitter, delay, and other
parameters;
- One solution for QoS and signaling testing; and
- The ability to troubleshoot multiple versions of signaling protocols by
offering analysis of SIP and H.323 signaling for VoIP calls.
Abacus2
Spirent Communications
15200 Omega Dr.
Rockville, MD 20850
Tel: 301-417-1224
www.spirentcom.com
Spirent Communications recently announced support for media gateway
control protocol (MGCP) signaling, to enable testing of carrier-grade
softswitches and media gateways. With the addition of MGCP, Spirent�s
Abacus2 VoIP solution addresses the performance and functional testing needs
of developers and alternative telephone service providers of VoIP products.
The Abacus2 solution bridges the gap between testing the public switched
telephone network (PSTN) and testing an IP-based network. By combining MGCP
signaling and real-time transport protocol (RTP) streaming over the same
port, the Abacus2 is able to emulate a media gateway, media gateway
controller (MGC), or softswitch, which allows for verifying the
functionality, quality, and capacity of many elements of a VoIP network.
With the Abacus2 emulating real VoIP calls, the product or network under
test receives a complete analysis of performance and services. In addition
it supports real-time protocol analysis for MGCP, SIP, SS7, and TDM
signaling. The Abacus2 VoIP solution is housed in a single chassis that
supports PSTN signaling, SIP, and MGCP signaling, as well as voice quality
measurement capabilities.
Message Generator and Traffic Simulator (MGTS)
Catapult Communications
160 S. Whisman Rd.
Mountain View, CA 94041
Tel: 650.960.1025
www.catapult.com
Catapult has announced significant enhancements to its Message Generator
and Traffic Simulator product family. Release 11.5 of the Catapult MGTS
provides new capabilities for high-volume network traffic simulation,
expanded IP telephony testing, and improved test engineer productivity for
telecom equipment manufacturers and carriers implementing high levels of
test integration in their 3G wireless, IP, and SS7 network development
programs.
The Catapult MGTS comprises state-of-the-art hardware and software to enable
sophisticated, high-speed diagnostic testing of wireline, wireless, and IP
technologies, including SS7 over ATM; UMTS; GPRS; and IP. MGTS Release 11.5
provides:
- Intelligent simulation of 3G mobile networks;
- Testing of real-time media streams transported over IP trunks; and
- Predefined test scripts for improved test engineer productivity.
During early stages of product development, the MGTS can be used to test
compliance with industry standards and to simulate network equipment for
test purposes, and in later stages, the system can create high-load traffic
to test and measure performance under real network conditions.
IP Network Emulators
Packetstorm Communications,
Inc.
20 Meridian Rd
Eatontown, NJ 07724
Tel: 732-544-2434
www.packetstorm.com
PacketStorm develops IP Network Emulators to produce WAN impairments such
as delay, jitter, re-order, loss, bit errors, and the like. The company�s
products can also emulate Diff Serv�s 64 levels and traffic conditioning
with various queues (WFQ, RED, etc.) over multiple network interfaces
including 10/100/1000 Ethernet, T1, DS3, OC-3, and OC-12. In addition,
Packetstorm can provide time varying dynamic emulation and filter packets by
combinations of bit patterns. The bit pattern filter can select packets by
any field in the MAC, IP header, UDP, or TCP header, or payload. In
addition, our emulator has a packet analyzer that can decode over 200
protocols. Essentially, the emulator recreates the dynamic behavior of the
Internet such that any network model can be reproduced including those
models that change with traffic, time, or the behavior or another traffic
flow.
Network Quality Monitoring
System (NQMS)
Consultronics Limited
160 Drumlin Circle
Concord, Ontario, Canada
L4K 3E5
Tel: 905-738-3741
www.consultronics.com
NQMS provides network administrators with the tools required to ensure
that their networks are running at peak condition. NQMS provides proactive
monitoring across all network components, using specific, user-definable
monitoring parameters. NQMS is designed to allow for timely reactions in the
event of malfunctions or performance degradation. As a result of the
increasing dependency on VoIP and cellular networks, Consultronics has
introduced automatic Mean Opinion Score (MOS) testing with its NQMS line of
products. MOS offers true speech quality assessment of both fixed and
cellular telecommunications networks. Along with the traditional measuring
techniques employed by NQMS, the addition of MOS testing enables operators
to properly assess and predict the quality of speech. Consultronics� family
of NQMS products employs, the widely used MOS algorithm Perceptual
Analysis/Measurement System (PAMS).
Shunra\Cloud 4.0
Shunra Software
555 8th Avenue, Ste. 1102
New York, NY 10018
Tel: 212-279-8895
www.shunra.com
Shunra Software today released the latest version of its award-winning IP
WAN emulation software product. The Shunra\Cloud 4.0 emulates a real-life
point-to-point WAN to test the performance of any application, technology,
or service under a wide variety of network conditions such as latency,
packet loss, jitter, bandwidth constraints, and more. Shunra\Cloud
integrates WAN emulation into the application testing process, empowering
users to ensure the network readiness of their technologies, prior to
deployment. Additionally, Shunra\Cloud�s new filtering feature allows users
to include or exclude IP addresses from the emulation, enabling the product
to be integrated with other performance management and testing tools, such
as user load tools, functional testing tools, traffic generators, and
network analyzers. Shunra\Cloud can be set to automatically start, stop, and
run multiple times under different network conditions and parameters,
enabling users to fully automate and customize the WAN testing process.
Intelligent Systems Management
Teltronics, Inc.
2150 Whitfield Industrial Way
Sarasota, FL 34243
Tel: 941-753-5000
www.teltronics.com
Teltronics Intelligent Systems Management (ISM) products include the Site
Event Buffer enterprise agent (SEBea) and IRISnGEN. These products provide
an end-to-end solution for managing alarms in the enterprise network world.
The SEBea continually receives traps from elements on the network with
problems and can routinely query the network elements for proactive fault
detection and reporting.
Digital Central Office Switch
Simulator
GL Communications
207A Perry Parkway, Suite One
Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Phone: 301-670-4784
www.gl.com
GL Communications recently announced a major upgrade to the Digital
Central Office Switch Simulator (DCOSS), providing carriers and other
operators with the ability to test virtually all elements of their networks.
Using DCOSS, technicians can run networks through a wide variety of
scenarios and capture the resulting performance data.
The latest DCOSS upgrade-version 5.0-has more than two-dozen new features,
including:
- The ability to support the Windows 2000 operating system in addition to
Windows NT.
- A next-generation Quad Trunk card that supports software selectable
T1/E1 interfaces. Two Ethernet ports are also provided to allow for VoIP
connectivity in GL�s next generation DCOSS IP applications (available in the
first quarter of 2003).
- The addition of GR-303 protocol support. This feature equips operators
to deal with emerging digital network technologies.
A significant expansion to the standard elements measured by previous DCOSS
versions is the calculation for PESQ LQ (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech
Quality-Listening Quality) scores. This revised score exhibits better
correlation to subjective listening quality test scores. Active DCOSS
clients receive all upgrades free of charge either by downloading or
receiving them on a CD.
System 930 Telephony Simulator
Gordon Kapes
5520 West Touhy Ave.
Skokie, Illinois 60077
Tel: 847-676-1750
www.gordonkapes.com
Developers of telephony products intended to connect with telephony
circuits prefer access to the �real thing� when testing their solutions. But
gaining access to the �real thing� is an expensive and aggravating
proposition. Enter Gordon Kapes� System 930 Telephony Simulator.
The System 930�s protocol analyzer displays ISDN messages sent to or
received from either digital interface. Simple, menu-driven programming and
extensive online documentation permit an �end-to-end� simulation of PSTN/VPN,
which allows developers to simulate telephone calls transmitting across a
digital telephone network, testing candidate applications connected at both
ends.
The 1.544 Mbps System 930 is designed to emulate the network or user side of
Robbed Bit T1, NI-2 compliant ISDN-PRI, GR-303 CSC, GR-303 Hybrid, and NFAS
(non-facility associated signaling) using T1 framing. 4ESS, 5ESS, and
DMS100/250 switches can be emulated. The System 930�s software facilities
accommodate Q.931 public or private networking protocols as well as private
or proprietary networking protocols that employ out-of-band progress tones.
The System 930�s internal �bulk� call generator can be programmed to
initiate up to 48/60 T1/E1 and 32 analog calls on a repetitive basis.
MegaSIP
RADCOM Equipment, Inc.
6 Forest Ave.
Paramus, NJ 07652
Tel: 201-518-0033
www.radcom-inc.com
MegaSIP is the SIP generation module for RADCOM�s award-winning VoIP
Performer system. MegaSIP is a carrier-grade solution that generates high
volume SIP-based traffic for VoIP system testing and emulates the stress
levels of real-world network conditions. It enables developers, quality
assurance labs, ISPs, and carriers to benchmark, load, test, and verify
proper protocol implementation in VoIP equipment. Generating hundreds of
thousands of simultaneous SIP-based calls, millions of SIP-based calls per
busy hour, and thousands of media-based calls using the Real Time Transport
Protocol (RTP), it allows customers to evaluate the performance and
scalability of equipment used to deliver voice and data over IP networks.
The MegaSIP Simulator provides two important capabilities: MegaStress and
MediaStress. MegaStress generates peak load conditions, reaching 500,000
simultaneous calls and three million sessions per busy hour, at a setup rate
of 2,000 calls per second. MediaStress can generate peak loads with 2,000
outgoing RTP channels in various codecs (for SIP calls created by SIP
signaling).
Vivinet Diagnostics
NetIQ Corporation
3553 N. First St.
San Jose, CA 95134
Tel: 408-856-3000
www.netiq.com
NetIQ Corp. recently revealed their Vivinet family of products, formerly
known as the NetIQ VoIP Management Solution. The Vivinet family of products
includes NetIQ�s newest product Vivinet Diagnostics, a product designed to
enable customers to easily pinpoint and diagnose call quality problems in a
VoIP environment, as well as updated versions of the award-winning Vivinet
Assessor and Vivinet Manager.
The Vivinet Assessor 2.0 now automates even more of the assessment process,
making it easier to quickly assess a data network�s ability to support VoIP.
New in version 2.0 is the ability to automatically inventory network
devices, highlight limitations of those network devices, and project
bandwidth requirements based on current utilization and expected call
volume.
Vivinet Manager 2.1 is based on a proven scalable architecture that
monitors the entire VoIP environment from one console. Vivinet Manager now
offers greatly expanded support for IP telephony, call centers, video, and
unified messaging.
The Hammer Call Analyzer
Empirix, Inc.
205 Lowell Street
Wilmington, MA 01887
Tel: 978-661-4800
www.empirix.com
Empirix (formerly Hammer Technologies) has unveiled a protocol analysis
tool designed to speed debug of VoIP systems, the first in a new generation
of application-aware analysis tools. The Hammer Call Analyzer is a
revolutionary new tool for VoIP environments. Unlike generic protocol
analyzers, the Analyzer is telephony protocol-aware. This orientation
manifests in a variety of powerful capabilities, all designed to help
engineers find the few proverbial needles in the protocol haystack. For
example, the call list and multi-stage call flow display walk engineers
through the individual legs of a particular call. This enables engineers to
visualize problems in the way messages are exchanged between the various
devices along the way and to quickly solve those problems.
The Analyzer features:
- Real-time, multi-stage call flow display;
- Call list for application context;
- VoIP and TDM protocol decodes;
- Intuitive protocol-aware searching, filtering, and capture;
- Pre-trigger packet capture; and
- Ability to import external traces for analysis.
Currently available, the Analyzer starts under $10,000, and is also
available in a portable TDM configuration.
Delta Protocol
Analyzer/Emulator
Delta Information Systems
300 Welsh Rd.
Building 3, Ste. 120
Horsham, PA 19044-2273
Tel: 215-657-5270
www.delta-info.com
Delta�s H.323 Voice Call Emulator and VoIP Protocol Analyzer support
equipment manufacturers, test labs, network administrators, and network
service providers in development and use of VoIP and Internet telephony
applications. The product is designed to deliver real-time, comprehensive
protocol analysis and decode of H.323, MGCP, SGCP, SIP, and SDP protocols.
The analyzer captures IP packet data, and automatically searches for
signaling, audio, video, and data traffic. The emulator provides fine
control over RAS call generation, call signaling, conference control, and
media streams, providing conformance testing with full encoding and decoding
for each protocol layer.
[ Return
To The January 2003 Table Of Contents ]
|