VoIP Probe

Voice over IP telephony is an emerging market - in all segments. Consumers are using VoIP to save costs. Companies benefit from the flexibility of VoIP.

For network operators offering VoIP services it is mandatory to determine achieved service quality in terms of accessibility, retainability and integrity.

VoIP Probe enables Network Operators and Internet Service Providers to measure Voice over IP Service Quality from the end-customer perspective. VoIP Probe gathers availability, performance, and speech quality data for calls between VoIP, PSTN and mobile subscribers in any combination. Results can be transferred to HP BSM, HP BAC and HP SiteScope.

VoIP Probe from ADVENAGE is a Probe Plug in for HP BSM, HP BAC and HP SiteScope. Integration with other tools via SNMP or XML is supported. VoIP probe measures important quality parameters for calls between VoIP, PSTN and GSM/UMTS parties and enables network operators, service providers and MVNOs to collect exact voice service quality parameters in real time. VoIP Probe supports SIP, H.323, PSTN and GSM/UMTS.

Service quality data is collected by setting up voice calls periodically. Due to seamless integration with HP products, Probe configuration and scheduling is steered by HP BSM/BAC/BPM or by HP SiteScope. SLO violations are determined online and can trigger alarms. Collected performance data can be reported and analyzed by additional tools.

ADVENAGE and our partners help you to plan, build, and operate integrated application management solutions for VoIP and other services. VoIP Probe was developed in close partnership with one of the largest European network operators with affiliates all over the world. The product has been tested successfully for installations in Europe and other countries. To obtain more detailed information on VoIP Probe please contact ADVENAGE or our Partners.

The speech quality of the call can be estimated according to ITU-T standards by applying a PESQ (Perceptual estimation of speech quality) algorithm to the input and output audio files. The result is the MOS (Mean Opinion Score) factor.

Measurement results collected by VoIP Probe include availability, setup time, response time, ring time, call duration, hang-up time, CLI check result, jitter and packet loss. For VoIP to VoIP connections packet delay is provided as well.

VoIP Probe supports speech quality estimation via Mean Opinion Score (MOS) as an option. The MOS value is calculated based on the Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality algorithm (PESQ).

Measurement results collected by VoIP Probe include availability, call times (dial time, alert time, call duration, hang-up time), response time, RTP parameters such as round-trip time, delay, jitter and packet loss. VoIP user agents for SIP and H.323 support registered and unregistered mode.

Interoperability with HP Business Service Management

VoIP Probe provides full interoperability with HP Business Service Management (BSM). Two of the data collectors of BSM - HP SiteScope and HP Business Process Monitor - are supported to collect data from VoIP Probe.

HP SiteScope Integration

Integration with HP SiteScope is achieved by registering VoIP Probe as custom probe via the scripting interface of SiteScope. Advantage is quick and easy deployment, and metrics reported can be selected from the SiteScope configuration dialogs. SiteScope integration provides full functionality, including geographical distributed measurements and allows to integrate UNIX and Windows based systems. VoIP Probe integration via SiteScope is especially useful for smaller installations.

HP Business Process Monitor Integration

Integration with HP Business Process Monitor is achieved by an extension of the HP Virtual User Generator language. It allows to directly trigger VoIP end to end measurements and to process metrics received back as well as additional failure information.

HP BPM integration is intended for larger installations running several data collectors, usually at different location. The central repository service of BSM enables central development, testing and deployment of VoIP measurements at different locations from the central management system. Measurement results appear in the end user management section of BSM/BAC and may be aggregated for SLA and KPI performance tracking. The figure below depicts BSM/BAC integration of VoIP probe via Business Process Monitor: