[VoiceOps] CPE side Passive Monitoring

Tue Nov 11 11:54:35 EST 2014

Colton - as I cannot quite discern who you work for - nor can I find you on
LinkedIn. if you could provide some additional details about the
size/scope/nature of your network - I'll be in a much better position to
advise you as to the optimal route forward.

In parallel - some additional data points for you here:

1.	SQmediator is a modular application - available in both single
server (all in one) and multi-server variants.  The entry level package is
extremely economically priced at <$10k and scales from there according to
the amount/type of traffic that is pumped through the system.
2.	SQmediator and any associated active/passive probes are available
under both CapEx and OpEx models to help defray up front costs and right
size your fiscal exposure.

While I am not an expert in VoIP Monitor functionality - while I do believe
they support the ingestion of rfc3611 (RTCP-XR) data - I just scoured the
'Net as well as their website (and all of their product documentation)
looking for 6035 or SIP Publish report support. didn't find any mention of
this functionality being supported in their kit, let alone all of the call
leg correlation/display, proactive real-time alerting, and security measures
that are provided in SQmediator.  I'm sure you know that you'll much more
readily find support for 6035 in endpoint and midstream devices - rather
than XR which requires probes be installed along the media path to consume
the data generated by endpoints.

In addition - YES - providers very typically monitor WAN CPE using rfc6035
messaging to shuttle performance information up to SQmediator.  It's an
excellent way to effectively bisect the solution space and isolate customer
LAN performance via a 2nd demarcation point @ the WAN / LAN interconnect and
then use something like SQmediator to correlate those data sources and show
all this information on a single pane of glass.  They also typically install
a single copy of SQprobe next to their call signaling platform to extract
SIP signaling info which is then correlated inside SQmediator and presented
in that same pane of glass to provide insight into the associated call setup
and teardown.

If you'd like - we can schedule a half hour product demonstration so you can
see this all first hand and get a better appreciation for how all of the
underlying components come together to form a total solution.

-anthony

  _____  

From: Colton Conor [mailto:colton.conor at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 9:57 AM
To: Anthony Caiozzo
Cc: voiceops at voiceops.org
Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] CPE side Passive Monitoring

Anthony,

That you for the information. Sounds like you have a solid product to say
the least. We do buy the VQMon license from Polycom on the VVX line, however
I don't beleive we have any server to collect/report on these metrics at
this time. I will look into  SQmediator, but I assume it is too expensive
for our small shop. 

My question is can you use a Polycom with the VQM license installed to
report back to something like voipmonitor.org software? Accoring to
Polycom's website:

With Polycom Productivity Suite Application: Voice Quality Monitoring,  IT
Managers can monitor and troubleshoot voice quality issues more quickly.

*                Transmit metrics in real time, or near real time, directly
from the phone in the standard RTCP-XR (IETF RFC 3611) format

*                Publish metrics using the SIP PUBLISH method

So if VoipMonitor.org supports RTCP-XR or SIP PUBLISH they should be able to
supports stats collected on the Polycom right?

I guess to make this even more complicated, do providers monitor the WAN CPE
router (like an Adtran 908e) in addition to the phones themselves (Polycom
VVX for instance)? 

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 9:22 PM, Anthony Caiozzo
<anthony.caiozzo at telchemy.com> wrote:

Colton - yes - that's exactly what I'm saying.  :-)  See
www.telchemy.com/partners.php for a full listing of companies that have
released product that incorporate our VQmon
<http://www.telchemy.com/vqmon.php>  engine for MOS scoring/stats
generation.  VQmon is the only industry solution that complies with or fully
supports ITU-T P.564, G.107, ETSI TS101329-5 Annex E, RFC 3611 (RTCP-XR),
RFC 6035 (SIP PUBLISH/NOTIFY).  Most other competing products in industry
leverage a straight ITU-T G.107 E-model implementation which a) doesn't
correlate well to true subjective opinion b) doesn't support the 150+ codecs
and their variants that VQmon does c) doesn't typically provide intra-call
reports d) doesn't handle wideband and super-wideband codec measurements e)
doesn't support the analysis of video (e.g. conferencing or IPTV) like VQmon
can/does.  It is extremely well regarded and enthusiastically trusted by
carriers (and large enterprise) worldwide, is the de facto industry standard
and has almost 200M units deployed to date.

While I can imagine there are open source based providers using VoIP
Monitor. most commercial carriers that leverage COTS product leverage
Telchemy technology in some way, shape or form via the 200+ technology
licensees in our partner portfolio - or work with us directly to deploy
additional complementary system elements (e.g. SQmediator w/Polycom).  In
addition, please note that our products are not built and supported through
an open source community but rather conventionally developed (entirely
in-house), sold both direct as well as through a network of
distributors/resellers, are deployed in just about every single major
carrier environment and are both built and supported by a first rate
development team.  This is due to the immense amount of technical knowledge
and expertise required to develop and support the underlying measurement
technologies, as well as the active test and passive analysis systems
products that make extensive use of VQmon.  

As you've noted, Polycom (as well as many other soft and hard handset
vendors) include VQmon with their products.  Some include this functionality
as a default option with the device, others charge a nominal fee to access
the power contained within.  Polycom actually has a dual pronged approach,
whereby they separately license the functionality on the lower end 300/400
VVX platforms, while on the more fully featured 500/600 VQmon is included by
default.  In all cases, VQmon needs to be active / operational on the
platform in order to enable statistics generation and subsequent collection
/ SIP publishing to platforms like SQmediator.

Lots of technology / terminology contained above - let me know if it sparks
any additional questions.

-anthony

  _____  

From: Colton Conor [mailto:colton.conor at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2014 12:08 PM
To: Anthony Caiozzo
Cc: voiceops at voiceops.org

Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] CPE side Passive Monitoring

Anthony,

So are you saying Adtran's VQM or Edgewaters and everyone elses is really
your embedded engine? I know alot of opensource providers are using
VoIPMonitor as a solution. I believe this software collects stats form
devices like Polycom Phones that use your software.

I have notices that Polycom sells each phone with Voice QM enabled for a
dollar or two more. I assume you need this license to enable stats
collection? 

On Wed, Oct 29, 2014 at 9:57 PM, Anthony Caiozzo
<anthony.caiozzo at telchemy.com> wrote:

Chiming in from the vendor perspective here... Telchemy manufactures a
variety of embedded and non-embedded applications that are focused on
measuring voice, video and other real-time service application performance.

Our VQmon software is the de facto industry standard, is P.564 Class 1
compliant and serves as the cornerstone for many industry products that
feature MOS scoring and associated diagnostics, such as Adtran (mentioned by
Jay below) as well as Edgewater, Polycom, Cisco and a wealth of network
measurement / management tools and applications.  A full list of vendors
with products currently shipping can be found on our website -
http://www.telchemy.com/partners.php.

There are typically three methods employed to measure/report on call/session
quality:

1. Measure live call quality @ the endpoint - typically achieved with an
embedded performance analysis model (VQmon) baked into the device.
Here's pointer to a joint solutions guide
(http://community.polycom.com/polycom/attachments/polycom/technology-partner
<http://community.polycom.com/polycom/attachments/polycom/technology-partner
%0d%0as/12/1/Telchemy-SQmediatorSolution%20Guide_01082013.pdf> 
s/12/1/Telchemy-SQmediatorSolution%20Guide_01082013.pdf) that covers how we
measure and report on EOL performance with Polycom, though there are a
number of other IP endpoint vendors that support the rfc6035 distributed
reporting model.  The benefit of this approach is being able to account for
all impairments that affect your customer experience - but the downside is
that sometimes you're measuring things (e.g. LAN performance) that you're
not directly responsible for or have no control over.  However - at the end
of the day - being able to understand what the net effect is of the total IP
connection can certainly be of immense value.

2. Measure call quality @ the WAN demarcation point - typically achieved
with:
        a) a hardware probe (http://www.telchemy.com/appliances.php)
passively analyzing live customer traffic - providing full call setup,
teardown and media quality metrics
        b) a software probe running on customer provided hardware
(http://www.telchemy.com/sqprobe.php) passively analyzing live customer
traffic - providing full call setup, teardown and media quality metrics
        c) an active test agent (http://www.telchemy.com/dvqattest.php)
generating synthetic voice, video and data transactions to create a profile
of application performance and serve as a test head that can both probe the
carrier network as well as the local LAN for real-time, proactive diagnostic
purposes.

Recalling that Kris was looking for a tool that enabled him to isolate WAN
performance - it sounds as if our hardware/software probe line would make
most sense for his application though collecting performance information
from EOL devices certainly provides useful diagnostic information when one
needs to provide empirical data as to which side of the WAN connection is
causing the issue.

Questions?  Happy to help however I can.

-anthony

Anthony Caiozzo
Telchemy - www.telchemy.com
m: 617-312-5189  f: 678-387-3008
e: anthony.caiozzo at telchemy.com
support: 1-866-TELCHEMY
Skype: acaiozzo

-----Original Message-----
From: VoiceOps [mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org] On Behalf Of Jay
Hennigan
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 12:36 PM
To: voiceops at voiceops.org
Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] CPE side Passive Monitoring

On 10/29/14, 3:45 AM, Kris Alberts wrote:
> Hi
>
> Looking for a cost effective, easily deployed, useful passive monitoring
> probe to be deployed at the customer prem for voip traffic monitoring.
>  My main objective is to reduce MTTR and provide a clear demarcation
> service for customers that supplies their own LAN. We use a variety of
> CPE device (primarily Cisco though) so I will need to find an external
> hardware probe that caters for all use cases.
>
> There seems to be a variety of solutions available so was hoping you
> could share you experience on some of the solutions that you are using.
> I really need to understand the extent to which the added visibility
> optimised your product in terms of better support, fewer truck rolls
> etc. All of these listed products claims to do just that.

We use the Adtran TA900 series as a demarcation point, they are a very
versatile SIP toolbox with huge feature set. They also do voice quality
monitoring, can do packet capture, and can (but aren't required to)
interface with Adtran's N-Command central server that can store
historical data, back up configurations, etc.

This isn't passive, but it provides very good monitoring in addition to
PRI conversion, analog drops, SIP proxy, etc.

--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay at impulse.net
Impulse Internet Service  -  http://www.impulse.net/
Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323
<tel:805%20884-6323>  - WB6RDV
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