Upgraded testing capabilities might allow providers to guarantee that a system is stable, ensuring reliable voice over Internet services are connecting to the edge of a network.

by Wayne Kawamoto [February 20, 2001]

Omegon announced its added new VoIP testing capabilities to flagship product, the NetAlly solution. NetAlly is a service quality assurance framework that diagnoses and tests networks.

According to Omegon, its NetAlly VoIP test suite enables service providers to perform an overall test of IP networks, devices and applications, making sure that a call placed on one network edge actually reaches a telephone on the other edge, and in an acceptable call setup time and quality.

Testing, testing
The test should allow service providers to check for proper operation of their VoIP call servers, the trunking operation to the common Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and other voice network providers. The test is also designed to let service providers ensure end-to-end interoperability of their systems. Omegon says that its NetAlly VoIP test suite can also be used to test PSTN systems, or any combinations of VoIP to PSTN gateway configurations.

The VoIP test suite includes tests for RTP and Call Setup network scenarios. The RTP test sends one-way VoIP simulated RTP traffic. The voice encoder used is an ITU-T G.711 Codec. The test also employs IP QoS for the generated traffic, in order to check the expected performance of VoIP configured networks with IP QoS deployment.

The RTP test measures parameters needed to assess VoIP traffic quality. These measurements may enable tuning of intermediate buffers, end-equipment jitter buffers and VoIP traffic priority/precedence for VoIP deployment.

The Call Set-up test places an actual end-to-end call utilizing modems by NetAlly Traffic Agents. It is designed to verify the proper operation of the signaling control protocol deployed and measure the signaling control parameters for the call setup from an end-user perspective.

With the Call Set-up test, users may be able to automatically set up a call for testing purposes, repeating the exact process a user goes through while placing a VoIP call. This may result in getting VoIP networks closer to PSTN grade reliability of instant dial tone and call placement.

"In the old circuit-switched telephone world people expect instant call placement and good sound quality, but this level of reliability is yet to be proven in the new era of packet-switched VoIP systems," said Amir Biran, Omegon president and chief executive officer. "With NetAlly's new VoIP test suite, service providers may guarantee this high level of network reliability."

Availability and Pricing
The NetAlly VoIP test suite will be available in March 2001 and will be sold with NetAlly. The NetAlly price will be based on the number of applications within the "Test Directory," and the number of "Traffic Agents" and "Network Agents."

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