It's not everyone's protocol of choice, but if you're using MGCP to deliver business VoIP service, there's a box to manage your deployment.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [May 3, 2007]

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Packet Island announced its PacketSmart VoIP Lifecycle Management solution for VoIP deployments using Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP). The system uses a micro appliance (4" x 4") deployed on the customer site plus hosted software to ensure VoIP quality.

Quality in VoIP, we hear, is not guaranteed. In the article Ellacoya's Data, we noted that Ellacoya claims, based on its packet inspection, that many VoIP services fail utterly to deliver acceptable service levels.

Matthew Edington, Packet Island director of sales, says the company divides VoIP quality assurance into three steps:

1. Pre-deployment. Make sure that the ISP's VoIP system is set up correctly.
2. Deployment verification. Make sure that PacketSmart is installed correctly.
3. Ongoing monitoring. Network troubleshooting as the ISP grows and the network evolves.

Like a SIP ATA delivered to a residential service, the micro appliance connects to the host computer when it is connected to the internet. "It's plug and play. It sends us all the traffic we need, and since VoIP traffic does not consume a large quantity of bandwidth, it doesn't clog network resources," says Edington.

The service provider can access service quality data on the host computer using a browser. "We provide the URL, login, and password," says Edington. "Up comes the interface. They'll see the number of micro appliances they have installed and they'll choose what information to view."

Each micro appliance can support a up to 20 concurrent calls.

Edington says that although service providers can manage their own networks well, they have no access to the customer's network, and that's where most problems occur. Having a management appliance in place can help pinpoint the problem and even allow the service provider to avoid sending a person to the customer's location to fix the problem.

Without a monitoring solution, the service provider would have to send a tech and the tech would spend some time monitoring the network. If the problem was sporadic, the tech might not see the problem. On the other hand, historical data allows the provider to see what happened when the problem occurred.

Pricing and availability
The service is subscription based, priced at an annual fee. There are three types of subscription.

For permanent monitoring at a customer location, the service costs $360 per year, with a minimum order of 20 devices.

For a single box used by consultants to find a problem, the company charges $800 per year. The consultant uses the product as an assessment tool, similar to tools developed to test network security.

For a roving monitoring and assessment pack, where the service provider installs the unit if there's a problem, the company charges $1,200 per year with a minimum order of 10 devices.

—End