monitoring call signaling for voip service assurance

M onitoring Call Signaling for VoIP Service Assurance

M att IzzoOctober 13, 2004

Agilent Technologies

2

Topics

•Deploying Voice over IP

•W hat’s so special about signaling?

•M anaging the customer experience

3

M igration to Next-Generation Voice

69%

31%

76%

24%

87%

13%

92%

8%96%4%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Perc

ent

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Year

North American Service Provider Voice Traffic

TDM

VoP

Source: “Service Providers: Next-Gen Voice, North America and Europe 2003”, Infonetics Research

4

Consumer VoIP DeploymentConsumer VoIP Deployment

0

1

2

3

4

5

2001 2002 2003 Q104 Q204 Q304 Q404 Q105 Q205 Q305 Q405 2006 2007

Lab

Tria

lFr

iend

lyTr

ial

Firs

tM

arke

tM

ultip

leM

arke

ts80

%C

over

age

5

Next-Gen Voice Drivers

13%

34%

31%

28%

72%

59%

59%

53%

50%

44%

25%

22%

16%

0% 25% 50% 75%

Footprint/rack space

Discontinuation of product or support from installed legacy voice switch vendor

Regulatory environment

Modernize networks with the latest technology

Customers/businesses rolling out their own VoIP networks

Consolidate the number of networks

Customer demand or acceptance

Competition

Cost per port

Operational expenditures

Scalability

Open/standards-based interfaces

Availability of new applications and services

Driv

ers

Percent of Respondents Rating 6 or 7

#1 Driver

Source: “Service Provider Plans for Next-Gen Voice, North America and Europe 2004”, Infonetics Research

6

Challenges M anaging Next-Gen Services

#1 Pain Point

Source: “Service Providers: Next-Gen Voice, North America and Europe 2003”, Infonetics Research

7

Don’t Poison the W ell!

“Don't launch the service with inferior quality and reliability.”* – Achieving standard PSTN levels of sound quality and service reliability will increase the reach of the VoIP offer by more than 50 percent –or even greater in combination with an established brand.

– Established brands must be very sensitive to the danger of damaging their overall image by offering a poor quality VoIP service.

– Note: questions about reliability are one of the key reasons whymany consumers do not regard mobile phone operators as attractive home phone providers.

* Source: M ercer M anagement Consulting,June 2004.

Based on survey of 1,000 consumers in the U.S. and U.K.

8

VoIP M igration Headaches

• Scale service operation –move workload to Tier 1 & 2

– Grow network & service– Scale service operation

– Consolidate voice and data NOCs • Ensure and maintain service quality and reliability– VoIP technology immature

– During network expansion

– Software upgrade destabilize QoS• Avoid customer calling

– Pro-active problem detection– Prioritize based on problem impact

• M onitor and manage QoS– SLAsfor large/medium enterprise

contracts – PSTN quality for SOHO and

consumers• Root-cause analysis

– Resolve detected problems faster at lower tiers

– Demarcation of impairments and problems on customer premise versus own network

• M onitor IP carrier interconnect

– Avoid finger-pointing– Assure QoS

9

Topics




10

Increased Sophistication & Complexity

DTAPLocation Update Request07/28/02 10:09:10.134 PM

BSC M SC/VLRnew

HLR M SC/VLRold

GSM .98 M APSend Parameter (old LAI, TM SI)07/28/02 10:09:10.516 PM

GSM .98 M AP Return Result (IM SI)07/28/02 10:09:11.0.57 PM

GSM .98 M APUpdate Location07/28/02 10:09:11.611 PM

GSM .98 M APCancel Location07/28/02 10:09:12.187 PM

GSM .98 M APCancel Location Acknowledge07/28/02 10:09:12.492 PM

BSC M SC/VLRnew

HLR M SC/VLRold

DTAPLocation Update Accept07/28/02 10:09:15.084 PM

GSM .98 M APInsert Subscriber Data07/28/02 10:09:13.256 PM

GSM .98 M APInsert Subscriber Data Ack07/28/02 10:09:13.780 PM

GSM .98 M APUpdate Location Ack07/28/02 10:09:14.322 PM

DTAPTM SI Allocation Complete07/28/02 10:09:15.676 PM

11 signalingmessages

Number of signalling messages required to:

M ake an SS7 voice callSwitch on a GSM phoneM ake an IP voice call (VoIP)Switch on a GPRS phoneInitiate an 8-party push to talk call

511>25>90

Approx. 1,000

GSM

11

Enabling New Services

Characteristics:•M ore personalized•M ore interactive•M ore complex•Greater differentiation

•Shorter duration•Less lead-time•Better managed

Examples:•Special events– Sporting events – “American Idol” type

•Gaming•Gambling•Video•M anaged services

12

VoIP Signaling Analysis Requirements

• Continuously monitor every call • Show call signaling andKPIs/KQIsend-to-end in near real time or for historical analysis

• Create call flow records to do real time troubleshooting to address connectivity issues

• Real time analysis –designate call flows as successful or failed

• Present details of each individual signaling message content

• W eb GUI & historical reporting• Document call records to aid problem resolution

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W hat’s in a Signaling Call Record?

SS7 Signaling:•Calling Party Number•Called Party Number•Charge Number•JIP

•Release Cause Code•Connect Time•Call Duration

IP Signaling:•IP addresses and ports•Encoding

•Total packets, Lost Packets, Delay

•Post dial delay/Call setup delay•Dialtonedelay•Response Codes•Call Duration•Calling Party Number *•Called Party Number *

* SIP only

14

Signaling M onitoring for Voice Quality Analysis

Detect voice quality problems:•Codec mismatch•GW connecting to unavailable Trunks– Provisioning Error– Blocked Trunks by other carrier

•Trunks with poor voice quality

•Fax transmission not recognized

•Voice quality information embedded in signaling

Correlate voice quality info:•Phone Number identification•Relating voice streams across IP-TDM -IP networks

•Hot-list customer monitoring•Rogue RTP Detection –Signaling terminated, RTP continues

•Trunks with poor voice quality

15

Topics




16

Drivers for Customer Centric M anagement

•Large corporate customers are willing to give a single carrier their business in return for favorable pricing and guaranteed levels of service

•This requires carriers to monitor service levels by corporate customer for the services they are using

•M any large corporations are asking for ongoing reports of the level of service they are provided

•M any corporation are also demanding formal SLAs with penalties attached

•Customer centric management is not an option for many carriers if they want to do business with large corporate customers

17

Benefits of Customer-Centric Assurance

• Internal Focus– M onitoring in real-time the quality of service received by customers

– Determining the impact and priority of customer-specific problems– Reporting on successful service adoption within a customer type or

grouping, geographic area, or revenue-generating level– Correlating equipment and software failures that are a part of aservice with

customer and network information.

• External Focus (to the customer)– Identifying the root-cause of customer problems

– Instantaneous reporting on customer specific experience information– Delivering improved information & analysis capabilities to front-end

customer support and sales staff– Identifying non-network causes of customer problems such as CPE

configuration, provisioning mistakes, user errors, and end-device incompatibility.

18

Customer Level Operations Problems

•Unreliable, inaccurate, and non-real-time status of high value accounts

•Limited ability to automate and manage customer impact problem resolution

•Difficulty troubleshooting subscriber problems –especially occurring within the network core or adjacent networks

These problems can only be solved with a correlated view across customer, service, and network layers.

19

W hat Types of Data are Needed?

•Signaling / Call Detail Records– Shows call normalcy & problems from signaling

•Active call tests– Samples voice quality via test calls

•Passive performance data– M onitors network performance at regular intervals

•NE alarms– M onitors problems from network elements

•Routing info (IGP/BGP)– M onitors routing configuration

•Topology– Enables correlation of customer & service data to network

20

Changing How Networks & Services Are M anaged

•Leverage comprehensive set of data sources

•End-to-end network and customer experience visibility

•Contextual drill-down for efficient problem resolution

ActiveServiceTest

ElementData Feeds

InstrumentsSS7

SignalingM onitoring

OtherProbe

M onitoring

IP SignalingM onitoring

Customer Service M anagement

In-context Correlation and Integration

21

Increasing Efficiency via Integration & Correlation

•Greater flow-through automation– Fewer manual work-arounds and drop-outs

•Reduced operator staff – Fewer screens to watch, fewer manual tasks, etc.– Less to do

•Shorter M ean Time To Repair (M TTR)– Problems diagnosed and corrected in less time, with less staff

•Lower IT/administration costs– Fewer systems to maintain

22

A Comprehensive Approach to End-to-End M anagement and Test

Zoom+GreaterInsight

=W ide Angle

•Delivers comprehensive, end-to-end service view

•M onitors the individual customer experience

•Increases service quality and operations efficiency

23

Customer-Centric Service M anagementW ide-angle to Zoomed-in views

SLA, QoS Performance

Call Analysis & Troubleshooting

Customer-Centric Dashboard

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Conclusions

•NGN is taking off –big industry trends at work– Enabling new services and applications– Personalized, differentiated, and managed

•New services may be complex –lots of info needed to monitor, diagnose & manage the all that can go wrong

•Customer Centric Assurance means putting all the pieces together on a per-customer, per-call basis

Signaling monitoring is an essential part of customer-centric management of next-generation services.

monitoring call signaling for voip service assurance

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