MetaSwitch has selected standards-based voice quality analysis technology from Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) for its media gateway products. This analysis technology will enhance the network monitoring capabilities of its MetaView network management system. For instance, service provider networks will be alerted to potential call quality issues—even while the call is still connected. This real-time feature will allow service providers to more dynamically address a wide range of network problems, resulting in users experiencing greater overall satisfaction with their voice service.
According to a Yankee Group research, the quality of VoIP service is a key determinant to the technology's long term success, and is one of the top three reasons users change providers. The research also reports that the ability to effectively discover and repair problems will impact each VoIP provider's operational expenditures, and their ability to keep both consumer and business subscribers from churning to another service. Similarly, a recent report by Keynote Research notes that VoIP quality from cable and VoIP service providers still largely trails the quality of fixed line voice.
Introduced in January 2008, the MetaView network management system enabled carriers to monitor the health of the entire VoIP network, with real-time statistics superimposed on a graphical display of the network topology. In that first release, these statistics included packet loss, delay, and jitter. The addition of TI's quality management technology in every MetaSwitch gateway will enable additional standards-based statistics such as estimated mean opinion score (MOS) to be provided.
This real-time VoIP quality monitoring feature is a key element of TI's PIQUA TM software, and leverages the IETF RFC 3611, Real Time Control Protocol Extended Reports (RTCP-XR) standard, providing a call by call, standards-based quality metric calculation and reporting mechanism. In addition, PIQUA software interoperates with other devices on the network complying with this standard, allowing widespread use across disparate service provider networks. PIQUA software addresses the voice quality from the IP network media gateway and is an integral component of TI's Telogy Software provided for high-density VoIP products.
