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complete end-to-end view of traffic as it traverses varying technologies and networks. Existing niche monitoring systems are not designed with the flexibility and scalability to provide a complete view of the network with the data, reports, and alarms required to proactively manage multi-technology, multi-protocol networks.
QoS Complexity
In the highly competitive telecom market, QoS often is the single most critical factor that separates one operator from another in the subscriber’s mind. QoS is much more problematic in IP networks than in the circuit-switched world. In the public switched network, connection point interfaces, from which usage data is derived, are well-defined. In the packet world, those interfaces are not so well-delineated. Determining which subscribers are using the network and what services they are accessing is infinitely more complicated. Tracking services presents its own challenges since subscribers have more service options. For example, a customer making a conference call can actually be using several services simultaneously – voice, video and data.
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A customer making a conference call can actually be using several services simultaneously – voice, video and data.
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decades to develop and perfect their diagnostic systems. But, as operators move to IP networks and applications, service quality can be elusive and hard to achieve. Numerous factors can degrade a session’s connection quality – a delay in packet delivery (latency), missing data (loss of packets), or data arriving out of order (jitter). For example, imperfections in the transmission media can result in pulse degradation or loss, leading to bit errors. Entire packets of information can be lost as a result of routing variations or switch capacity limitations. And, packets can arrive out of sequence as they traverse different routes to the end point.
QoS can be greatly improved with a variety of techniques such as prioritizing packets, buffering, and placing strict tolerances on end-to-end delay and jitter. While QoS can indicate how well a packet is preserved in transport, it does not represent what the
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Add to that the fact that the IP domain has many components. On which network element should the operator focus to gather mission-critical usage data? No single resource can tell the whole story. In the IP domain, operators have to change their approach when it comes to service assurance. They must move from checking the health of a single, large box – the Class 5 switch – to monitoring and managing the network end-to-end and all of the associated resources. That approach requires new performance metrics and collection methods.
Quality of Experience (QoE)
QoS in the circuit-switched world largely is taken for granted. Operators have had
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customer hears and sees – the quality of experience.
When it comes to VoIP and multimedia applications, QoE must be considered a high priority. For services like video conferencing to be successful, they must mimic real life. This requires the synchronization of audio and video to create an experience that closely resembles a face-to-face conversation.
Mean Opinion Score (MOS)
The need to correlate what the consumer expects to see and hear with what they actually experience has led to the
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