Tracking the All-IP Customer Experience

A Different Approach

Given all of these challenges, it’s clear that the all-IP network demands a different set of monitoring and management solutions than its legacy forebears utilized.  Solutions exist for monitoring and managing networks carrying general IP traffic (email, internet, communications, etc.), but there is still a need for solutions designed explicitly for managing and monitoring real time IP communications (voice, video, presence, etc).   

However, that appears to be changing. Vendors are developing new solutions that allow for an in-depth, vendor-agnostic monitoring and management that is optimized for rapidly analysis of the vast amount of raw data generated by IP voice and video traffic and translating that data into actionable intelligence that can be utilized by multiple departments and partners needed to maintain network health and diagnose issues. 

One such solution is currently being offered by networking hardware and software provider Acme Packet.  This solution, known as Palladion, was developed by Berlin-based next gen network optimization vendor IPTEGO, which Acme acquired earlier this year.  I use Palladion as an example because it is an interesting tool not only for what it does, but for how it does it.

What it does is sit on top of existing network infrastructure reading raw data.  Rather than an old connection-based solution, it’s a tool that examines packets directly, wherever they are, and that can be immediately introduced into any network without configuration.  It monitors layer 7 (ISO-OSI), complementing, rather than replacing, monitoring tools at layers 3 and 4 and tools designed to monitor hardware health.  It is designed to be deep, rather than broad, and focuses specifically on voice and video IP traffic while leaving broad toolsets to do their work.  The data collected by the tool can easily be exported to other solutions, and the tool encourages the wide use of the data it collects, rather than keeping its information locked away in a proprietary way.

In addition, the tool is agile.  It’s cloud-based, so users need only a web browser to access the solution.  It’s graphically rich and customizable, so it’s friendly for non-engineers who need access to the data it contains.  It’s scalable, so it works on a Tier 1 network just as easily as it works on a network maintained by a small rural operator.

The scalability and capability extension is also helpful for wholesale carriers and business services providers.  “As a wholesale provider, we needed a unique set of network management tools,” said James Brind, CTO of HIPCOM, a white-label wholesaler of next gen voice, video, and application services in the UK.  “Our existing tools weren’t well-suited for hosting IP communications, and we didn’t have a way to extend the management visibility to our partners.”  HIPCOM picked up Palladion back in 2008, and now notes a more productive operations team, reduced operations expenses, and new revenue streams by offering management capabilities to wholesale customers. 

Palladion is just one example, but it points to the complex world that we live in as all-IP networks continue to roll out while legacy networks proceed into eventual obscurity.  It’s an environment in which blind spots can easily emerge, so by adopting tools that do a few things very well, and that play nicely with other existing management solutions, service providers can ensure that customer satisfaction is maintained, and end users stick with their providers in the midst of enormous change.

The future of communications is on the way, and it looks to be an all-IP future.  In the meantime, however, CSPs need solutions rooted in solid, actionable, and up-to-the-minute facts.  We can leave the fiction to the big screen.