VoIP: Full Lifecycle Management
Russell M. Elsner
APM Technology Director
OPNET Technologies, Inc.
Agenda
• Motivation
• Components of the VoIP life cycle
– Pre-deployment
– End-user experience monitoring
– Continuous optimization
• Benefits of an end-to-end approach
• Conclusion
Motivation
• The wide acceptance of VoIP leads to the false hope that
VoIP is “just another application”
• However, most VoIP deployments fail initially
– New challenges managing data and voice on same network
– Requires careful planning of capacity, QoS, etc.
• Additional challenges in maintaining adequate voice
service quality as additional applications are deployed
over same network infrastructure
• Performance problems will occur sooner or later
– Can be network, server or application related
– Need for problem detection and root cause analysis solutions
Challenges
• Before deployment
– Is my network ready for VoIP?
– How do I configure my network to accommodate VoIP?
• After deployment
–
–
–
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Is my VoIP service delivering adequate call quality?
What is the root cause of a performance problem?
How do I resolve the problem?
How do I guarantee performance is maintained as new
users and applications are added to the network?
VOIP Life Cycle
1. Pre-Deployment
Planning & Assessment
Traffic data
Baseline data traffic
• Baseline data traffic for pre-deployment
planning and post-deployment evaluation
Perform VoIP
readiness assessment
• Build network model with baseline data traffic
• Add VOIP traffic (projected call volumes)
• Predict MOS or R-Factor and impact on
data traffic
• Add capacity or QoS, if required
• Predict behavior under failure scenarios
2. Ongoing Operations
Monitor and troubleshoot VoIP traffic
• Track call quality of VoIP traffic
• Evaluate how data traffic is affected
• Troubleshoot performance problems with drilldown into specific calls
• Compare current network load with forecast
3. Optimization
Continuously reengineer and
optimize the network
• Add additional capacity or QoS to resolve
performance issues
• Tune queues based on measure data and VOIP
volumes
• Trend VOIP and data traffic to predict future
capacity bottlenecks
• Test configuration changes prior to deployment
in virtual network environment
VOIP Life Cycle
1. Pre-Deployment
Planning & Assessment
Traffic data
Baseline data traffic
• Baseline data traffic for pre-deployment
planning and post-deployment evaluation
Perform VoIP
readiness assessment
• Build network model with baseline data traffic
• Add VOIP traffic (projected call volumes)
• Predict MOS or R-Factor and impact on
data traffic
• Add capacity or QoS, if required
• Predict behavior under failure scenarios
2. Ongoing Operations
Monitor and troubleshoot VoIP traffic
• Track call quality of VoIP traffic
• Evaluate how data traffic is affected
• Troubleshoot performance problems with drilldown into specific calls
• Compare current network load with forecast
3. Optimization
Continuously reengineer and
optimize the network
• Add additional capacity or QoS to resolve
performance issues
• Tune queues based on measure data and VOIP
volumes
• Trend VOIP and data traffic to predict future
capacity bottlenecks
• Test configuration changes prior to deployment
in virtual network environment
Pre-deployment
• What is in my network today?
– Identify devices and configurations
– Baseline applications and traffic
– Overlay traffic on network topology
• Impact of adding a new technology or application
such as VoIP?
– Testing in lab environment
– Pilot projects and emulation on production network
– Network simulation in virtual network environment
What is in my
network today?
Step 1: Build a topological view of the network
based on device configuration data
What is in my
network today?
Step 2: Collect application traffic data
What is in my
network today?
Step 3: Overlay traffic on network topology
Pre-deployment
Planning
• Lab testing: needed but not able to replicate
scale of full deployment
• Pilot projects or emulation on production
network should be handled with care not to
break existing operations
• Simulation in a virtual network environment is
able to reproduce full scale deployment without
affecting the production network
VoIP Planning
• Assess the impact of VoIP on existing network and data
• Predict bandwidth and performance (MOS, R-Factor) impact
• Generate design recommendations w.r.t. capacity, QoS, etc.
VOIP Life Cycle
1. Pre-Deployment
Planning & Assessment
Traffic data
Baseline data traffic
• Baseline data traffic for pre-deployment
planning and post-deployment evaluation
Perform VoIP
readiness assessment
• Build network model with baseline data traffic
• Add VOIP traffic (projected call volumes)
• Predict MOS or R-Factor and impact on
data traffic
• Add capacity or QoS, if required
• Predict behavior under failure scenarios
2. Ongoing Operations
Monitor and troubleshoot VoIP traffic
• Track call quality of VoIP traffic
• Evaluate how data traffic is affected
• Troubleshoot performance problems with drilldown into specific calls
• Compare current network load with forecast
3. Optimization
Continuously reengineer and
optimize the network
• Add additional capacity or QoS to resolve
performance issues
• Tune queues based on measure data and VOIP
volumes
• Trend VOIP and data traffic to predict future
capacity bottlenecks
• Test configuration changes prior to deployment
in virtual network environment
Ongoing Operations
• Monitor and troubleshoot poor call quality from the end-user’s
perspective
– Monitor the interaction of both data and VoIP running on the same network
– Monitor real-calls with passive speech quality analysis
• Receive automatic alerts based on low MOS scores
• Easily identify the root-cause of poor call quality before it affects the
business
VOIP Life Cycle
1. Pre-Deployment
Planning & Assessment
Traffic data
Baseline data traffic
• Baseline data traffic for pre-deployment
planning and post-deployment evaluation
Perform VoIP
readiness assessment
• Build network model with baseline data traffic
• Add VOIP traffic (projected call volumes)
• Predict MOS or R-Factor and impact on
data traffic
• Add capacity or QoS, if required
• Predict behavior under failure scenarios
2. Ongoing Operations
Monitor and troubleshoot VoIP traffic
• Track call quality of VoIP traffic
• Evaluate how data traffic is affected
• Troubleshoot performance problems with drilldown into specific calls
• Compare current network load with forecast
3. Optimization
Continuously reengineer and
optimize the network
• Add additional capacity or QoS to resolve
performance issues
• Tune queues based on measure data and VOIP
volumes
• Trend VOIP and data traffic to predict future
capacity bottlenecks
• Test configuration changes prior to deployment
in virtual network environment
Continuous
Optimization
• Growth and change affect network and
application performance
• Need to be planned for in advance
– Assess the impact of adding new VoIP
users, perform redesign to add new
branch offices, etc.
– Optimize network capacity and QoS
configurations as VoIP and other
traffic growth in your network
– Validate configuration changes prior
to deployment to identify security
gaps and minimize the risk of
downtime
Benefits of an
End-to-End Approach
Address different parts of the life cycle with a common toolset:
– Accelerate VoIP deployments by accurate predeployment planning
– Optimize the end-user experience
– Rapidly move from problem detection to root cause
analysis and problem resolution
– Minimize errors by ensuring all decision making is based
on common and up-to-date network data
Conclusion
• Before you roll out VoIP, make sure that
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–
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You understand the current network configuration
You baseline existing application traffic
You have adequate network capacity
You define the call quality that meets your user’s expectation
• After you have rolled out VoIP, make sure that
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–
–
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You monitor and troubleshoot call traffic and end-user experience
You leverage traffic measurements for adequate planning and QoS
You continuously reengineer the network for growth and change
You validate changes before deployment
• Use a full life cycle approach to guarantee network and application
performance before, during, and after deployment