Voice Quality Management

Dashboard features and functionality
Version 1.2

Contents
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Voice Quality Management
3.0 VQM in real-world environments
4.0 VQM and Configuration Management
5.0 Voice Quality Health Dashboards

Figures
Figure 1 – Configuration Manager IP Network Region Schematic
Figure 2 – MOS bands showing RAG color code
Figure 3 – Active Streams dashlet
Figure 4 – Mean Opinion Scores dashlet
Figure 5 – Calls in Progress dashlet
Figure 6 – VQM Summary dashlet
Figure 7 – Codec Tab – VQM Summary dashlet
Figure 8 – Layer 3 Device Tab – VQM Summary dashlet
Figure 9 – Call Center Tab – VQM Summary dashlet
Figure 10 – Endpoint Data Summary dashlet
Figure 11 – VLAN Panel – DHCP tab
Figure 12 – Network Panel - Subnet tab
Figure 13 – Protocol panel – Subnet tab

Version History

Introduction

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a set of practices for IT Service Management that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. The ITIL processes all interwork, providing IT management with an end-to-end view of the technology and services being provided, maximizing uptime and providing a high quality experience for end-users.
VSM is based on delivering seven of the ITIL disciplines:

• Configuration Management
• Capacity Management
• Availability Management
• Change Management
• Release Management
• Continuity Management
• Security Management

Voice Quality Management

As ITIL takes an end-user view of IT Services, VQM (Voice Quality Management) has been made a key feature within VSM Availability Manager.
An IP Endpoint that is registered to a gatekeeper and can make and receive calls is important, but quite simply is an incomplete view of UC availability. The quality of those calls must overlay connectivity to paint a true picture. The quality must be such that the end-user and the other parties on that call can all hear each other concisely. If not, the service should be deemed as unavailable.
VSM captures and evaluates the quality of experience for every call. IT teams no longer have to rely on end-users reporting problems. Real time dashboards and work-flow advise the right people if quality drops. Associated configuration and diagnostic data pinpoints the likely cause so that the issue can be addressed quickly.

VQM in real-world environments

Traditionally VQM has been extremely challenging for IT support staff to monitor, manage and diagnose:

• Most often problems and incidents had to be reported by end-users, often after there has already been significant business impact.
• There was no historic data available to even start investigations and trying to reproduce the issue after the fact was almost impossible.
• Network monitoring operates at layers 1, 2 and/or 3 and cannot 'see' performance issues that impact real-time communications.
• The UC and data networking teams spoke different technical languages – often the terminology used by the different teams was not mutually understood.
• Support teams needed to enlist specialist engineering knowledge in order to correctly diagnose and remedy quality issues. Often these skills only reside within the Business Partner or Manufacturer which leads to delays in rectification.
• Even with specialist engineering resources involved there are a number of dependencies that relate to architecture that can vary between deployments and are often misunderstood.

VQM and Configuration Management

VSM collects and stores configuration, capacity and availability information relating to the consumption of all resources related to voice quality. This data is mined at all levels, from infrastructure through to the application layer. It stores this information for reporting, trending and analytical purposes.
VSM specifically targets critical areas that indicate business-impacting quality issues.
Items monitored include not only VQM, but also essential aspects of the supporting infrastructure and configuration which have their own specific requirements and capacity limitations. This information is presented by way of several different dashboards within Service Desk and reports within Configuration Manager.
Endpoint configuration is essential to good quality calls. VSM reaches out to every endpoint and collects data relating to:

• Speed and duplex of the network interface
• Framing code
• Audio priority
• Signaling priority
• V-Lan
• DSCP
• DHCP

1. 1. Normally administrators must assume these settings are correct. VSM gets the settings from the endpoint, so the data presented is verbatim.

Network region configuration is also essential to good quality. Real time applications must understand how calls get from A to B across the network so that real time queues on WAN segments are respected via call admission control. VSM presents this data by way of schematic diagram in Configuration Manager.

Figure 1 – Configuration Manager IP Network Region Schematic

Voice Quality Health Dashboards

The purpose of the dashboards is three-fold:

• To enable IT teams to proactively identify potential issues and prevent outages.
• To provide a real time view of VQM at a glance without having to rely on end-users reporting problems.
• In the event of a service-impacting incident to significantly reduce Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) and therefore to reduce the impact on business operations by quickly identifying the root cause.

1. 1. Call quality is displayed regardless of the underlying technology. In blended environments the VQM dashboards will present data sourced from multiple technology manufacturers in a consolidated view.

Mean Opinion Score is calculated using an industry standard formula from data that includes Packet Loss, Latency, Jitter and Codec. Throughout VSM the MOS bands are color coded wherever Red is less than 3.6 (poor), Amber is 3.6 to 4.0 (satisfactory) and Green is equal to 4.0 or greater (good).

Figure 2 – MOS bands showing RAG color code

Active Streams dashlet

Real time (and recent) view of the whole environment, showing the number and quality of VQM streams for calls in progress.

Figure 3 – Active Streams dashlet

Mean Opinion Scores dashlet

An important factor that drives end-user perception is the consistency of call quality. If quality varies throughout the call, the end-user is much more likely to be dissatisfied.
VSM displays the range of call quality being experienced by end-users, in real time. Users are at their happiest when the MOS score range is narrow AND consistently at 3.5 and above. Both factors are very important.
This dashboard provides support teams with a valuable insight into the end-user satisfaction.

Figure 4 – Mean Opinion Scores dashlet

Calls in Progress dashlet

The Calls in Progress dashlet joins disparate RTCP streams together to display calls. The quality in each direction is not necessarily the same.
When trying to improve the end-user experience, it's important to zoom in on the outliers. This dashboard brings those needing attention into visibility. To assist with this:

• The worst calls are displayed at the top
• The dashboard uses the CMDB to attach the name of the caller or resource
• Streams can be filtered, which helps support staff to establish patterns
  • Party A or Party B
  • IPNR
  • MOS
  • Source IP and Name
  • Remote IP and Name
• Right click on a stream for more details
  • Type/Location
  • Hardware and Software versions
  • Network Settings
  • Protocol settings
  • QOS settings

Figure 5 – Calls in Progress dashlet

VQM Summary dashlet

As a rule, one should be aiming for less than 1% of media streams with a MOS interval value below 4. VSM detects and reports what percentage of calls fall into this category and then gives a comprehensive breakdown of stream quality.
The VQM Summary dashlet shows a breakdown of streams for each MOS band by:

• DSCP
• IPNR
• Codec
• Layer 3 Device
• Call Centre

The VQM Summary dashlet allows you to target areas of poor stream quality that will benefit your business the most. For example use the Call Center tab to analysis the quality of calls to your Contact Center by either Agent, Skill or VDN.

1. ECHI from Avaya Call Management System (CMS) must be enabled for the Call Center tab to populate.

VSM's AI Engineer, Alex offers recommendations for resolving issues on each tab.

Figure 6 – VQM Summary dashlet

Figure 7 – Codec Tab – VQM Summary dashlet


Figure 8 – Layer 3 Device Tab – VQM Summary dashlet

Figure 9 – Call Center Tab – VQM Summary dashlet

Endpoint Data Summary dashlet

The Endpoint Data Summary dashlet reports on IP endpoints that are SNMP enabled and excludes endpoints that are gateways.
The summary count at the top of the dashlet includes where endpoints have settings that can result in voice degradation. For example:

• VLAN = 0: These endpoints can contribute to poor voice quality, since VLAN 0 is the broadcast VLAN and does not support QoS.
• DSCP ≠ 46: DSCP is used to define priority for network traffic. For best results it's recommended that DSCP is set to 46 (expedited forwarding).

Further detail is provided in the body of the dashlet.

• • VLANs are grouped by Subnet, IPNR and DHCP.
  • Network and Protocol are grouped by Subnet and IPNR

1. To see which specific endpoints might be mis-configured – click on 'Endpoints' for a link to the Phone Data Report found in Configuration Manager.

VSM's AI Engineer, Alex offers recommendations for resolving issues on each tab.

Figure 10 – Endpoint Data Summary dashlet

VLAN Panel

Stream data is presented by Subnet or IPNR or DHCP Server.
Most commonly:

• all endpoints in a given subnet are in the same VLAN.
• all endpoints in a given IPNR are in the same VLAN or group of VLANs
• all endpoints using a given DHCP are in the same VLAN or group of VLANs

Figure 11 – VLAN Panel – DHCP tab

Network Panel

Voice degradation can be caused by incorrect Ethernet configuration or negotiation. Best practise has ethernet settings set to auto-negotiation, ethernet speed is 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps and Ethernet Duplex is full. Half duplex will most certainly cause issues, even when there is no contention with other applications for bandwidth.

Figure 12 – Network Panel - Subnet tab

Protocol Panel

In some cases voice degradation is caused by incorrect 802.1Q configuration. Best practice is priority 6 for signalling and priority 6 for audio.

1. Priority settings may vary between deployments, depending on IP network design.

Figure 13 – Protocol panel – Subnet tab