VoIP Monitor Webinar Questions Answered

We’re here to answer some of the questions that came up during the Webinar but which we didn’t have time to answer. If your question isn’t answered below, you can send it to us through the comments form of this post.
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Can NetQos work with any carrier IP softswitch or has it only been tested with certain softswitch manufacturers?
Jeff Hicks: NetQoS VoIP Monitor works with Cisco equipment only in release 1.0.
What about Nortel VoIP, Alcatel, Shoretel, or Avaya servers?
Jim McQuaid: We plan to support a second vendor but we have not yet made a firm decision.
My call manager comes with a management package. Can they provide end user experience as a management solution?
Jim: Many IP PBXs have basic management tools. NetQoS assembles call setup metrics, call quality metrics and gateway quality metrics into a single performance record, making it much easier to understand user experience.
What does a company do when they lose total power and they are on a VOIP system only instead of a land line system that will work even when the power is out? This is a huge problem that we do not have an answer for other than keeping an old analog pulse dial phone on hand for emergencies.
Jeff: Many of the phones are now powered using power over Ethernet (POE) technology. So the analogy is similar to the analog phone in that the VoIP phone will stay powered as long as the switch its connected to has power. This means that the data switches now need UPS or power backup to keep the phones up and running.
When degradation occurs how best to troubleshoot whether it is quality degradation caused by the quality of the codec versus external influences?
Jeff: You can take a look at the MOS and see if any network metrics were degraded as well. If the network metrics are ok, then it is likely an issue with the codec.
Does NetQos uses Cisco IP SLA probes?
Jim: Our NetVoyant product uses IP SLA to monitor network performance. The VoIP Monitor product itself does not use IP SLA.
Can R-factor be measured?
Jeff Hicks: It depends on the instrumentation provided in the phone or gateway. Cisco phones do not provide a R-factor.
Is this product an end-user LAN Administrator product or a carrier product?
Jeff: VoIP Monitor is more typically deployed in an enterprise setting.
Will the VOIP product have incident/investigation functionality that SuperAgent currently has?
Jim: Yes, the VoIP Monitor product has incident capability today and will continue to build out the investigation capability in the future.
Do you need the Monitor unit at every Call Manager instance in multiple locations?
Jeff: That depends on the configuration. Typically you would co-locate the collector with the CallManager. Multiple collectors can be deployed with a single console that aggregates all the data. Scalability depends on call volume/phones and deployment scenario. Depending on deployment it is possible to use RSPAN to span information from multiple subscribers to a single collector.
Do you need a Monitor for every Subscriber?
Jeff: That also depends on the configuration. Multiple collectors can be deployed with a single console that aggregates all the data. Scalability depends on call volume/phones and deployment scenario. Depending on deployment it is possible to use RSPAN to span information from multiple subscribers to a single collector.
Do you have auto discovery of VoIP infrastructure ?
Jeff: VoIP Monitor passively discovers gateways, call servers, and phone information.
Does VoIP Monitor do passive monitoring of all the traffic?
Jeff: Just the call setup traffic. VoIP Monitor does not monitor RTP traffic.
Can VoIP Monitor help troubleshoot IP to PSTN calls too?
Jeff: Yes, VoIP Monitor looks at setup and quality information for IP to PSTN calls.
Can I troubleshoot “class of service” traffic?
Jeff: Yes, see the NetQoS whitepaper: VoIP Quality of Experience: Ensuring Your Network Supports Optimal VoIP Performance

How does NetQoS provide information for VOIP Capacity Management?
Jim: We will be providing a Call Activity report for understanding capacity and load.
Can the info from router queues (overflows etc) and port errors on a LAN switch be co-related with calls that have quality problem using your solution?
Jim: Yes, The NetQoS Performance Center allows you to do exactly this.
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We weren’t able to get to all of the questions today and still have some more in the queue. We’ll have more questions answered shortly.