Brix Networks' BrixCare Self-Service: taking the VoIP quality test

Telecommunications Americas, Sept, 2005

www.brixnetworks.com

Targeting top customer concerns, Brix Networks has announced a VoIP quality measurement and reporting application designed to help any service provider cut subscriber acquisition and supports costs.

The package, called BrixCare Self-Service, measures VoIP quality from the customer premises and enables providers to launch, operate and assure their residential and business broadband voice services profitably, while increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

"BrixCare Self-Service helps cut customer support costs, allows providers to have successful services with a prequalified pool of customers, and lets them differentiate their offerings based on quality, and not just price," said George Hamilton, senior research analyst at Yankee Group.

The vendor says BrixCare Self-Service consists of three primary components:

* On-demand VoIP Agent. A digitally signed, lightweight Java applet that's downloaded to a subscriber's PC, either in self-service mode or at the direction of a customer service representative;

* Central Management Software. A platform that collects information and presents it in formats that are relevant to customer service reps, NOC engineers and management;

* Brix Verifiers. Hardware appliances that reside in the providers network for terminating test calls and measuring VoIP call quality.

"Most VoIP providers have minimal visibility into their customers' environments or access networks where quality issues often arise," said Laura Holly, product line manager at Brix Networks, in prepared comments. "BrixCare Self-Service allows both users and providers to determine quickly whether a problem originates in the user's environment, the ISP's network, or the VoIP provider's service delivery infrastructure."

Holly added that Brix customers have said using BrixCare Self-Service has helped them realize 30-percent to 40-percent reductions in the average handle times of calls to their support reps.

BrixCare Self-Service can be used as both a pre- and post-sign-up application, according to the vendor.

Metrics Measured

BrixCare Self-Service measures several signaling quality metrics, including the time for each call setup phase and complete call setup time, and also provides a host of delivery quality diagnostic metrics, such as latency, packet loss and jitter.

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Additionally, BrixCare Self-Service evaluates overall call quality using the industry-recognized E-Model (ITU-T G.107) standard. The application reports a bidirectional Mean Opinion Score (MOS) and analyzes the impact of each quality factor on MOS degradation, presenting each in easy-to-understand displays.

BrixCare Self-Service is designed for seamless integration into VoIP service provisioning infrastructure and customer support workflows. The Web-based, Self-Service user interface incorporates easily into existing customer portals, allowing users to launch the Self-Service applet from a service subscription or self-help page.

Providers control the Self-Service experience for their customers by pre-configuring the number and duration of test calls, setting the call parameters, and specifying the format and detail-level of results they wish to share with customers.

Providers also specify flexible passing, warning and failing service thresholds and prescribe the workflow for each. For example, users receiving a passing grade might proceed straight to a payment page. Those with warning scores might be redirected to an online knowledge base, while failing users might be issued a trouble-ticket ID number. In all cases, detailed results for each user are immediately available to provider personnel for review, assignment or resolution.

In addition to performance issues, BrixCare Self-Service identifies firewall configurations that may prevent successful call signaling and UDP-based RTP media packet transmissions. Providers specify the ports or port ranges required for proper service operation.

BrixCare Self-Service is a component of Brix Networks' family of VoIP performance management offerings. The company also offers a range of performance management tools for service turn-up, operational monitoring, troubleshooting, and SLA assurance. Brix products support voice and VoIP networks and services across the entire service lifecycle from predeployment through commercial operation.

A BrixCare Self-Service Starter Kit, consisting of a Brix 1000 Verifier, Advanced VoIP Test Suite, Self-Service Application, and related licenses, lists at $65,000 and is available now.

The Global VoIP Testing Opportunity

Year  $ million

2005  293
2008  637.5

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Note: Table made from bar graph.