Specifying

Requirements for
VoIP Calls

Introducing Voice over IP

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-1

 Factors Affecting Audio Clarity

 Fidelity: Audio accuracy or quality

 Echo: Usually due to impedance mismatch
 Jitter: Variation in the arrival of voice packets
 Delay: Time it takes for the signal to propagate from one end to
the other end of the conversation
 Packet loss: Loss of packets on the network
 Side tone: Allows speakers to hear their own voice
 Background noise: Low-volume noise heard at the far end of the
conversation

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-2

 Jitter in IP Networks

Steady Stream of Packets

Time

Same Packet Stream After Congestion or Improper Queuing

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-3

 Sources of Delay

Packet Flow
64 kb/s
Router 64 kb/s
Router
E1
E1
Fixed:
Switch Fixed: Fixed
Fixed Fixed: Dejitter
Coder Delay Switch
Fixed: Switch Buffer
Delay Serialization Delay
Delay
Delay

Fixed:
Packetization Variable:
Delay Output
Queuing
Delay

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-4

 Acceptable Delay: G.114

Range in Milliseconds Description

0–150 Acceptable for most user applications

Acceptable, provided that administrators are aware

150–400 of the transmission time and its impact on the
transmission quality of user applications

Unacceptable for general network planning

Above 400 purposes (However, it is recognized that in some
exceptional cases, this limit will be exceeded.)

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-5

 Effect of Packet Loss

Lost Audio

Packet 1 Lost Packet 2 Packet 3

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-6

 MOS and PSQM

 MOS
– Mean opinion score
– Defined in ITU-T Recommendation P.800
– Results in subjective measures
– Scores from 1 (worst) to 5 (best); 4.0 is toll quality
 PSQM
– Perceptual Speech Quality Measurement
– Defined in ITU Standard P.861
– Automated in-service measurement
– Scores from 6.5 (worst) to 0 (best)

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-7

 Voice Quality Measurement Comparison

Feature MOS PSQM

Test method Subjective Objective

End-to-end packet loss test Inconsistent No

End-to-end jitter test Inconsistent No

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-8

 QoS Mechanisms for VoIP

 Header compression
 Frame Relay traffic shaping (FRTS)
 FRF.12
 PSTN fallback
 IP RTP Priority and Frame Relay IP RTP Priority
 IP to ATM class of service (CoS)
 Low Latency Queuing (LLQ)
 Multilink PPP (MLP)
 Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP)

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-9

 Objectives of QoS

 Support dedicated bandwidth

 Improve loss characteristics
 Avoid and manage network congestion
 Shape network traffic
 Set traffic priorities across the network

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-10

 Applying QoS

In the Output Queue In the WAN

VoIP
QoS

In Conjunction with IP

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-11

 Transporting Modulated Data over IP
Networks

 Fax and modem traffic consists of digital data modulated into

high-frequency tones.
 In contrast to voice, packet loss is much more critical for fax and
modem communications.
 VoIP compression algorithms are designed for voice, not for fax
or modem data frequencies.
 Methods to transmit fax and modem over IP networks:
– Terminating and transmitting the data on the gateway
(fax relay)
– Sending the data in-band into the RTP stream
(fax pass-through)
– Receiving and converting faxes to files using T.37
(store-and-forward)

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-12

 Pass-Through Topology
0110011 0110011
G.711 64 kb/s G.711 64 kb/s
Encoding Decoding

IP Network

Analog Data Tunnelled

Through 64 kb/s VoIP
Analog Data Analog Data

0110011 0110011

End-to-End Connection

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-13

 Fax Pass-Through Considerations

 Works only when the configured codec is G.711 or

clear channel.
 Some gateways have limited port numbers for simultaneous use.
 VAD and echo cancellation are disabled.
 Supported under the following call control protocols:
– H.323
– SIP
– MGCP

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-14

 Modem Pass-Through Considerations

 Works only when the configured codec is G.711 or

clear-channel.
 VAD and echo cancellation need to be disabled.
 Modem pass-through over VoIP performs these functions:
– Represses processing functions
– Issues redundant packets
– Provides static jitter buffers
– Differentiates modem signals from voice and fax signals
– Reliably maintains a modem connection across the packet
network

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-15

 Relay Topology
0110011 0110011
DSP DSP
Demodulates Modulates

IP Network

TCP Transmission
of Data Packets
Analog Data Analog Data

0110011 0110011

Connection 1 Connection 2 Connection 3

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-16

 Fax Relay Considerations

T.38 fax relay includes these features:

 Fax relay packet loss concealment
 MGCP-based fax (T.38) and DTMF relay
 SIP T.38 fax relay
 T.38 fax relay for T.37/T.38 fax gateway
 T.38 fax relay for VoIP H.323

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-17

 Modem Relay Considerations

Modem relay includes these features:

 Modem tone detection and signaling
 Relay switchover
 Payload redundancy
 Packet size
 Dynamic and static jitter buffers

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-18

 Store-and-Forward Fax

 On-ramp receives faxes that are delivered as e-mail attachments.

Fax E-Mail

PSTN

 Off-ramp sends standard e-mail messages that are delivered

as faxes.

E-Mail Fax

PSTN

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-19

 Fax and Modem Pass-Through

G3 Fax Original Terminating G3 Fax

Initiates the Call Gateway Gateway

IP Network

VoIP Call

T.30

CED tone

Call Control Issues NSE

NSE Accept

Change codec Change codec

VoIP Call

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-20

 Cisco Fax Relay

G3 Fax Gateway Gateway G3 Fax

Initiates the Call

IP Network

T.30 VoIP Call T.30

CED Tone

DIS Message
Fax Relay Switchover (PT96)

Send Codec ACK (PT97)

Download Codec Download Codec

Codec Download Done (PT96)

Codec Download ACK (PT97)

Fax Relay Established

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-21

 H.323 T.38 relay

G3 Fax T.38 T.38

G3 Fax
Initiates the Call Gateway Gateway

IP Network

T.30 VoIP Call T.30

CED Tone

DIS Message
Mode Request

Mode Request ACK

Close VoIP and Open T.38 Channels

T.38 UDP Packets

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-22

 SIP T.38 Relay

G3 Fax T.38 T.38

G3 Fax
Initiates the Call Gateway Gateway

IP Network

T.30 VoIP Call T.30

CED Tone

DIS Message
INVITE (T.38 in SDP)

200 OK

ACK

T.38 UDP Packets

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-23

 Gateway Signaling Protocols with Fax and
Modem Pass-Through and Relay

MGCP T.38 fax relay provides two modes of

implementation:
 Gateway-controlled mode:
– Gateways negotiate fax relay transmission by exchanging data
in SDP messages.
– Allows the use of MGCP-based T.38 fax without the necessity
of upgrading the call agent software.
 Call agent-controlled mode:
– Call agents instruct gateways to process fax traffic.
– Call agent can instruct gateways to revert to
gateway-controlled mode if it can not handle fax control.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-24

 DTMF Support

 DTMF tones are distorted when gateways use compression on

slower WAN links.
 DTMF relay addresses this problem.

S0
256 G.729 Codec S1
kb/s Being Used 256
kb/s

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-25

 Summary

 Because of the nature of IP networking, voice packets sent via IP

are subject to certain transmission problems.
 Several methods may be used to determine audio quality in a
VoIP network.
 QoS is used to meet the strict requirements concerning packet
loss, delay, and jitter in a VoIP network.
 There are some challenges to transporting modulated data,
including fax and modem calls, over IP networks.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-26

 Summary (Cont.)

 These features support fax and modem traffic:

– Fax and modem pass-through
– Fax and modem relay
– Store-and-forward fax
 T.38 pass-through and relay use special protocol enhancements
on H.323, SIP, and MGCP.
 DTMF support is provided by Cisco IOS gateways.

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-27

© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CVOICE v6.0—1-28