Welcome To Implementing Voip: Voip Network Best Practices

Welcome to
Implementing VoIP:
VoIP Network Best Practices
Implementing VoIP:
VoIP Network
Best Practices
Agenda
 Introductions
 From Hype to Adoption
 VoIP Myths
 Anatomy of a VoIP Call
 VoIP Metrics
 Lab 1: VoIP in Action
Break
 The Three Phases of Successful VoIP Deployment
 Phase 1: Site Survey and Testing
 Phase 2: Monitoring the Roll Out
 Phase 3: Ongoing Troubleshooting and Maintenance
Break
 Lab 2: VoIP Call Monitoring
 Best Practices Summary
 Network Instruments Solutions Set
 Q&A
© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

First things first:
Introductions
Douglas Smith
 President and Co-Founder of Network Instruments
 Oversees
 Finance
 Sales
 Marketing
 Production
 Works closely on product design with company
CEO, Roman Oliynyk
 A part of the networking community since 1985
 Awarded degrees in Math and Economics
from University of Wisconsin-Madison

Charles Thompson
 Manager of Sales Engineering
 Works directly with the Network Instruments sales team
and partner channel to provide…
 Technical expertise
 Professional services
 In-depth product information for enterprise accounts
 Travels throughout North America conducting
workshops and presentations on network analysis
 Personally trained thousands of network
managers on the Observer product line

Network Instruments
 Founded in 1994
Network Instruments
Company Growth
 40,000 licenses sold
 ~4K new customers
annually
 12 offices worldwide
 Sold in over 75 countries
 2005 growth
 Overall: 24%
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Celebrating 11 years of continued company growth

History of Product Innovation
 1st affordable Windows-based analyzer
 1st distributed software-based protocol analyzer
 1st to include SNMP for switched environments
 1st 802.11 a/b/g wireless analyzer and remote probe
 1st combined wired and wireless solution together
 1st to support 64-bit Windows
 1st to develop multi-session, multi-user probes
 1st to integrate application analysis
 1st to develop enterprise-ready VoIP Expert

Distributed
Architecture
Advantages
Distributed Network Analysis Architecture

NI-DNA™ - Distributed Network Analysis
Two key components: the console, which
displays data and the probe, which is used
Unified Code Set for data collection and processing.
Scalability
Flexibility
Modularity
Affordability
NI-DNA provides Distributed and complete functionality for every type of Network topology in any location using the most
intelligent Analysis tools

Local/Remote Visibility Observer console includes a
local probe for local analysis
and connects to remote probes.
Visibility
Efficiency
Productivity
Security
NI-DNA provides Distributed and complete functionality for every type of

Network topology in any location using the most intelligent Analysis tools
Observer’s single user interface can
Multi-Topology Support manage multiple Gigabit links,
802.11 connections,
10/100/1000 Ethernet and
Wide Area networks.
Adaptability
Simplicity
Transparency
Reliability
NI-DNA provides Distributed and complete functionality for every type of Network
topology in any location using the most intelligent Analysis tools
Analysis Options
Software
Probe
MultiHop Connection Dynamics
Top Talkers
Analysis
GigaStor
10/100/1000 Probe
Appliance
VoIP Analysis Application Analysis SNMP Management

WAN and Gigabit
Probe Appliances
Gigabit and WAN

Observer Suite System
Snapshot of Customers

From Hype to Adoption
Market researchers expect the number

of VoIP users worldwide to increase
from around five million in 2004
to 200 million subscribers in 2010
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/64129

“Ninety-nine percent of all VoIP

network implementations that fail
do so because IT departments
didn’t do their homework.”
-- William Stofega,
VoIP research director, IDC

VoIP Monitoring and Analysis Challenges
 Current, competing tools were designed for lab use
 No method of quickly determining status and health
 No mechanism for understanding aggregate call quality
 VoIP dependencies are not implemented properly
 Separate tools increase learning curve, reduce ROI
Observer 11
Other VoIP tools

Common VoIP
Myths
VoIP Myths
Myth #1
Running VoIP without

Quality of Service
is acceptable

Contention = Delay
 Why is Quality of Service important?
 Managing VoIP means managing delay
 Even a network with large bandwidth

capabilities can have poor call quality due
to network contention
 QoS measures can help make VoIP traffic

less susceptible to adverse network conditions
 QoS offers VoIP traffic more

consistent availability

VoIP Myths
Myth #2
No VoIP Site Survey

is necessary

Site Surveys are Critical
 With the decision to implement VoIP, one of two
choices are usually made
 IT managers keep network conditions

the same and add VoIP traffic
 IT managers upgrade their bandwidth capacity

 Result
 Does not solve or address potential

VoIP problems
 Network adjustments are made after

deployment has begun
 Deployment issues can cause

user resistance to VoIP technology
 Adding bandwidth may not be necessary

or offer value

Common VoIP Myths
Myth #3
Voice conversations
are secure

VoIP Conversations are a Security Risk
 VoIP is another piece of network data
 Tools are used to capture not only voice conversations but to

also generate audio playback for later use
 Higher-end VoIP systems may offer a way to encrypt data

but many existing or lower-end systems do not
 VoIP traffic is most vulnerable on the LAN since

Internet WAN traffic is typically through VPNs
 Consider wiretapping rules and regulations

Anatomy of a VoIP Call
How does VoIP work?
H o w V o IP p h o n e s s e n d a u d io s t r e a m s o v e r a n e t w o r k
Send R e c e iv e
W AN
LA N LAN
01001101 01001101
E n c o d e a n d p a c k e t iz e N e tw o r k d e la y , jitte r, & p a c k e t lo s s J it te r s m o o t h in g , d e c o d e , & p la y b a c k
T o ta l d e la y b u d g e t o f 1 5 0 m s o r le s s ( o n e w a y )

How does VoIP work?
 VoIP phones use codecs to translate analog sound streams into

digital packets for transmission
 On the receiving end, the codec translates the

packets back to analog
 To ensure normal conversations, all of this must

happen as close to real-time as possible

VoIP Metrics
VoIP Basics
 What is VoIP?
 Packetized voice traffic sent over an IP network
 What challenges does it bring?
 Competes with other traffic on the network
 A new technology that needs real-time, consistent

monitoring
 Sensitive to delay

VoIP Basics
 Understanding VoIP begins with understanding delay
 Normal traffic
 Not sensitive to delay
 Example: FTP, HTTP, e-mail, etc.
 Tolerant traffic
 Sensitive to delay
 Loss tolerant
 Buffered by receiver
 Example: streaming video, Internet radio, etc.
 Real-time traffic
 Delay and loss sensitive
 Example: VoIP

VoIP Terms
 Jitter
 R-Factor / MOS
 Burstiness / Gap / Gap Duration
 QoS / TOS / Precedence
 Compression Techniques (Codecs)

Jitter
 What is it?
 Jitter is the variation in the time between packets

transmitted and received
 For example, if a packet stream leaves a device with 30 ms

packet spacing and arrives with 50 ms packet spacing, the
jitter is 20 ms
J itt e r b u ffe r in g a n d p a c k e t lo s s c o n c e a lm e n t
IP P h o n e
N e tw o rk
J it te r b u ff e r Codec
8 7 9 7 4
4 3 3 2 1 01001101
9 6 5 8 6 5
V o I P p a c k e t s c a n a r r i v e a t t h e r e c e iv in g p h o n e o u t o f s e q u e n c e , l a t e , e a r ly , o r n o t a t
a ll. I P p h o n e s u s e a ji t t e r b u f f e r t o r e c o n s t r u c t t h e p a c k e t s t r e a m a t t h e r e c e iv in g e n d ,
d u p lic a t in g m is s i n g p a c k e t s o r f i ll in g i n w it h w h it e c o m f o r t n o is e w h e n n e c e s s a r y .

Jitter
 Why measure it?
 Understanding jitter gives hard facts to help

improve call quality
 Excessive jitter will confuse callers about who is

speaking and who is listening
 Adjusting jitter buffers can help at the

expense of increased latency and thus,
clipping. Jitter buffer overflow will introduce
dropped packets.

Observer’s Jitter Measurement
In aggregate…
and per call…

Call Quality Scoring
 What is it?
 Industry standard methodologies for associating a

grade to a call

 R-factor
 Identifies live call quality using a single source of
visibility
 Based on E-Model (ITU G.107)
 Scale: 1-100
 Typically the maximum value would be 93.2 after
standard degradation
 Codec used
 Network delay
 Jitter buffer
 Packet loss

 MOS
 User satisfaction level with a call
 Takes into account a number of different factors
 Handset quality
 Ambient noise
 Network performance
 Scale: 1-5
 4.0 and higher considered satisfied
 4.5 and higher extremely satisfied
 On simulated calls, traffic is captured at the destination and
compared to the original
sent data to identify degradation

 Why measure Call Quality?
 Provides objective and subjective scores to evaluate
existing conditions to compare with historical
conditions.

Observer’s Call Quality Scoring
In aggregate…
per call…
and Expert…

Burstiness and Burst Density
 What is it?
 A burst is a period of time characterized by high rates of packet

loss
 Burst percentage is the % of time bursts are occurring
 Burst density is the rate of VoIP data packets lost during a burst
period
 Why measure it?
 Higher rates affect call quality, especially when coupled

with long average burst duration times
 Possible reason for packet loss include network
congestion, media failure, and link failure

Gap Density and Duration
 What is it?
 Gaps are the periods between bursts

 A gap is a period of time characterized by lower levels of
packet loss than the burst periods that bound it
 Gap density is the percent of packet loss during gaps
 Average gap duration is measured in time
 Why measure it?
 Knowing the gap helps define the burst

 In most cases, packet loss during gaps is rendered
insignificant by concealment techniques built into the
VoIP infrastructure

Observer’s Burst and Gap Density
In aggregate…
and per call…

Settings for QoS / Precedence
 Support for multiple definitions of Quality of Service (QoS)
 Also known as Precedence or Type Of Service (TOS)
 What is it?
 QoS is a bit setting used by routers and switches to prioritize packet flow
 Why measure it?

 Incorrectly set QoS can
lead to VoIP or other
network contention
 Contention will lead to
delays in packet delivery,
reducing call quality

Observer’s QoS/TOS/Precedence
In aggregate…
per call…
and Decode…

Compression Techniques
 Codec is a term for Coder/Decoder
 Different compression techniques (codecs)

 G.711: 64kbps (no compression)
 G.729: 8kbps
 G.723: 6.3kbps, 5.3kbps
 Higher compression reduces R-Factor and MOS but also

reduces potential contention

Which Codecs Are Used?
In aggregate…
per call…
and Decode…

How does VoIP work?
H o w V o IP p h o n e s s e n d a u d io s t r e a m s o v e r a n e t w o r k
Send R e c e iv e
W AN
LA N LAN
01001101 01001101
E n c o d e a n d p a c k e t iz e N e tw o r k d e la y , jitte r, & p a c k e t lo s s J it te r s m o o t h in g , d e c o d e , & p la y b a c k
T o ta l d e la y b u d g e t o f 1 5 0 m s o r le s s ( o n e w a y )

Lab 1
Capture and Decode

of a VoIP Call
Break
Agenda
 Introductions
 From Hype to Adoption
 VoIP Myths
 Anatomy of a VoIP Call
 VoIP Metrics
 Lab 1: VoIP in Action
Break
 The Three Phases of Successful VoIP Deployment
 Phase 1: Site Survey and Testing
 Phase 2: Monitoring the Roll Out
 Phase 3: Ongoing Troubleshooting and Maintenance
Break
 Lab 2: VoIP Call Monitoring
 Best Practices Summary
 Network Instruments Solutions Set
 Q&A

Phase 1:
Site Survey and Testing
 Conduct a Site Survey to review…
 WAN link bandwidth levels
 Current traffic flows
 View existing switches for bottlenecks and
choke points
 Determine needs through testing and modeling
 Placement of analysis tools
 The more you know about your network the better

prepared you are to properly integrate VoIP

WAN Link Bandwidth Levels
Summary
Port 1 Source DCE
Port 1 Source DTE
Port 2 Source DCE
Port 2 Source DTE

Long-Term Trending

Estimate VoIP Impact
 How will VoIP traffic affect the network?
 First, determine number of potential users

 Assume users spend 20% of their day on the phone
 Includes active calls as well as VM retrieval
 Video will add to utilization
 Varies based on site
 Determine the codec in use; for example:

 G.711: 64kbps (no compression)
 G.729: 8kbps
 G.723: 6.3kbps, 5.3kbps

Examples: VoIP Impact
 100 users on site, 20% usage = 20 concurrent sessions
 G.711 Codec: 1.28 Mbps
 G.729 Codec: 160 kbps
 G.723 Codec: ~120 kbps
 Bandwidth impact using a T1 at 1.54 Mbps

 G.711 Codec: 83%
 G.729 Codec: 10%
 G.723 Codec: 8%

Current Traffic Flows
 Assuming one drop per user, evaluate connection
speeds and current usage
 If multiple network drops per user, not applicable

Find Bottlenecks and Choke Points
 Determining switch, router, and device utilization
 Review uplinks and shared pipes

Testing and Modeling
 Do a pilot test to generate sample calls in various network
conditions
 Capture live data and model hypothetical situations
 Switch codecs to find optimal performance
 Use Observer’s “What-If” Analysis to predict

response
 Here is an example using Observer…

 Review Observer’s UDP Events to find live calls

G.711
1 User

G.711
100 Simultaneous
Users

G.711
1000 Simultaneous
Users

Placement of Analysis Tools
 Where should you place your analyzer tools for maximum
visibility?
 Depends on what you’re wanting to see

 Each call includes both client and server communications
 If you need access to all local conversations…

 Use a SPAN session on the access layer
 Assign all VoIP traffic to a dedicated VLAN

Points of Visibility
 Consider a sample network
V o I P c a ll
m anager
A c c e s s la y e r
C o r e s w itc h
W est C oast
O f f ic e
M PLS
M esh
V o I P c a ll
C o r e s w itc h m anager
A c c e s s la y e r
East C oast
O f f ic e

 Capturing local IP traffic shows
 Phone’s communication with its local call manager
 Both sides of the full-duplex connection between

local phones
 Both sides of the full-duplex connection between

phones located across a WAN

W est C oast
O ffic e
V o IP C a ll
M anager
A c c e s s s w itc h M PLS
M esh V o IP C a ll
M anager
C o n n e c tio n v is ib le to a n a ly z e r
E ast C oast
C o n n e c tio n h id d e n fr o m a n a ly z e r
O ffic e

 Need a more coherent view of calls across WAN links?
 Use a SPAN session to mirror…
 Both the uplink traffic between the core and

MPLS mesh
 All traffic flowing to and from the call manager

W est C oast
O ffic e
V o IP C a ll
M anager
A c c e s s s w itc h
M PLS
M esh C o re
S w itc h V o IP C a ll
M anager
C o n n e c tio n v is ib le to a n a ly z e r
C o n n e c tio n h id d e n fr o m a n a ly z e r
E ast C oast
O ffic e

 For complete coverage, and complete visibility

connect analysis probes to both the core and
access layers at each site

Phase 2:
Monitoring the Roll Out
Verifying VoIP Health
 Cumulative VoIP Metrics
 Satisfaction Scoring
 Aggregate Jitter
 Total Calls
 Codec Verification
 Network Configuration and Performance

 Quality of Service / Precedence
 Verifying VLAN Configuration
 Reviewing Link Utilization

Monitoring Overall VoIP Health
Aggregate Jitter
Call Scoring
 High jitter or low

call scoring is an
issue
 If this is the case, go

back and review
your setups

Codecs Used
Total Calls
 Is the network
responding as
expected with the total
number of calls?
 Is the right Codec

being used?

 Is Quality of
Service /
Precedence
configured
properly?
QoS

Verifying VLAN Setup
 Identify VLAN
setups and
verify that
VoIP traffic
exists in its
appropriate
VLAN

Verifying VLAN Setup
 Is the station
in its
appropriate
VLAN?

Link Utilization
 Verify utilization
for each link
 Ensure that what
you see here
coincides with
information
gathered from
“What-If”
Analysis in the
testing phase

Phase 3:
Troubleshooting and
Ongoing Maintenance
When Problems Arise
 Troubleshooting
 Real-time nature of the call
 Call flow analysis
 Automated problem identification and resolution
 Call mapping for jitter, lost packets, and utilization
spikes
 Use trending data to report on period in question
for traffic analysis
 Ongoing Maintenance
 Proactive Monitoring
 Schedule Reporting

Real-Time Call Analysis
 Review calls in
real-time
 Track for any
inconsistencies

Call Flow Analysis
 Identify call in question
 Track individual stream that comprise the call
 Drill down to Connection Dynamics

Connection Dynamics

Expert Help
 Speed problem
resolution by
obtaining instant
possibilities of
network issues
 Automate
problem
resolution

Call Mapping
 Compare
jitter to
bandwidth
utilization to
understand
RTP/RTCP
response time
 Is this a
bandwidth
issue?

Trending
 Obtain a snapshot of a time
period in question
 Check to see if current
conditions are deviating from
historical data

Monitoring and Alerting
 Select which
VoIP
characteristics
should be
continuously
monitored

 Determine what
threshold levels
are acceptable
and set triggers
accordingly

 Customize the
appropriate
network action
based on the event

Shows where
thresholds
were exceeded
Review Expert
thresholds
crossed or
exceeded

Scheduled Reporting
 Customize reports to provide the necessary insight for long-term analysis
and planning
 Schedule the reports for automatic delivery on a daily, weekly, monthly, or
even yearly basis

Sample Report
 Choose from a
variety of
report options
and types or
create custom
reports

Break
Lab 2
Live VoIP
Troubleshooting
Summary
Best Practice #1
Understand and measure the

various components of call
quality

Best Practice #2
Implement
Quality of Service
Prioritization

Best Practice #3
Conduct a Site Survey

Best Practice #4
Deploy analysis tools

strategically for
maximum visibility

Best Practice #5
Implement VLANs to help

isolate and monitor VoIP
issues

Best Practice #6
Monitor the rollout to

ensure a positive user
experience

Best Practice #7
Compare jitter to overall

network bandwidth utilization
to understand response time

Best Practice #8
Set up your analyzer to

proactively monitor
VoIP activity

Best Practice #9
Automate problem
resolution

Best Practice #10
Baseline your network

traffic

Network Instruments
Solution Set
Analysis Options
Software
Probe
MultiHop Connection Dynamics
Top Talkers
Analysis
GigaStor
10/100/1000 Probe
Appliance
VoIP Analysis Application Analysis SNMP Management

WAN and Gigabit
Probe Appliances
Gigabit and WAN

Observer Suite System
Customer Feedback
“So far, Observer’s VoIP capabilities

have helped cut down CI Travel’s
phone bill by about 25-30 percent.”
Paul Ingram, CI Travel

Solid Reviews and Testimonials
“…it is the best packet analysis package we have tested .”
- Dave Bailey, IT Week, December 1, 2005
“Traffic statistics in Observer 11's VoIP Expert tool are more robust, with call
summary, quality scoring and detailed per-call metrics such as call status,
current jitter, call setup, duration, teardown, MOS/R-factor and QoS levels.”
- Dan Hong, Redmond, November 16, 2005
“Like all Observer features, VoIP Expert is based on the Network Instruments Distributed
Network Analysis architecture, which means VOIP analysis is available across multiple
topologies such as local-area network, wide-area network, Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g.”
- Michelle Speir Hasse, Federal Computer Week, November 21, 2005
Observer continues to receive stellar reviews from

industry pundits and our valued customers
Recent Wins
 Large-scale GigaStor deployment  Large-scale 10/100/1000 appliance

 Sniffer replacement deployment for 90% of U.S. locations
 For maintaining customer  Sniffer replacement
networks  For comprehensive visibility
 Large-scale 10/100/1000 appliance  Large scale Expert probe deployment

deployment across U.S. locations  For real-time network monitoring
 Sniffer replacement
 For distributed analysis

Enterprise Pricing
Enterprise Pricing
Expert Observer Includes VoIP US$ 2,895
Observer Suite Includes VoIP US$ 3,995
10/100/1000 Probe Appliance Includes VoIP US$ 2,495
Gigabit Probe Appliance Includes VoIP US$ 11,995
2 TB GigaStor Includes VoIP US$ 19,995
 VoIP Analysis included at no additional charge

 Shipped with a 64-bit Core, with support for 32-bit systems
 Gigabit and WAN Appliances are all 64-bit systems
Network Instruments continues to lead the analysis industry in

performance and value
Thank You
For more information:
Network Instruments, LLC
Chuck Oxley
phone: 416-285-9191
toll-free: 1-800-526-7919 x3897
e-mail: coxley@networkinstruments.com
www.networkinstruments.com

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Welcome to

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

 Sold in over 75 countries

Celebrating 11 years of continued company growth

 1st distributed software-based protocol analyzer

 1st to include SNMP for switched environments

 1st 802.11 a/b/g wireless analyzer and remote probe

 1st combined wired and wireless solution together

 1st to support 64-bit Windows

 1st to develop multi-session, multi-user probes

 1st to integrate application analysis

 1st to develop enterprise-ready VoIP Expert

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

NI-DNA provides Distributed and complete functionality for every type of

VoIP Analysis Application Analysis SNMP Management

Gigabit and WAN

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

Market researchers expect the number

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

“Ninety-nine percent of all VoIP

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

Other VoIP tools

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

Running VoIP without

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

 Even a network with large bandwidth

 QoS measures can help make VoIP traffic

 QoS offers VoIP traffic more

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

No VoIP Site Survey

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

 IT managers keep network conditions

 IT managers upgrade their bandwidth capacity

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

 Does not solve or address potential

 Network adjustments are made after

 Deployment issues can cause

 Adding bandwidth may not be necessary

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

 Tools are used to capture not only voice conversations but to

 Higher-end VoIP systems may offer a way to encrypt data

 VoIP traffic is most vulnerable on the LAN since

 Consider wiretapping rules and regulations

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

E n c o d e a n d p a c k e t iz e N e tw o r k d e la y , jitte r, & p a c k e t lo s s J it te r s m o o t h in g , d e c o d e , & p la y b a c k

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

 VoIP phones use codecs to translate analog sound streams into

 On the receiving end, the codec translates the

 To ensure normal conversations, all of this must

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

 Packetized voice traffic sent over an IP network

 What challenges does it bring?

 Competes with other traffic on the network

 A new technology that needs real-time, consistent

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

© 2006 Network Instruments, LLC

 Burstiness / Gap / Gap Duration

 QoS / TOS / Precedence

 Compression Techniques (Codecs)