18 Overview
Enterprise Edge IP Telephony Configuration Manual PO908509 Issue 01
Packet loss
Packet loss is the percentage of packets that do not arrive at their destination. Packet
loss is caused by transmission equipment problems, and high delay and congestion.
In a voice conversation, packet loss is heard as gaps in the conversation. Some
packet loss, less than 5%, may be acceptable without too much degradation in voice
quality. Sporadic loss of small packets may be more acceptable than infrequent loss
of large packets.
Packet delay
Packet delay is the time between when a packet is sent and when it is received. The
total packet delay time consists of fixed and variable delay. Variable delay is the
more manageable delay, since fixed delay is dependent on the network technology
itself. Variable delay is caused by the particular network routing of packets. The
gateway should be as close as possible to the network backbone (WAN) with a
minimum number of hops, to minimize packet delay and maximize voice quality.
Delay variation (jitter)
The amount of variation in packet delay is referred to as delay variations, or jitter.
Jitter affects the ability of the receiving gateway to assemble voice packets received
at irregular intervals into a continuous voice stream.
Fallback to circuit-switched voice facilities
If the measured Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for all codecs falls below the
configured threshold for any monitored gateway, the Fallback to Conventional
Circuit-switched services is triggered. This feature reroutes calls to alternate trunks
such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The feature reroutes calls
until the network QoS improves. When the QoS meets or exceeds the threshold,
calls route over the IP network.
The fallback feature can be disabled in the Local Gateway Configuration. If the
fallback feature is disabled, calls are sent over the IP telephony trunks regardless of
the QoS. The fallback feature is only in effect at call setup. A call in progress will
not fall back if the QoS degrades.
Network Performance Utilities
Two common network utilities, Ping and Traceroute, are described below. These
utilities provide a method to measure quality of service parameters. Other utilities
can be used to find more information about VoIP Gateway network performance.
Note 1: Since data network conditions can vary at different times, collect
performance data over at least a 24 hour time period.
Note 2: Performance utilities should be used to measure performance from each
gateway to every other gateway.