GeoProbe for Cable Networks
Comprehensive protocol support ensures the monitoring of critical VoIP operations.
With more and more Cable MSOs offering IP telephony service to their subscribers, network operations personnel are tasked with providing established, PSTN-grade quality and reliability in an ever-evolving packet environment. With Tektronix' support of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) messages, carriers can easily extend their visibility into packet-based call flows for true VoIP performance analysis and improved troubleshooting.
Our core VoIP Surveillance package supports key access, media gateway controller, inter-softswitch, cable and transport protocols.
As a complement to these proven signaling and voice media monitoring capabilities, Tektronix' IP Video solution extends visibility to sharpen network and service performance analysis.
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- End-to-end network visibility
- Continuous, non-intrusive, real-time monitoring
- Proactive, threshold-based alarm capabilities
- Drill-through troubleshooting paths
- Support for PacketCable VoIP and video protocols
VoIP monitoring applications leverage key surveillance capabilities including statistics, real-time and historical multi-protocol call trace and alarms.
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Statistics
Message- and call-based statistics provide utilization and failure counts as well as more advanced performance criteria per protocol in real time. These same statistics may be used to generate alarms based on user-defined thresholds or to populate On Line Analytical Processing or OLAP-based historical reporting functions for more in-depth and ongoing analysis. -
Multi-Protocol Call Trace
Real-Time and Historical (SUDStore) Call Trace capabilities provide a comprehensive view of individual calls/sessions through the capture and correlation of all associated data. Call traces may be saved to disk or printed for post-capture investigation. Providers monitoring their SS7 traffic with the GeoProbe system will also gain a true picture of IP-PSTN and Voice over Cable off-net interworking through full ISUP correlation capabilities.
In addition, Tektronix' IP Video solution combines industry proven GeoProbe capabilities with APM's purpose-driven presentation and reporting suite. While independently valuable, the combination of features provides a comprehensive toolkit for use in a variety of scenarios including proactive resolution and reactive troubleshooting as well as ongoing capacity planning.
In addition to monitoring the MTA and PSTN MG call control signaling at the CMS or CMTS, the GeoProbe supports Dynamic Quality of Service (DQoS) running over the Common Open Policy Service (COPS) protocol for access control and QoS measurements for organic and third-party voice and video services.
The Common Open Policy Service (COPS) protocol is a query and response protocol that is used to exchange policy information between a policy server or Policy Decision Point (PDP) and its clients or Policy Enforcement Points (PEPs). The PEP allocates or releases resources within a network node based on policy decisions provided by the PDP. The entire process of policy definition, provisioning, and enforcement is facilitated via the COPS protocol. The PEPs send requests, updates, and deletes via COPS to the PDP, which in turn makes the final decision on how to employ the network's resources.
Dynamic Quality of Service (DQoS) is a protocol that runs over COPS, and manages authorizing, reserving and committing bandwidth for cable network services (such as VoIP telephone conversations). Since a cable network is a shared resource between several cable modems and several customer services, bandwidth is a scarce resource that has to be selectively assigned to customers engaged in calls.
Monitoring DQoS enables operators to maintain acceptable quality of service levels and minimize bandwidth waste.
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