autoVoIP™ Blaster

autoVoIP™ Blaster supports full duplex, monitoring the QoS achievable upstream and downstream.

The tool stress tests the paths to explore the phone loading limit for the network as a whole. In a single test, the effect of varying Codec and traffic priority is fully revealed in a live report preview that covers QoS, percentage of lost frames, delay, jitter plus R and MOS values. The results are also presented in a highly comprehensive Microsoft® Word Report.

When planning phone deployments, the ability to handle the full bandwidth required must be verified for the worst case (highest bandwidth Codec) VoIP traffic, making the stress test essential for operation.

The tool provides controlled loading to stress test the network to determine the headroom bandwidth. This helps ensure that the network is not running in a marginal condition. autoVoIP™ Blaster has the ability to test two different Codec at the same time, which explores the effect of the different packet sizes associated with the different Codec in a single test. The tool can also test two different priority settings (DiffServ values) at the same time, which measures the impact of VoIP and non-VoIP loading, especially useful when testing greenfield sites.

The Microsoft® Word Report summarizes the test results for the complete test run, showing results for the different phone loading levels used in the test. The comprehensive report also displays the results for each day of the week the test is running and breaks them down hourly for a 7-day rolling period.

Users may find that the phone counts associated with the acceptable SLA are below the user requirement. Resolving this can potentially involve investing in infrastructure. Increasing bandwidth to achieve an acceptable QoS and maintain required resources for data traffic, or investing in switches that support QoS engineering to restrict delay and minimize VoIP Packet lost, may be necessary.

Whether expanding existing networks or adding new locations, autoVoIP™ Blaster verifies network performance.

autoVoIP™ Blaster can be deployed as a standalone or the host can be integrated with other tools from Codima Toolbox

• Stress tests using real RTP frames to generate high loading level in full duplex for network evaluations
• Measures the effect of adding more Phones to an existing VoIP system
• Creates loading levels that are equivalent to simultaneous calls to/from multiple phones - by deploying multiple Sink PCs the user can target the Blaster traffic at different points on the network and test multiple paths
• Automatically explores the effect of varying Codec and priority traffic in a single test
• Provides a 7-day report that includes a Test Period Summary showing the test results for the different phone loading levels used during the test period. The report covers jitter, % lost frames, R and MOS values for the upstream and downstream links and the round trip delay, and daily reports broken down per hour showing the MOS and R values achieved during the test for the upstream and downstream links. .

• 100% real time operation
• Provides value for money - saving the expense of installing phones that the network will not be able handle without extra infrastructure investment
• Measures the effect of adding more phones to an existing network
• Prevents customer or client dissatisfaction with the start up of a VoIP network
• Prevents unnecessary project delays
• Easy to install and deploy
• Provides QoS analysis at a glance, user can see if VoIP is within safe limits, marginal or likely to be seriously degraded when loading increases (6 color bands used)

• Provides controlled loading - this allows the user to increment phone counts in 5, 10 or 20 steps. For example they can start loading at 10 G729 phones (10x8kps=80Kps), increasing by 10 phones at a time in 10 steps until loading level of 100 G729 phones (100x8kps = 800kps) is reached
• Tests two different Codec at the same time - this allows the effect of different packet sizes associated with different Codec to be examined in a single test
• Tests two different DiffServ values at the same time - this allows for VoIP and non-VoIP loading to be sent at the same time
• Microsoft® Word Report covering results of running Blaster tests
• Facilities to run parallel Blaster Tests to different end points - by adding additional Sink systems
• Specifies load by phone/Codec using easy to understand phone counts. Codec options for loading include:
• G711 - PCMA and PCMU
• G723 6.3k
• G726
• G729
• Controls Blasting - using safety thresholds. Thresholds are based on the maximum acceptable loss of frames during the blaster test run. When the thresholds are breached, the system will stop loading at that level and return to the start of test. The thresholds are checked independently in both directions and if either are breached the safety mechanism comes into play.

• A minimum of two PCs are needed to operate autoVoIP™ Blaster

• Host PC- performs the Blaster Manager functions - sends out RTP frames based on user input to the Sink PCs IP address and sends RTCP APP frames in response to RTP frames sent by Sink PC. It provides the loading to stress the link between Host PC and Sink PC
• Host PC Platform requirements:
  • Processor: 2 GHz or faster. Dual Core Processor is recommended
  • Memory: 2Gb
  • Graphics Card: Minimum 16Mb
  • Operating System: Microsoft® Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista or Windows 7
  • Screen resolution: 1280x1024 (recommended), 1024 x768 (minimum)
  
  
• Sink PC - remote end - used to respond, i.e., sends back RTCP APP frames to the Host PC, and sends out RTP frames to the Host PC
• Sink PC Platform requirement:
• Processor: 1 GHz or faster
• Memory: Minimum 512Mb
• Graphics Card: Minimum 16Mb
• Operating System: Microsoft® Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista or Windows 7

• Adds Long Term VoIP QoS History Tracking

• Adds Monitoring, Displaying and Analyzing VoIP networks with Frame Flow analyzer and RTP analyzer and is available for laptop PC

• Adds Analyzing and Troubleshooting for any Infrastructure in Real time with Remote Management