Guide to VoIP Monitoring, Analysis, and Management

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 12:00 PM PDT

The basic facts about VoIP management

By Miercom

VoIP analysis tools typically target particular protocol environments, such as SIP, H.323 or Cisco's SCCP (also known as "Skinny"). Interpreting different call-control protocol sequences is difficult for any one VoIP analysis tool, because the messages vary considerably depending on the protocol used.

There are two main ways of providing VoIP analysis - through real-time monitoring, which views data on the fly, or through data-capture processes, which analyze data after the fact. Real-time monitoring shows current and/or summarized statistics on active VoIP systems and best serves as a sort of security guard, watching over VoIP traffic as it moves across the wire.

Data-capture and -analysis methods record network statistics on VoIP traffic and save them for detailed review through tools designed to enhance the analysis process. Filters - the selection criteria for catching and storing VoIP data for subsequent analysis - have often provided focus for examining the statistics. Many products offer a mixture of real-time monitoring and data-capture processes.

VoIP tools can operate in one of two modes: They can be passive and simply listen to network traffic, gathering statistics in real-time (or near real-time), or actively generate traffic, and then gather and compare the results of the test transmissions. The passive approach doesn't add network overhead and can monitor the network for prolonged periods. While active tools can gauge results precisely by comparing packets created and transmitted with the results captured at the far end of the transmission.

Sponsored Resource:Are you ready for virtualization? Try the sever assessment tool.
Sponsored Resource:Learn more about ultra light notebooks from Asus and the best warranty in the industry.
Sponsored Resource:Thinking about a new Laptop? Lenovo has models to meet everyone's needs.
Sponsored Resource:Get the truth about remanufactured ink. Learn more from HP.
Sponsored Resource:Six smart ways to grow small business IT

Recommend this story?
Vote Yes
Vote No
0 Yes
0 No
Email
Comment

Community Comments

News For Your Business

More News

PC World's Marketplace

PC World's Free Whitepapers

VoIP News

Networking - September 2, 2008
How to Keep Your Tech Career Alive As outsourcing and downsizing continue, find out what skills and certifications will make you an IT survivor.
Utilities - August 4, 2008
Cucku Backup Invites You to Partner Up So-called social backup software lets you store offsite archives of your data on a friend's PC over the Internet.
VoIP - August 4, 2008
Growing Pains: VoIP in the Enterprise An overview of important issues facing enterprise VoIP users.
Cell Phones - July 30, 2008
Sprint Offers Cell Tower in Your Home Put a Sprint cell tower--a small one--in your home for unlimited fixed rate calls and improved reception.

Latest Expert Blogs

Glenn Fleishman on Hardware - August 15, 2008 10:11 AM
Wake Me When You Need Me, Says Intel Intel's Remote Wake lets a computer listen intelligently for a signal to rouse from sleep mode and carry out an activity.
Neil McAllister on Software - August 19, 2008 6:04 PM
Microsoft Sends Up Trial Balloons for Windows 7 While Vista takes a beating in the press, Microsoft seems increasingly willing to disclose details of its forthcoming OS.
Erik Larkin on the Web - September 04, 2008 12:53 PM
Zoho Adds Google Docs-like File Management Better late than never - and the Zoho version offers nice features Google Docs doesn't have.

All Blogs

Featured Resources

Premier Content From Our Sponsors

HP Ink Center You don't need a big budget to produce high quality marketing materials. Click here for more info...
CDW Virtualization Center What is Virtualization and how can it help you save money? Click here for more info...