METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING VOICE QUALITY ON A VoIP NETWORK

• US 20090238085A1
• Filed: 03/19/2008
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Khanduri, Prakash
• Granted Patent: US 8,559,320 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2227 Quality of service monitoring

Abstract

In a method and apparatus for measuring voice quality of an endpoint in a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, a plurality of network quality parameters are determined for the endpoint. A voice quality factor for the endpoint is determined in real time based on the network quality parameters.

Claims

1. A method of measuring voice quality of an endpoint in a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, comprising:

determining a plurality of network quality parameters of the endpoint, and

determining a voice quality factor for the endpoint in real time based on the network quality parameters.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining network quality parameters of the endpoint includes determining a plurality of quality factors for the network quality parameters and corrections to the quality factors.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice quality factor of the endpoint is determined based on the plurality of quality factors and corrections thereto.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the network quality parameters of the endpoint are determined by a jitter buffer algorithm of the endpoint.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the network quality parameters include one or more of packet delay, jitter, packet loss and signal level.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality factors include one or more of a quality factor due to packet delay, quality factor due to jitter, quality factor due to packet loss, and quality factor due to variations in signal level.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined voice quality factor can be transmitted to a network switch or server for monitoring of the endpoint.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice quality factor is determined by accessing a lookup table using network quality parameters.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice quality factor is determined dynamically as the endpoint is making a live call on the network.

10. A method of determining voice quality of an endpoint in a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, comprising:

inputting a plurality of network quality parameters of the endpoint into a lookup table stored in the endpoint, and

selecting a predefined voice quality factor from the lookup table based on the inputs.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the network quality parameters include one or more of packet delay, jitter, packet loss and signal level.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the lookup table is unique to the endpoint.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the voice quality factor is determined dynamically as the endpoint is making a live call on the network.

14. An apparatus in a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, comprising:

a processor for determining a plurality of network quality parameters of the apparatus, and

a controller for determining a voice quality factor for the apparatus in real time based on the network quality parameters received from the processor.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the network quality parameters include one or more of packet delay, jitter, packet loss and signal level.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein

the apparatus includes a lookup table, and

the controller determines the voice quality factor by accessing the lookup table using the plurality of network quality parameters.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the lookup table is unique to the apparatus.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the controller determines the voice quality factor dynamically as the apparatus is making a live call on the network.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus is an endpoint in the network selected from a group comprising an IP soft-phone, a plain old telephone system (POTS), a soft phone, an IP hard phone, a personal or laptop computer, a PDA, a pager and a wireless phone.

20. An apparatus in a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, comprising:

a processor, and

a controller having a lookup table stored therein, wherein

the processor inputs a plurality of network quality parameters of the apparatus into the lookup table, and

the controller selects a predefined voice quality factor from the lookup table based on the inputs.

21. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that cause a programmable processor to:

input a plurality of network quality parameters into a lookup table stored in an endpoint of a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, and

select a predefined voice quality factor from the lookup table based on the inputs.