VoIP Service Provider Robustness and Control of VoIP Control Systems

Our client was deploying equipment in support of Voice over IP (VoIP) call delivery to major corporate customers.

The problem

At the time, VoIP was a relatively new technology, at least in terms of use in high capacity, high reliability environments. It was therefore essential to gain a thorough understanding of potential shortcomings, both in terms of generic architecture as well as vendor specific implementation issues.

Facilities were not available to undertake testing of the system at high traffic loads, at or near the advertised capacity of the systems - so how was our client going to predict the performance of the system in such situations?

The solution

We developed a detailed model of the proposed VoIP delivery platform and analysed its robustness, with particular focus on the reliability mechanisms built into the platform.

We uncovered fundamental shortcomings in the design of the system, specifically, that the call throughput of the system would drop dramatically if the platform was offered calls at a rate marginally above its engineered capacity. The impact on the customer would be that they would be unable to make and receive calls, which could be potentially disastrous in certain environments, for example, in call centre based operations.

Our client consequently did not put the platform into service in high value, high traffic environments.