Source: www.voip-news.com

Technology Marketing Corporation has awarded Tektronix’s Zoey, an interactive VoIP Quality of Experience testing system, the 2008 Communications Solution Product of the Year Award. It also received the 2008 Product of the Year award from Internet Telephony (also from TMC).

“Tektronix Communications is recognized with a 2008 Communications Solution Product of the Year Award for their excellence in the advancement of voice, data and/or video communications,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC president and group editor-in-chief. “Tektronix has proven they are committed to quality and excellence in solutions that benefit the customer experience as well as ROI for the companies that use them. I am pleased to honor their hard work and accomplishments and look forward to more innovative solutions from them in the future.”

According to Tektronix:

Zoey, Tektronix Communications’ automated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, allows VoIP, wireless and analog phone users to test and diagnose the quality of their service at any time, effectively enabling the customer to have control over their own QoE. For additional information on Zoey, please visit: http://www2.tek.com/modules/communications/index.php?command=defaultPage&opera tion=displayDataSheet&catid=&id=500.

“With network equipment and service providers increasingly looking to provide differentiated services over next-generation network infrastructure, the need for comprehensive monitoring and test solutions is key to delivering reliable services,” said Rich McBee, president, Tektronix Communications. “We are honored to be recognized for our dedication in providing our customers with the highest quality of monitoring and test solutions.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

A new VoIP testing tool is intended to stress test network limits to ensure that networks are really VoIP ready. autoVoIP Blaster was created by Codima.

“autoVoIP(TM) Blaster is our latest example of the Codima product strategy to create cost efficient tools that address the cause of the problem at the same time simplifying the work of a network manager. Using groundbreaking technology autoVoIP(TM) Blaster is essential to test correct VoIP operation. A properly designed network even with QoS engineering can still go wrong very easily,” said Codima’s CTO Philip Friend.

According to Codima:

In the same single test, the effect of varying Codec and Traffic Priority is fully revealed in a live report view, as well as in a highly comprehensive Microsoft(R) Word report. The test can run as long as desired with an hourly results breakdown over a rolling 7-day period, making it easy to see the effect of loading pattern variations. High loading levels in full duplex can be archived.

autoVoIP(TM) Blaster can be used for network evaluations and can measure the effect of adding more phones to an existing VoIP system. Whether expanding existing networks or adding new locations, autoVoIP(TM) Blaster verifies network performance.

Part of the fully automated and fully integrated solution Codima Toolbox, autoVoIP(TM) Blaster users can take advantage of the unified technology adding useful functions such as network inventory and mapping, traffic simulation and consultancy kits for VoIP and network quality assurance.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

IP performance test systems provider Ixia has launched its IxLoad SIP service, a VoIP test platform to provide both functional and bulk VoIP testing. Ixia’s VoIP test solution provides an environment of real-world triple-play traffic that accurately models live network environments. Using Ixia’s test platform and the IxLoad SIP 3.40 solution, a single test chassis emulates millions of realistic call scenarios.
IxLoad SIP emulates user agents that use SIP and RTP. Default configurations and state machines can be constructed for any session lifetime scenario. Message contents may also be customized to test SBCs that perform the deep packet inspections required to enforce QoS policies, thus ensuring that subscribers receive flawless video, high-quality voice calls and high-throughput Internet service.
Following is the press release issued by IXIA;

Ixia (NASDAQ: XXIA), a leading, global provider of IP performance test systems, has announced the IxLoad™ SIP solution, the first VoIP test platform to provide both functional and bulk VoIP testing. Ixia’;s VoIP test solution provides an environment of real-world triple-play traffic that accurately models live network environments. Using Ixia’;s test platform and the IxLoad SIP 3.40 solution, a single test chassis emulates millions of realistic call scenarios — surpassing the scale of most network appliances.

In the past, network equipment manufacturers and service providers used test equipment to perform either functional or stress testing, but not both. In addition, functional tests were performed on a very low scale for protocol correctness and stress tests used simplistic scenarios — not real-world conditions.

"Problems occur in modern VoIP networks because of stress conditions not directly related to the VoIP protocols," said Jessy Cavazos, senior analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "Witness a recent network outage that was caused by a massive flood of connections to the network following a network update. Real-world VoIP testing can uncover such problems before they become very expensive."

IxLoad SIP provides network equipment manufacturers a test solution needed to perform bulk VoIP testing on a wide range of SIP- and RTP (real-time transmission protocol)-based devices, including SBCs (session border controllers), security appliances and IP-based PBXs. Full state machine and message content control assures complete VoIP protocol testing for all vendors’; devices. Protocol tests are quickly scaled and combined with the other components of triple-play traffic for a real-world VoIP test.

"IxLoad is the complete solution for VoIP and triple-play network testing because it addresses all aspects of voice delivery in a multiservice network, along with the video, Internet data and infrastructure traffic that accompany voice," said Victor Alston, senior vice president of Product Development at Ixia.

Service providers and enterprises will find IxLoad SIP ideal for automated bulk VoIP testing. Regressions are performed easily with real-world scenarios that ensure that small changes do not cause unexpected outages.

"Ixia lets us be on the offense rather than the defense when it comes to network performance and reliability," said Eric Douglas, vice president of Engineering at Deltacom, one of the largest facilities-based competitive communications providers in the Southeast. "In terms of ensuring network stability, Ixia is absolutely paramount. When you have network stability, customers are satisfied and anything is possible."

IxLoad SIP emulates user agents that use SIP and RTP. Default configurations and state machines can be constructed for any session lifetime scenario. Message contents may also be customized to test SBCs that perform the deep packet inspections required to enforce QoS policies, thus ensuring that subscribers receive flawless video, high-quality voice calls and high-throughput Internet service.