Overview

Call monitoring and recording applications used by telecommunication companies generate extremely large amount of call detail records (CDRs) in real-time, and companies constantly need to leverage from this data to boost productivity. The volume of the calls and data captured by the call monitoring applications is so large that it impossible to manually analyze and conclude the behavior of the network.

When "problem calls" occur infrequently but often enough, they can negatively affect productivity and efficiency of a thriving business. Such calls are often not reproducible or predictable. For example, when a call suddenly disconnects during the middle of a call or,

• there is voice in one direction but not the other
• there is echo, or noise, or level issues in one direction and not the other
• there are signaling issues such as - "no wink", "no ringing or ringback", "no call connection"
• "mid-call digits" are not passed reliably during an IVR transaction
• digits are split or merged causing incorrect called or calling numbers

When such calls occur and users complain, engineers need data to analyze "why such a problem occurred", but the volume of calls presents a needle in a haystack condition. Analyzing the CDRs allows you to

• Drill-down to problem calls and identify the cause
• Monitor daily operations
• Identify customer behavior
• Network usage and performance monitoring or daily or weekly basis

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CDR Analysis System

GL's CDR Analysis System is designed for capturing all calls and all events (including voice quality) during the call, on any network type such as TDM, IP, or Wireless. Signaling, alarm, and call capture over IP or TDM lines is performed with capturing tools such as PacketScan™ or T1 E1 Call Capture and Analysis.  The system allows one to understand and analyze the captured call detail records, troubleshoot call failures, and provide insight into the overall performance.
Additional tools such as Advanced Excel® Addins, can be used to drill down to specific call, play or download the voice file, and generate graphs.

The CDR Analysis System permits,

• Capture for extended periods of time from hours to months
• Once calls are captured, a search for "calls of interest" can be performed while live capturing continues
• Drill-down to problem calls for post analysis
• Additionally, monitor daily operations
• Identify customer and user calling patterns
• Network usage and performance monitoring on a daily or weekly basis
• Trunk sizing, utilization

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Excel® as CDR Analysis Tool

Excel® has the capability to handle large volumes of structured data, in-built statistical features, and offers easy automation through VBA programming, with which you can extract useful information from the captured call detail records with a click-of-a-button. In some cases where the data is unstructured, and complex, Excel® is not preferable for data analysis.

GL’s Advanced Excel® Addin is available as a customized application with the GL's CDR Analysis System to leverage from the Microsoft® Excel's capability to handle large volumes of data, inbuilt statistics, graphical features, and automation. This tool is frequently used by many Carriers, and Service Providers to analyze CDR on various network platforms such as TDM, IP, or Wireless.

GL’s Advanced Excel® Addin reads the records stored in a structured format such as CSV. It offers several parameters from the records to get to the calls-of-interest (COI). The add-in uses a combination of Excel® Pivot Table and Advanced Filtering features to perform filtering on these parameters. The filtered records view is be facilitated using a customized Windows® application that organizes and displays the information from CDR in a way you want. Viewing CDRs in this format is very informative in itself. However, you can also design a custom Pivot Table and generate Pivot Charts linked to this table. This helps to analyze and summarize the required information in table or graphical forms. Once you have the PivotTable designed, use Excel® inbuilt VBA support to program and automate repetitive tasks.

Excel® Addin programs can be easily customized per customer requirements.  Searching for unique conditions, such as "no wink", “low MOS scores”, “call with specific digits” can be quickly performed during post analysis. Some typical case studies are described below.

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CASE STUDIES

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Resources

Please Note: The XX in the Item No. refers to the hardware platform, listed at the bottom of the Buyer's Guide, which the software will be running on. Therefore, XX can either be ETA or EEA (Octal/Quad Boards), PTA or PEA (tProbe Units), XUT or XUE (Dual PCIe Express) depending upon the hardware.