Packet Data Analysis (PDA)

Graphs

Graphs are provided for key statistics for network monitoring and troubleshooting. Graphs available include – Active Calls, Average Jitter, E-Model MOS/R-Factor/Packets Discarded, RTP Packets Summary, ladder diagram for T.38 based fax calls and call signaling, Gap, Jitter, Gap/Jitter Distribution, Wave and Spectral Display for media stream analysis, VoIP calls and more.

CDR Report Generation

PacketScan™ can generate PDF reports summarizing all calls or a certain subset of the calls captured. The PDA Summary View can also export all terminated call details as a text file (CSV format) during the live capture. This feature requires activating the Export Terminated Calls option from PDA prior to live capturing. This structured text file can be imported into Excel® using a custom add-in (Excel-Dashboard-Tool-IP.xlsm) to generate different chart types such as call volumes, call duration, call failure causes, CMOS, LMOS, packet loss and more.

For more details, refer CDR Analysis Tools webpage.

Performance Metrics

• Calculates minimum, maximum, and average Round Trip Delay (RTD) values for SIP calls
• Call Quality Of Service (QoS) for all calls with E-Model based (G.107) Mean Opinion Score (MOS) and R-factor with individual and summary statistics presented in graphical and tabular formats

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• User can get real-time call trace for SIP Sessions and on H225 calls

Triggers and Action Feature

Traffic Handling Features (Fax, Digits)

• T.38 fax calls
  
  

  PacketScan™ software supports capturing and decoding of Fax (T.38 data) calls over VoIP. PacketScan™ fax decodes can be viewed in the form of T.38 call graph and call summary with decoded information for all T.38 messages received on the call. The captured fax calls by PacketScan™ can also be analyzed using GLInsight™ by saving the fax calls directly in (*.PCAP) Ethereal file format. T.38 has been enhanced to reassemble the fragmented data and to identify the T.30 message from it. Identified T.30 message is displayed in the T.38 ladder diagram.

  PacketScan™ also allows users to extract fax image in the TIFF format from the selected fax call in either GL's proprietary *.HDL file format or in Ethereal *.PCAP file format.

  

  T.38 Analysis over IP

  

  Extract Fax Image

• Real-Time Digit Capturing
  
  

  PacketScan™ provides a means for digit examination and capturing. An easy-to-read window indicates the direction of the captured digits along with the duration, power and frequencies. DTMF, MF and User-defined digits/tones are fully supported.

  
  Real-Time Digit Capturing Window

Audio Handling Features

• Play to Speaker

  Play To Speaker application allows the user to play the RTP streams of a call to the PC speaker using a soundcard. A host of options such as Jitter Buffer settings, As Is, Audio Mixing and so on are available for users to play a live call in real-time or play captured voice files.

  
  Play Jitter Options

• Write To File

  Various options are provided to save captured calls and use the files with voice quality analysis software to calculate the mean opinion score of the call. This application writes the RTP stream to a file in *.wav format.

  
  Write to File

• Save Call

  Supports Save Call feature to save successful and failed calls  in either in GL’s proprietary *.HDL file format, Ethereal *.PCAP file format, or *.PCAPNG file format. Call Summary details could also be saved for a particular call and this will be saved as a *.rtf file. This allows the users to get data from real-time traffic locations for detailed analysis of a flawed call.

  
  Save Call

Record Video and Report Video Quality Metrics

Real-time audio/video monitoring of RTP streams using Audio Playback, Record Video, and Write to File features.
This feature allows the user to record audio and video data of a session to a file in QuickTime (*.qt) format. PacketScan™ can monitor video calls and display both audio and video RTP streams in summary view. The recorded video data in Quick Time Format (*.qt) can be viewed by VLC Viewer (3rd party application).

Record video option is available for both Auto Detected RTP Calls and SIP Calls. Supported Video Codecs are:

• H263+
• H263++ CIF 190 kbps
• H263++ CIF 350 kbps
• H263++ CIF 512 kbps
• H263++ QCIF 128 kbps
• H263++ QCIF 64 kbps
• H263++ QCIF 80 kbps
• H264*

*Note that Video recording is supported only for H263+ codec. However, video QoS statistics is available for all codecs.
H.263 is a video codec designed by the ITU-T as a low-bitrate encoding solution for video capture and videoconferencing. H.263 provides video capture and video conference monitoring capability, while H264 is an industry standard codec for video compression.

QCIF - Quarter Common Intermediate Format, a videoconferencing format that specifies data rates of 30 frames per second (fps), with each frame containing 144 lines and 176 pixels per line.

CIF - A video format used in videoconferencing systems that specifies a data rate of 30 frames per second (fps), with each frame containing 288 lines and 352 pixels per line.

H.264 is the latest video coding standard of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). H.264 is an industry standard for video compression, the codec offers better compression performance over previous standards.
It has demonstrated the significantly improved coding efficiency, lower compressed bit rate for the same image quality, substantially enhanced error robustness, and increased flexibility and scope of applicability relative to its predecessors;

Wide application of H.264 includes;

• Mobile TV broadcasting
• Internet video
• Video conferencing

Support Video QoS for H.263+ and H.264 video codec; Video Statistics such as Source/Destination Video Channels, Media Type, SSRC, Average Delay/Gap, Packet Counts, Codec Type, Missing Packets, Delay, Gap, Video Frame Count, Out Of Sequence count, Duplicate Packets count, Media Delivery Index (MDI- (Delay Factor : Media Loss Rate)), and Frame Rate are provided for each video session. PacketScan™ with Voice, Data, and Video QoS capability addresses customers long felt need of call quality analysis in IP networks.

Media Delivery Index (MDI) measurement is used as a diagnostic tool or as a quality indicator for monitoring a network intended to deliver applications such as streaming media, MPEG video, Voice over IP, or other information sensitive to arrival time and packet loss. Media Delivery Index (MDI) can be used to monitor both the quality of a delivered video stream and to show system margin for IPTV systems by giving an accurate measurement of jitter and delay at network level (Internet Protocol, IP), which are the real causes for quality loss. The Media Delivery Index is typically shown as two numbers separated by a colon the Delay Factor (DF) and the Media Loss Rate (MLR).

Call Summary – Signaling, Audio, and Video Parameters

Registration Summary

Packet Data Analysis is enhanced to display the SIP registration information in tabular as well as graphical format in Registration Summary. This interface displays the SIP registration information in a tabular format which includes user agent, registrar, registered time, status, time to live (TTL), expiry time, remaining time, Registration Request Delay (RRD) and Registration attempts for each user agent. In addition, it displays the active registration graph of the entire registration summary and provides the trace display of each registration.

Registration Summary

Include graphs that display the active registration and registration trace message sequences of registered calls at the bottom of the registration summary. The registration statistics display the count of the total, completed, failed, & active registrations along with registration and de-registration packet count.

Graphs

Graphs are provided in The PDA Summary and Detail Views for key values to give a pictorial representation of the statistics, thereby allowing the user to monitor the network with ease; following graphs are displayed in PDA for TDM Active Calls Graph and Call Graph.

Call Graph displays the message sequence of captured CAMEL, MAP, INAP, ISUP, ISDN, and CAS calls. For TDM protocols includes CAS, ISDN, SS7 information such as the Timeslot, Caller, Callee, and Release Cause.

Message sequence pictorially display all the messages exchanged in a session with relative time stamp of the frame (from the call start time) and frame numbers. Frame number is provided to identify the message to the corresponding frame in Packet Data Analyzer. For example, in the following figure, the ISDN call capture between two Source (#1) and Destination (#2) devices shows that, the call is placed from Device #1 to the Device #2. User can also view the decoded message by selecting a message displayed in the graph.

Performance Metrics

Triggers and Action Feature

Audio Handling Features

• Save Call

  Supports Save Call feature to save successful and failed calls in either in GL's proprietary *.HDL file format, Ethereal *.PCAP file format, or *.PCAPNG file format. This allows the users to get data from real-time traffic locations for detailed analysis of a flawed call.

  
  Save Call