Comms body wants quality of service for VoIP

Communications Alliance was formed in 2006 to provide a unified voice for the Australian communications industry and to lead it into the next generation of converging networks, technologies and services and is made up of local IT and telco vendors and IT&T bodies like ATUG.

The guidelines addresses issues like; the use of a single broadband connection to combine voice and/or video applications with less time sensitive applications such as web browsing and email, while not compromising the experience of the voice/video. At present some network operators may manage the user experience of this within their respective networks, but not across different networks.

Communications Alliance CEO Anne Hurley said the VoIP Guideline offers service providers an indicator of quality for VoIP services and information on factors that determine conversational voice quality on VoIP Services. The IP Guideline has been developed as a planning guide to help operators meet QoS performance objectives.

“With the growth of large VoIP deployments and the increase in IP telephony service subscribers, the number of VoIP calls that cross multiple networks will inevitably grow,” she said.

Hurley believes in a changing environment, “it is increasingly important for the industry to have guidelines that ensure cohesion between networks as well as the best quality of service for customers”.

The IP network guideline covers three traffic classes; a “best efforts” class (similar to current internet services); a managed class for time critical services with low tolerance for interruption (e.g. for applications such as interactive voice or video that need a steady, continuing flow of data for the application to operate well), and; another managed class for services that are still time critical but with slightly less sensitivity to interruption (e.g. for applications such as ‘real time’ or interactive data that need a short response time but can tolerate some variance).

The VoIP guideline also defines a number of categories for voice services. It provides an indicator of voice service quality and contains guidance on the influence of a number of facts, said Hurley.

Copies of the Guidelines are available for service providers to download at: www.commsalliance.com.au