MA4000 Traffic Management Primer White Paper
NEC Corporation of America © 2011 2
Table of Contents
Introduction: ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Common Traffic Problems .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 3
Over Trunking .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................3
Under Trunking ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3
VoIP Traffic Problems.........................................................................................................................................................................................................3
Proactive Traffic Planning Practices ............................................................................................................................................................................. 4
What information do I need to plan for my trunking needs? ........................................................................................................................................... 4
How much data should I store? ........................................................................................................................................................................................4
Traffic Analysis Techniques .............................................................................................................................................................................................4
What does the data mean? ...............................................................................................................................................................................................4
Analyzing the traffic data ..................................................................................................................................................................................................5
How to execute on the results ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Predicting the Impact of VoIP ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Do I trunk down my PSTN or Tie Lines? .........................................................................................................................................................................6
Do I increase my data bandwidth? .................................................................................................................................................................................6
Adding voice to an existing data route ...........................................................................................................................................................................7
Traffic Maintenance ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................7
Tools for Ongoing Traffic Analysis – MA4000 ...................................................................................................................................................................7
MA4000, A Proactive Approach to Traffic Management...................................................................................................................................................7
MA4000 Real Time Traffic Status ....................................................................................................................................................................................8
MA4000 and Traffic Planning ..........................................................................................................................................................................................8
MA4000 and VoIP Troubleshooting .................................................................................................................................................................................8
MA4000 Traffic Management Primer White Paper
NEC Corporation of America © 2011 3
Introduction
A.K. Erlang was a statistician who worked for the Telephone Company
of Copenhagen and introduced the telecommunications industry to
the principles and mathematics behind predicting the impact of call
volumes on telecom network service performance. In 1909, Mr. Erlang
published a document entitled, “The Theory of Probabilities and
Telephone Conversations,” that defined the mathematical foundations
behind telecom traffic analysis still in use today.
The telecommunications industry has evolved considerably in the
past 100 years; however, the most important impacts affecting traffic
management have only been in evidence since the advent of Voice over
IP (VoIP) technology.
Telecommunications administration today is very closely tied to
traditional voice and data. While technologies may vary, the core
principles of traffic studies are still applicable to both.
The introduction of VoIP has changed the industry’s view of traffic
management. VoIP has also introduced some complicated challenges
to the already complex issue of traffic management. A Time Division
Multiplex (TDM) line that may have connected two PBXs together
in the past may now be replaced with a dedicated IP connection
hosting VoIP calls. The challenge lies in planning the migration. How
much bandwidth will be needed? What compression protocol should
be used? Can the TDM traffic history be used when planning a VoIP
migration?
Why do companies and carriers do traffic studies? The driving factor
has to do with cost. Telephone lines and bandwidth cost money. An
organization only wants to pay for what it needs. But there are other
factors such as service levels and capacity planning that come into
play.
The NEC UC for Enterprise (UCE) Manager (MA4000) Management
System has built-in functionality that can assist in the management
of both TDM and VoIP traffic. Proactive in nature, the UCE Manager
(MA4000) can assist an organization in staying on top of its traffic
management needs, thereby reducing overall cost as well as providing
high levels of service to its customers and employees.
A company’s communications system is critical to its business and
traffic management. Traffic management, in turn, is key to ensuring
that the communications solution is running at peak performance.
Mastering the fundamentals of traffic management and having the
right tools at the ready are crucial for developing an effective traffic
management strategy.
Common Traffic Problems
Over Trunking: If a trunk route has too many trunks in relation to its traffic, it is over-
trunked. The organization is paying for lines and equipment it is not
using. Trunking triggers monthly Telco fees that can add up quickly.
Under Trunking: If the trunk route is under-trunked, customers dialing in could receive
busy signals. Employees might be unable to dial out. In either case,
traffic issues and trunk misconfigurations interrupt the smooth flow
of business, and, thus, are costly. Customers may become frustrated
with your company because they cannot speak with anyone. They may
decide to take their business elsewhere. Under trunking can damage
company brand reputation and customer loyalty. Additionally, under
trunking can lead to a loss in employee productivity as employees wait
to make a call when blocked from doing so on an over-utilized trunk
route.
VoIP Traffic Problems:Lack of bandwidth across a routed network link causes traffic
congestion on VoIP networks. These problems result in poor voice
quality While this is not as bad as busy signals on TDM lines, the
poor functioning of these networks is not conducive to business. A
bandwidth- starved VoIP call sounds choppy, has a great deal of delay
or can have the sound quality of speaking over tin cans and string.
None of these symptoms are at all desirable because they lead to
garbled and confusing phone conversations and negative reactions on
the part of users.
In general, traffic-related problems are costly for your business. And
they can lead to lost potential revenue, brand reputation, customer
loyalty and productivity.
MA4000 Traffic Management Primer White Paper
NEC Corporation of America © 2011 4
Proactive Traffic Planning Practices
Proper traffic management requires empirical data, and lots of it. After
being collected and stored, communications system administrators
then use it to analyze and plan for traffic events. In many instances, the
desired data may be stored for a year or more depending on the nature
of the traffic, future growth plans, ongoing migration projects, etc.
“What information do I need to plan for my trunking needs?”
NEC PBXs have the capability to serve up many different kinds of traffic
data. Peg count and call-second usage information can be collected for
many different types of traffic-based items including trunk utilization,
station statistics, group usages, attendant statistics, call center
information and more.
Depending on the needs of an organization, the types of traffic
information that they find valuable will determine which traffic types
they choose to collect and store.
Information on IP-based voice devices throughout the NEC
communications solution is another type of traffic suitable for data
collection. This information is based on the RTP packets that pass
between devices during conversations. It is valuable data because
it can tell an administrator how much bandwidth is currently being
consumed by voice traffic and over which network segments that
information is flowing. This can help in network capacity planning
efforts or in troubleshooting problems experienced with VoIP
implementations.
“How much data should I store?”
The amount of data stored depends on an organization’s individual
business needs. If, for instance, a college has higher traffic volumes on
certain trunk routes at key times during the year (such as graduation or
registration), then they should plan to store enough traffic data to cover
those peaks.
Every business is different. Some businesses may be lucky enough
to maintain a consistent traffic volume. More often than not, however,
businesses experience peaks and valleys in call volumes. Plan for the
peaks.
Traffic Analysis Techniques
The chart below displays a sample of data typically collected from
NEC PBXs on a per-route basis. The data below represents total call
seconds for Route 100 on 3/5/2011 between the hours of 7:00AM and
11:00PM.
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
Traffic Analysis Techniques The chart below displays a sample of data typically collected from NEC PBXs on a per-route basis. The data below represents total call seconds for Route 100 on 3/5/2007 between the hours of 7:00AM and 11:00PM.
Date Time Route Peg Call Sec Min/Hr Erlangs
3/5/2007 7:00:00 AM 100 7 520 8.7 0.14
3/5/2007 8:00:00 AM 100 36 3404 56.7 0.95
3/5/2007 9:00:00 AM 100 98 17424 290.4 4.84
3/5/2007 10:00:00 AM 100 106 16636 277.3 4.62
3/5/2007 11:00:00 AM 100 96 24792 413.2 6.89
3/5/2007 12:00:00 PM 100 91 24904 415.1 6.92
3/5/2007 1:00:00 PM 100 111 38250 637.5 10.63
3/5/2007 2:00:00 PM 100 95 31134 518.9 8.65
3/5/2007 3:00:00 PM 100 88 21756 362.6 6.04
3/5/2007 4:00:00 PM 100 87 19984 333.1 5.55
3/5/2007 5:00:00 PM 100 67 14470 241.2 4.02
3/5/2007 6:00:00 PM 100 21 4022 67.0 1.12
3/5/2007 7:00:00 PM 100 4 774 12.9 0.22
3/5/2007 8:00:00 PM 100 2 126 2.1 0.04
3/5/2007 9:00:00 PM 100 4 210 3.5 0.06
3/5/2007 10:00:00 PM 100 0 28 0.0 0.00
3/5/2007 11:00:00 PM 100 1 2306 38.4 0.64
5
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
What does the data mean? An NEC PBX does not automatically calculate average call time, minutes per hour or Erlangs. An Erlang, named after A. K. Erlang, is a unit of traffic measurement representing total traffic volume in one hour.
The Erlang method helps us determine the number of trunks required on a particular route in order to meet a defined service level. To calculate the number of Erlangs for any given route, start with a single hour of traffic data:
Then calculate the total number of minutes of traffic per hour:
38250 total call seconds / 60 = 637.5 total call minutes in that one hour
Now, we take that number and use it to determine the number of traffic hours in that hour: 637.5 total call minutes / 60 = 10.63 total call hours in that one hour
Which is to say that we saw 10.63 Erlangs on trunk route 100 for the hour of 1:00PM on 3/5/2007.
You must calculate the Erlang values for each hour on each monitored trunk route.
Analyzing the Traffic DataA.K. Erlang defined an algorithm for predicting the probability of telephone traffic across trunk routes based on average call volume, time and grade of service targets. The Erlang distribution formula defines a grade of service as a probability Pb and uses a Poisson process distribution assumption for call flow patterns:
Thankfully, one does not have to have an advanced degree in mathematics to use this formula!
Date Time Route Peg Call Sec
3/5/2007 1:00:00 PM 100 111 38520
6
What does the data mean?
An NEC PBX does not automatically calculate average call time,
minutes per hour or Erlangs. An Erlang, named after A. K. Erlang, is a
unit of traffic measurement representing total traffic volume in one hour.
The Erlang method helps us determine the number of trunks required
on a particular route in order to meet a defined service level. To
calculate the number of Erlangs for any given route, start with a single
hour of traffic data:
3/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/20113/5/2011
Date 3/5/2011
Date 3/5/2011
3/5/2011
MA4000 Traffic Management Primer White Paper
NEC Corporation of America © 2011 5
Then calculate the total number of minutes of traffic per hour:
38250 total call seconds / 60 = 637.5 total call minutes in that one hour
Now, we take that number and use it to determine the number of traffic
hours in that hour:
637.5 total call minutes / 60 = 10.63 total call hours in that one hour
Which is to say that we saw 10.63 Erlangs on trunk route 100 for the
hour of 1:00PM on 3/5/2011.
You must calculate the Erlang values for each hour on each monitored
trunk route.
Analyzing the Traffic Data
A.K. Erlang defined an algorithm for predicting the probability of
telephone traffic across trunk routes based on average call volume,
time and grade of service targets. The Erlang distribution formula
defines a grade of service as a probability Pb and uses a Poisson
process distribution assumption for call flow patterns:
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
What does the data mean? An NEC PBX does not automatically calculate average call time, minutes per hour or Erlangs. An Erlang, named after A. K. Erlang, is a unit of traffic measurement representing total traffic volume in one hour.
The Erlang method helps us determine the number of trunks required on a particular route in order to meet a defined service level. To calculate the number of Erlangs for any given route, start with a single hour of traffic data:
Then calculate the total number of minutes of traffic per hour:
38250 total call seconds / 60 = 637.5 total call minutes in that one hour
Now, we take that number and use it to determine the number of traffic hours in that hour: 637.5 total call minutes / 60 = 10.63 total call hours in that one hour
Which is to say that we saw 10.63 Erlangs on trunk route 100 for the hour of 1:00PM on 3/5/2007.
You must calculate the Erlang values for each hour on each monitored trunk route.
Analyzing the Traffic DataA.K. Erlang defined an algorithm for predicting the probability of telephone traffic across trunk routes based on average call volume, time and grade of service targets. The Erlang distribution formula defines a grade of service as a probability Pb and uses a Poisson process distribution assumption for call flow patterns:
Thankfully, one does not have to have an advanced degree in mathematics to use this formula!
Date Time Route Peg Call Sec
3/5/2007 1:00:00 PM 100 111 38520
6
Thankfully, one does not have to have an advanced degree in
mathematics to use this formula!
You can use a formula in Microsoft Excel to calculate the Grade
of Service probabilities based on the Erlangs and number of trunk
channels available to the route.
In Microsoft Excel:
=(POISSON([Trunk Channels], [Erlangs], FALSE)) / (POISSON([Trunk
Channels], [Erlangs], TRUE))
Format the cell as a percentage. The answer is the probability that a
caller will hear a busy signal on that trunk route during the specific time
period. That is usually called Grade of Service (GoS).
You should define your target GoS to whatever grade best suits your
business needs. In most cases, the GoS is defined as 1% or .01. This
would mean that, statistically speaking, 1 out of every 100 callers in a
1 hour period could hear a busy signal. The 1% GoS has been widely
adopted and is generally accepted. In some cases, you may want to
reduce this metric somewhat.
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
You can use a formula in Microsoft Excel to calculate the Grade of Service probabilities based on the Erlangs and number of trunk channels available to the route.
In Microsoft Excel: =(POISSON([Trunk Channels], [Erlangs], FALSE)) / (POISSON([Trunk Channels], [Erlangs], TRUE))
Format the cell as a percentage. The answer is the probability that a caller will hear a busy signal on that trunk route during the specific time period. That is usually called Grade of Service (GoS).
You should define your target GoS to whatever grade best suits your business needs. In most cases, the GoS is defined as 1% or .01. This would mean that, statistically speaking, 1 out of every 100 callers in a 1 hour period could hear a busy signal. The 1% GoS has been widely adopted and is generally accepted. In some cases, you may want to reduce this metric somewhat.
Date Time Route Peg Call Sec AVG Min/Hr Erlangs GoS
3/5/2007 7:00:00 AM 100 7 520 1.2 8.7 0.14 0.00%
3/5/2007 8:00:00 AM 100 36 3404 1.6 56.7 0.95 0.00%
3/5/2007 9:00:00 AM 100 98 17424 3.0 290.4 4.84 0.00%
3/5/2007 10:00:00 AM 100 106 16636 2.6 277.3 4.62 0.00%
3/5/2007 11:00:00 AM 100 96 24792 4.3 413.2 6.89 0.00%
3/5/2007 12:00:00 PM 100 91 24904 4.6 415.1 6.92 0.01%
3/5/2007 1:00:00 PM 100 111 38250 5.7 637.5 10.63 0.01%
3/5/2007 2:00:00 PM 100 95 31134 5.5 518.9 8.65 0.09%
3/5/2007 3:00:00 PM 100 88 21756 4.1 362.6 6.04 0.00%
3/5/2007 4:00:00 PM 100 87 19984 3.8 333.1 5.55 0.00%
3/5/2007 5:00:00 PM 100 67 14470 3.6 241.2 4.02 0.00%
3/5/2007 6:00:00 PM 100 21 4022 3.2 67.0 1.12 0.00%
3/5/2007 7:00:00 PM 100 4 774 3.2 12.9 0.22 0.00%
3/5/2007 8:00:00 PM 100 2 126 1.1 2.1 0.04 0.00%
3/5/2007 9:00:00 PM 100 4 210 0.9 3.5 0.06 0.00%
3/5/2007 10:00:00 PM 100 0 28 0.0 0.0 0.00 0.00%
3/5/2007 11:00:00 PM 100 1 2306 38.4 38.4 0.64 0.00%
19 Number of Trunks in Route
1.00% Target Grade of Service
7
An online Erlang-B calculator is an alternate method of determining
the number of trunks necessary to achieve a target GoS. Many are
available; you will find one of the better ones is at:
http://www.erlang/com/calculator/erlb/
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
An online Erlang-B calculator is an alternate method of determining the number of trunks necessary to achieve a target GoS.. Many are available; you will find one of the better ones is at:
http://www.erlang/com/calculator/erlb/
Enter the Erlang value and target GoS for the desired hour on the route you are analyzing and click the Calc. button. The calculator returns the number of trunks that you need on that route to achieve the target GoS.
How to execute on the resultsSo far we have calculated Erlangs, defined our target GoS, found the worst-case scenario based on historic traffic patterns (as relates to a specific route during targeted peak times) and used our formula to determine how many trunks are appropriate for that target route.
Next, we can look at how many trunks are currently assigned the target route. For example, in this PBX, route 100 contains 32 trunks. All that are required to support the traffic on this route are 19 trunks. This means that route 100 is over-trunked by 13 trunks. These 13 trunks could be re-purposed for another under-trunked route.
If your business is growing and you expect call volumes to also rise, you can calculate the amount of the increase by looking at the total number of current employees vs. new employees and increasing the percentage of Erlangs accordingly. Using the new Erlang values, you can determine how many trunks will be necessary after the new employees have been added.
8
Enter the Erlang value and target GoS for the desired hour on the route
you are analyzing and click the Calc. button. The calculator returns the
number of trunks that you need on that route to achieve the target GoS.
How to execute on the resultsSo far we have calculated Erlangs, defined our target GoS, found the
worst-case scenario based on historic traffic patterns (as relates to
a specific route during targeted peak times) and used our formula to
determine how many trunks are appropriate for that target route.
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MA4000 Traffic Management Primer White Paper
NEC Corporation of America © 2011 6
Next, we can look at how many trunks are currently assigned the target
route. For example, in this PBX, route 100 contains 32 trunks. All that
are required to support the traffic on this route are 19 trunks. This
means that route 100 is over-trunked by 13 trunks. These 13 trunks
could be re-purposed for another under-trunked route.
If your business is growing and you expect call volumes to also rise,
you can calculate the amount of the increase by looking at the total
number of current employees vs. new employees and increasing
the percentage of Erlangs accordingly. Using the new Erlang values,
you can determine how many trunks will be necessary after the new
employees have been added.
Predicting the Impact of VoIP
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
Predicting the Impact of VoIP
One of the most difficult challenges facing communications administrators today is trying to predict the impact of a VoIP implementation on bandwidth utilization over routed WAN links. Certainly, VoIP between remote sites makes financial sense. You can eliminate a great deal of the existing PSTN infrastructure in a communications network. But how do you plan for the event? Here are basic points to consider when performing capacity planning: What was the historic data on the existing PSTN? Once VoIP is enabled, what codecs will be used over the route?
This chart shows the amount of continuous bandwidth required for each codec for a single VoIP conversation. This figure includes both the voice path itself as well as IP/UDP/RTP overhead.
Codec Bandwidth Sample IP Bandwidth
G.711 PCM 64kbps 30ms 74.67kbps
ACELP MP-MLQ
5.6kbps6.4kbps
15.97kbps16.97kbps
G.726 ADPCM 32kbps 30ms 42.67kbps
G.729a CS-ACELP 8kbps 30ms 18.67kbps
30msG.723.1
9
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
Predicting the Impact of VoIP
One of the most difficult challenges facing communications administrators today is trying to predict the impact of a VoIP implementation on bandwidth utilization over routed WAN links. Certainly, VoIP between remote sites makes financial sense. You can eliminate a great deal of the existing PSTN infrastructure in a communications network. But how do you plan for the event? Here are basic points to consider when performing capacity planning: What was the historic data on the existing PSTN? Once VoIP is enabled, what codecs will be used over the route?
This chart shows the amount of continuous bandwidth required for each codec for a single VoIP conversation. This figure includes both the voice path itself as well as IP/UDP/RTP overhead.
Codec Bandwidth Sample IP Bandwidth
G.711 PCM 64kbps 30ms 74.67kbps
ACELP MP-MLQ
5.6kbps6.4kbps
15.97kbps16.97kbps
G.726 ADPCM 32kbps 30ms 42.67kbps
G.729a CS-ACELP 8kbps 30ms 18.67kbps
30msG.723.1
9
One of the most difficult challenges facing communications
administrators today is trying to predict the impact of a VoIP
implementation on bandwidth utilization over routed WAN links.
Certainly, VoIP between remote sites makes financial sense. You
can eliminate a great deal of the existing PSTN infrastructure in a
communications network. But how do you plan for the event? Here are
basic points to consider when performing capacity planning: What was
the historic data on the existing PSTN? Once VoIP is enabled, what
codecs will be used over the route?
This chart shows the amount of continuous bandwidth required for
each codec for a single VoIP conversation. This figure includes both the
voice path itself as well as IP/UDP/RTP overhead.
“Do I trunk down my PSTN or Tie Lines?” The ability to reduce the amount of PSTN coming into the switch is one
of the most sensible goals of a VoIP implementation due to the direct
cost savings that result. Some PSTN connectivity may still be desired
as a failover solution in case of network outage.
“Do I need to increase my data bandwidth?” In most cases, enterprises should plan to increase their network
bandwidth prior to VoIP implementation. Sometimes, there may be
sufficient bandwidth on a routed link to sustain the traffic that is
being redirected to the target location. IT departments should engage
reputable third parties tp perform a traffic analysis to make this
determination, or they should do it themselves.
Traffic analysis principles do not change as it relates to the prediction
of the amount of voice traffic over a specified route. In order to predict
the impact on a routed-data network, begin with the data collected
while the link was still PSTN. Based on the number of trunks required
to satisfy a specific GoS, one can calculate the amount of bandwidth
required to replace the existing PSTN infrastructure with IP telephony.
• 19 Trunks required on route 100.
• We are replacing the PSTN on route 100 with an IP connection.
The decision was made to use the G.729a codec at a 30ms sample
rate. 19 (trunks) x 18.67kbps = 354.73 kbps required continuous
bandwidth
MA4000 Traffic Management Primer White Paper
NEC Corporation of America © 2011 7
Adding voice to an existing data route
Existing data traffic on a line should be analyzed before adding
voice traffic because over taxing the existing infrastructure is not
recommended. Normally, 30% total continuous bandwidth utilization is
considered to be the saturation point for a routed link. This is because
normal data is “bursty” and needs substantial overhead to maintain its
performance.
Voice traffic, however, is a continuous and steady stream of data and
does not burst like normal data traffic. On the other hand, voice is
susceptible to delay, loss and out-of-order packets. This can cause
quality issues. That is why QoS policies are typically deployed for voice
traffic, granting it priority on the routed link over regular data.
If one applies the 30% rule to normal data and the voice can fit into the
remainder of the unutilized pipe, then no adjustment will be necessary.
Otherwise, network bandwidth should be increased to accommodate
the voice traffic.
Traffic Maintenance
Ongoing traffic maintenance is critical to the success of a well formed
traffic management strategy. Thus, an ongoing program of call flow
monitoring is necessary in order to ensure that the patterns remain
unchanged.
In most cases, you should run weekly or daily traffic reports. In
addition, you should perform analysis to ensure no busy conditions are
occurring. If they do occur, it is imperative that you check to see that
this is not due to a fault such as a downed T1 which would reduce the
number of available trunks on the route. If this is not the case, then a
traffic problem exists and should be corrected.
Call Center environments are especially sensitive to traffic problems.
Thus, an aggressive traffic management strategy should be
implemented in call center environments and diligently executed.
Another indication of traffic issues might also be poor voice quality over
routed data links for VoIP environments. The voice administrator should
be exposed to all transmissions related to that route in order to properly
troubleshoot issues or plan for growth.
Tools for Ongoing Traffic Analysis – UCE Manager (MA4000)
Pursuing a proactive approach to traffic management can be very time
consuming if you are working manually. Such a program requires daily
analysis of the traffic data on each monitored route. With everything
else administrators are responsible for, traffic analysis is usually
assigned a low priority.
NEC has developed tools that are specifically designed to make the
task of traffic management simple and automatic. The UCE Manager
(MA4000) Management System has the capability of continuously
monitoring, collecting and analyzing traffic data. In addition, the UCE
Manager (MA4000) can manage both IP and TDM traffic simultaneously.
You are not locked into either technology. It can automatically monitor
and collect statistics for both types of routes.
UCE Manager (MA4000), A Proactive Approach to Traffic ManagementThe UCE Manager (MA4000) takes a proactive approach to traffic
management. An administrator can define thresholds where the
UCE Manager (MA4000) will generate alarm conditions and send
notifications based on specified criteria. For example, “if my Grade
of Service ever falls below 85% of my defined target for any route,
generate a warning alarm and send me an email.” It is this approach
that relieves the administrator from the daily burden of traffic
management.
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
Traffic Maintenance Ongoing traffic maintenance is critical to the success of a well formed traffic management strategy. Thus, an ongoing program of call flow monitoring is necessary in order to ensure that the patterns remain unchanged.
In most cases, you should run weekly or daily traffic reports. In addition, you should perform analysis to ensure no busy conditions are occurring. If they do occur, it is imperative that you check to see that this is not due to a fault such as a downed T1 which would reduce the number of available trunks on the route. If this is not the case, then a traffic problem exists and should be corrected.
Call Center environments are especially sensitive to traffic problems. Thus, an aggressive traffic management strategy should be implemented in call center environments and diligently executed.
Another indication of traffic issues might also be poor voice quality over routed data links for VoIP environments. The voice administrator should be exposed to all transmissions related to that route in order to properly troubleshoot issues or plan for growth.
Tools for Ongoing Traffic Analysis – MA4000Pursuing a proactive approach to traffic management can be very time consuming if you are working manually. Such a program requires daily analysis of the traffic data on each monitored route. With everything else administrators are responsible for, traffic analysis is usually assigned a low priority.
NEC has developed tools that are specifically designed to make the task of traffic management simple and automatic. The MA4000 Management System has the capability of continuously monitoring, collecting and analyzing traffic data. In addition, the MA4000 can manage both IP and TDM traffic simultaneously. You are not locked into either technology. It can automatically monitor and collect statistics for both types of routes.
MA4000, A Proactive Approach to Traffic ManagementThe MA4000 takes a proactive approach to traffic management. An administrator can define thresholds where the MA4000 will generate alarm conditions and send notifications based on specified criteria. For example, “if my Grade of Service ever falls below 85% of my defined target for any route, generate a warning alarm and send me an email.”
It is this approach that relieves the administrator from the daily burden of traffic management.
11
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MA4000 Traffic Management Primer
UCE Manager (MA4000) Real Time Traffic StatusThe UCE Manager (MA4000) also provides a real-time traffic overview
that lets network managers know exactly how many trunks are needed
for specific routes as well as if any of those routes are currently being
under or over utilized.
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
MA4000 Real Time Traffic StatusThe MA4000 also provides a real-time traffic overview that lets network managers know exactly how many trunks are needed for specific routes as well as if any of those routes are currently being under or over utilized.
MA4000 and Traffic PlanningThe MA4000 includes a “What If” feature that can assist in traffic planning. This feature is an Erlang-B calculator built into the MA4000. The network manager simply plugs in expected traffic information, Grade of Service change or trunking change, and it will calculate the results automatically.
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UCE Manager (MA4000) and Traffic PlanningThe UCE Manager (MA4000) includes a “What If” feature that can assist
in traffic planning. This feature is an Erlang-B calculator built into the
UCE Manager (MA4000). The network manager simply plugs in ex-
pected traffic information, Grade of Service change or trunking change,
and it will calculate the results automatically.
NEC Corporation ©2007
Traffic Management Primer Position Paper
MA4000 Real Time Traffic StatusThe MA4000 also provides a real-time traffic overview that lets network managers know exactly how many trunks are needed for specific routes as well as if any of those routes are currently being under or over utilized.
MA4000 and Traffic PlanningThe MA4000 includes a “What If” feature that can assist in traffic planning. This feature is an Erlang-B calculator built into the MA4000. The network manager simply plugs in expected traffic information, Grade of Service change or trunking change, and it will calculate the results automatically.
12
UCE Manager (MA4000) and VoIP TroubleshootingThe MA4000 Traffic module includes a feature that can report the VoIP
statistics information and help to identify potential traffic or QoS- re-
lated issues surrounding your VoIP implementation. The VoIP Manager
also includes proactive thresholds that have the capability to send
notification of any potential VoIP quality issues as they occur.
MA4000 and VoIP TroubleshootingThe MA4000 Traffic module includes a feature that can report the VoIP statistics information and help to identify potential traffic or QoS- related issues surrounding your VoIP implementation. The VoIP Manager also includes proactive thresholds that have the capability to send notification of any potential VoIP quality issues as they occur.
About NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. NEC Unified Solutions Inc., a global leader in VoIP and data communications for the enterprise and small-medium business, delivers the industry’s most innovative suite of products, applications and services that help customers achieve business value through technology. NEC Unified Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation of America, offers a complete portfolio of solutions for wireless, unified communications, voice, data and management services, and an open migration path to protect investments. NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. serves Fortune 1000 customers across the globe in vertical markets such as hospitality, education, government and healthcare.
©2007 NEC Corporation All rights reserved. NEC, NEC logo and Empowered by Innovation are trademarks or registered trademarks of NEC Corporation that may be registered in Japan and other jurisdictions. All trademarks identified with ® or ™ are registered trademarks or trademarks respectively. Certain features require optional equipment or specialized telephone company services. Please consult your authorized NEC Associate. The information herein is subject to change without notice at the sole discretion of NEC Unified Solutions, Inc.
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Traffic Management Primer White Paper
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