White Paper Abstract:
The goal of a voice quality monitoring system is to support a set of capabilities that provide accurate and timely indications of voice quality and notify the user when needed. Mean Opinion Scores (MOSs) offer a standard method to monitor the quality of a VoIP call. This method takes into account latency, jitter, and other network properties that affect voice quality. In addition to computing call quality, the system must be cognizant of various other pieces of information, such as the identity of phones making the calls, call history, call volume, and relevant historical trends such as peak and low periods. Finally, the ability to notify the IT administrator of a problem that has occurred is very important. Cisco NAM provides these capabilities: NAM detects and computes MOSs for VoIP calls transported through Real Time Protocol (RTP) streams. MOS is computed periodically and reported through NAM's GUI, which provides real-time and historical reporting on voice quality. Administrators can get access to MOSs in real time, even as calls are in an active state. It is important to note that NAM is an open device, which means that its data is available for consumption by any application that can poll the NAM through its interfaces. This openness allows for easy integration into other applications being used.