When using VoIP, poor internet service can easily get in the way of a smooth call. Delayed sounds and dropped calls are a frequent result of network interruptions and these can permanently damage your customer support reputation.
To dodge all negative feedback on the account of IP telephony, businesses should regularly carry out VoIP quality tests. Here’s a quick guide on how you can use VoIP assessments to fully optimize your calling experience and ensure a reliable connection from home or from the office.
What Is a VoIP Quality Test?
Every business should run quality tests before signing up with a VoIP provider and conduct periodic assessments to monitor your calls as the time goes. The main advantage of using quality tests is the opportunity to assess your call performance, without the need to place a real call.
Since the caliber of your connection is a key component for VoIP voice and video calls, the tests use standard settings to gauge overall performance. Then, when you compare these with the figures suggested by your provider, you can accurately predict issues and effectively tackle any network interruptions.
How Can VoIP Tests Help?
Quality tests easy to carry out and proven effective in helping diagnose and battling common IP telephony problems, such as:
1. Packet Loss
When on a call, your voice is encoded in small data packets and then sent over across the network to the receiver destination. Connection issues can prevent all the data packets reaching their destination. As a result, parts of your message will be missing, causing muffled audio and glitchy videos. To combat this problem, VoIP tests simulate a call to compare the number of data packets sent out, to the number received, to confirm that there’s no packet loss.
2. Jitter
Jitter is quite similar to packet loss, except that the packets aren’t lost but received out of order instead. In this case, the number of packets received will be the same as sent out, however audio will still appear jammed and at times difficult to comprehend.
Usually, jitter can be explained by network congestion and poor hardware that fails to support necessary broadband. To help manage jitter, aside from available tests, some providers also allow you to monitor systems from your IP telephony dashboard and have custom alerts when it reaches a certain level of delay.
3. Latency
Latency, also known as ping, is a measure of how quickly the voice travels from the speaker to the receiver. Delays in the data transfer are identified as slurred speech and long silences. It can also cause some overlap during audio delivery that sounds like people interrupting and talking over each other.
3 Recommended Testing Tools
Here are four top tools that can help you with running an effective test:
1. Nextiva Network Speed Test
Network Speed Tool is a well known testing tool amongst VoIP users. The test provides information about your internet speed, the maximum number of simultaneous calls your connection can handle, and offers simulation for up to 200 calls. By accessing these results you can adequately estimate how your network matches your call demand without causing delays and congestion.
2. Fusion Connect Quality Tool
Fusion Connect provides cloud solutions for business communications targeting contact centers, SIP trunking, and video conferencing. Fusion Connect quality assessment tool measures latency, jitter and packet loss. It also provides information on the speed of your internet connection, as well as recommends solutions to any of the ongoing issues.
3. SolarWinds VoIP Manager
SolarWinds is an IT management solutions provider, and their IP tests are just a part of the range of business software products they offer. The tests include WAN and server monitoring.
SolarWinds is perfect if you’re looking for an online third-party monitoring tool different from the one offered by your provider, however it does come at a cost. The starting price is €783 with the final price dependent on the type of the subscription and the license tier. However, there’s an option to opt in for a 30 day free trial.
How To Improve Your Call Quality
Proactive monitoring and addressing the underlying cause is how you improve the quality of your calls. This means if you’re dealing with network jitter, you can upgrade your Ethernet cables or use a jitter buffer. Get a router that prioritizes VoIP traffic, even better if your router supports SIP, which helps to facilitate transmission between the client and the server. Finally, switch to a dedicated connection to handle packet loss and latency problems.
VoIP tests help you to understand your network’s readiness for IP services. This guide alongside others available on Voip-Info.org can help you with navigating common problems and lowering chances of unnecessary glitches and interruptions.
April 7, 2023
Phone System 