Controlling quality of service in Least Cost Routing

RCR Wireless news recently published a reader editorial on how to control Quality of Service (QoS) in least cost routing.

According to Tim Moynihan:

Interconnect carriers and least cost routing models play an important role in sending voice calls around the globe. It is also commonly accepted that the benefits of LCR are worth the cost of a small percentage of customers that might experience quality issues at some point along the path of interconnected call legs. But customers today, both business and consumer, are no longer tolerant of call quality issues. As service providers hand off calls, they also hand off the ability to control the quality of service experienced by their customers. And, for better or worse, customers hold the originating carrier responsible for call quality and are more likely than ever to change providers when problems arise.

Today, VoIP service providers have more insight than ever into the quality of service they provide to customers. TransNexus offers two solutions for monitoring quality of service: NexOSS and SDReporter. Both products collect CDR information from your softswitch or session border controller, and create over 65 color coded charts detailing four views of the quality of service:

• Source or access network
• Destination network
• Calling party
• Called party

Both products can also send out email and SNMP alerts if QoS falls beneath certain pre-set threshholds. In addition, NexOSS can automatically suspend poor quality routes from the routing table. Taking a proactive approach to quality cuts down on the number of customer service calls, and, as a result, the number of trouble tickets created.

Armed with the right information, originating carriers can even help interconnect partners correct their issues faster and create more synergistic, profitable relationships.