Implementing high quality global voice solutions

IMPLEMENTING HIGH-QUALITY GLOBAL VOICE SOLUTIONS Key factors to be considered by communication service providers while implementing switching & routing infrastructure for enterprise global voice solutions

Executive summary

In today’s highly competitive and complex telecom landscape, communications service providers (CSPs) are challenged by declining ARPU & margins and must continuously invest in technology and infrastructure to remain competitive. With churn rate and quality demands of customers on the rise, CSPs must focus greatly on retaining current customers and selling new products and services at higher quality while reducing costs.

One of the main revenue streams of the CSPs is their global voice solution for large enterprises and international contact centers that generate huge outbound and inbound voice traffic to and from various global locations. The success and growth of enterprise voice business is largely dependent on the quality metrics (ASR and ACD) of the CSP’s global voice solution.

This insight elaborates some of the key factors that CSPs should consider while deploying the switching & routing infrastructure to ensure high quality global voice services – moving ASR (answer-seizure ratio) and ACD (average call duration) above the industry benchmark.

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Typical challenges faced by CSPs while launching enterprise global voice service While a CSP might have a strong switching & routing infrastructure, they still face some of the critical challenges listed below when it comes to launching global voice solutions especially for large enterprises.

Handling unpredictable traffic bursts from high throughput call campaigns is a challenge for even experienced CSPs.

Limitations in any-toany protocol interworking required by enterprises (e.g., ISDN PRI to SS7 ISUP, SIP to SS7 ISUP etc.)

Limitations in doing protocol stack-level software changes on the switching & routing infra with agility – much required for improving the quality metrics.

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Providing near-real-time quality metrics reporting for enterprises.

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Required major tunings in the infrastructure to enable enterprise global voice service launch 1/2 Tuning Core Voice Switch

Upgraded to the right version that supports maximum QoS (quality of service) parameters

Support for ISDN PRI and SIP trunks to enable direct connectivity with enterprise’s TDM/IP PABX and SIP/SS7 for interconnection with international carriers

Support for high BHCA (busy hour call attempts) and unpredictable traffic bursts from enterprises (e.g., during campaigns)

Integrated Advance Routing Engine: To support enterprisewide routing requirements like QoS-based, ASR-based, policybased, SLA-based, and percentage-based routing algorithms

Tuning CDR Mediation Server

Custom adaptors to provide feeds to CSP billing platform, customer’s billing/reconciliation systems, and revenue assurance systems

Customized to process and categorize enterprise-wide CDRs in near-real-time and the capability to feed it into the enterprise care portals

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Required major tunings in the Infrastructure to enable enterprise global voice service launch 2/2 Enterprise Admin Console with Total Control

Monitor real-time quality metrics, trend analysis

Detailed CDR analysis and bill analysis

Custom tool for the CSP’s business team to have a high level business view of all the enterprise customers on the platform: This tool should be fine-tuned to provide insightful information to enable promotions for upsell and crosssell, churn prevention, QoS improvement, customer experience enhancement, etc.

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Raise and track trouble tickets

Configure routes with priorities based on destinations, time period, business need, and promotions from CSPs (e.g., choose premium route for to Canada, standard VoIP route for Mexico for next 3 days etc.)

Business Intelligence (BI) Dashboard Top-10 enterprise customers by revenue /traffic/destination-wise

Enterprise-wide quality metrics report

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Top-10 route/supplier choices

Churn propensity report and trend analysis

Key factors to be considered for improving the quality metrics – technical deep dive!

Recommended customization features on the switching platform for improving quality metrics - ASR (answer-seizure ratio), ACD (answer call duration) and NEP (network efficiency ratio).

Handling SEQC (switching equipment congestion) Infra with no single point of failure (SPOF)

Capability to customize/increas e network timers

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Rule based echo cancellation

Support early ACM (address complete message)

Key factors to be considered for improving the quality metrics – technical deep dive! 1/2 Handling SEQC (Switching Equipment Congestion) Release Message

In a typical deployment scenario, the far-end switch(es) send ISUP switching equipment congestion messages (level-1, level-2 or level-3 warnings) to the CSPs switch depending on its load. By default the CSPs switch would release the call on receiving congestion message. However, if CSP’s switch supports custom SEQC handling functionality, it can be configured to take appropriate action based on the business need (i.e., to release the call or re-route to alternate route or re-route to same route until level-3 congestion message comes).This procedure can increase the ASR.

Echo Cancellation On the international voice path, echo is a common issue that affects the quality metrics. Switching Platform software should be customized to support enabling or disabling echo cancellers based on various options: a) Specific routes or destinations; b) Enterprise customer category (standard/premium SLA); c) Circuit ratio (e.g 1 EC per 16 voice circuits)

Support Early ACM (Address Complete Message) Enterprise PABX, after sending the SETUP message would wait for a limited time (as per default timer) and if the timer expires, would release the call even before the CALL PROGRESS message comes from the CSP’s switch. This might happen when the destination switch is still processing the call (maybe querying the SCP for balance check) which typically involve four messages and might take a bit longer. To mitigate this issue, the CSP’s switch should support sending ISUP “Early ACM” (called party status = no indication) to the enterprise switch or PABX immediately upon receiving the SETUP message. This should be a configurable option that can be enabled based on need.

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Key factors to be considered for improving the Quality Metrics – Technical Deep Dive! 2/2 Capability to customize/ increase Network Timers Network Timer T7: awaiting address complete (ACM) timer (network protection timer) T7 is started in the CSP’s switch when an IAM (initial address message) is sent, and is canceled when the response message (ACM) is received from the far-end switch.

When response is not received within timer limit, CSP’s switch releases the circuit with timer expiry cause.

Potential reasons for delay

Solution

Delays might incur at the far-end switch for various reasons like – - interrogating the Location registers while setting up the mobile call - Paging the mobile subscriber - Processing delays at MSC, GMSS - Satellite hops etc..

Check the current T7 configuration and increase the timer within the ETSI standards

Other Timers to watch out

T8: awaiting continuity timer. In Inbound call scenario, T8 timer is started in the CSP’s switch when an IAM is received with the continuity indicator bit set. If continuity message is not received from the far-end switch within the configured time-limit, T8 expires, CSP’s switch sends RELEASE to the originating node.

T9: awaiting answer timer. In outbound call scenario, T9 is started in CSP’s switch when an ACM is received from far-end , and is canceled when an ANM(answer) is received from far-end switch. It is recommended to keep T9 at optimum level to prevent circuits from being tied up for an excessive period of time when the destination does not answer.

No single point of failure All elements within the switching & routing infrastructure should be built with no single point of failure. Every element should have dual power supply, dual processors, dual line cards etc. Additionally a complete disaster recovery (DR) strategy is also recommended to achieve five nines availability and business continuity.

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Benefits for CSPs

Implementing the strategies discussed in this insight would enable a CSP to offer global voice services to enterprises exceeding the industry benchmarks on quality metrics.

Answer-seizure ratio (ASR) and average call duration (ACD)

could be improved by 10 to 25% which in turn would help enterprises do business more efficiently and grow revenues.

Differentiated service offerings with higher quality

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Improve customer loyalty, increase service uptake, remain competitive

Maximize revenue!

Credits

• John Kingsly, Associate Director – Insights & Presales

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