Cable VoIP getting assurance from Brix

Brix Networks added several enhancements to its BrixCall voice-over-IP analysis and correlation application this week and is taking it to cable providers to give them quality-of-service visibility into their customers’ homes.

With these enhancements, BrixCall now supports the Network-based Call Signaling (NCS) protocol used in cable environments. It also correlates passive monitoring thresholds and active test results to help automate and streamline troubleshooting, fault isolation, and overall call quality and performance.

Brix is more aggressively targeting this market, which it already serves, just as subscribers in the United States are forecasted to grow from 6.4 million in 2006 to 25.5 million in 2010, according to a study by IDC. Tracy Corbo, senior analyst in IDC’s Network and Service Management program, said in a statement that end-to-end testing, including support of NCS signaling and loopback, enables cable operators to ensure the quality of service subscribers will expect from their VoIP services.

BrixCall provides comprehensive visibility and passive monitoring of live VoIP traffic. It also offers advanced correlation of active test results to ensure call quality. It is an integrated component within the company’s BrixWorx central-site software engine and is used to measure actual customer experience.

As a call signaling protocol used to control communication units, such as IP telephones, NCS is used to setup, manage, and terminate multimedia communication sessions in a centralized communications system. In addition to NCS, BrixCall also supports the H.323, H.248, and SIP-T protocols.

BrixCall for Cable is scheduled to be available in 60 days.

In addition to a growing cable market, a market review this month by OSS Observer’s Patrick Kelly said spending on service assurance solutions is expected to grow by $1 billion over the next several years and reach $3 billion by 2011.

Brix is a partner of Agilent Technologies, which leads the service assurance market with a 12% market share, according to OSS Observer.