Networks are dynamic. Calibrating network capacity with demand is an on-going challenge. Whether you are managing a TDM network, preparing for or in process of a transition to SIP, or managing a SIP or hybrid network, you need the right metrics and methodology to optimize your network. And, how do you determine the impacts of day-to-day business operational changes, such as consolidating office locations or transitioning to work-at-home call center agents?
By overcoming the limitations and complications of the industry’s traditional engineering methodologies, Traffic Analyst provides a simple, more reliable alternative to improve the service and cost performance of your voice network. As you cycle between optimization and redesign projects for your dynamic network, Traffic Analyst’s capacity calibration lets you see network utilization and saturation in real-time, quickly pinpoint abnormalities, analyze the impact of coming changes and trap network conditions before they adversely impact performance. Traffic Analyst calibrates network capacity throughout the full life cycle of technology migrations and on-going economic cycles with the following unique capabilities.
CALL ROUTE INTELLIGENCE
To optimize a network, the first key step is having an accurate account of the level of service the network is providing. It is critical to realize that caller experience is not simply based on the capacity of one particular trunk group but instead how calls can be serviced collectively by all available trunks as
defined by your call routing schemes. Where route plans join trunk circuits and callers together, true grade of service can only be determined by an examination of their pooled results.
One of Traffic Analyst’s unique features is its ability to model call routing plans. Traffic Analyst accounts for route pools, usage peaks that may not be cumulative and large resource efficiencies. The system keeps you from falling into the trap of maintaining or purchasing excess capacity that will not improve your service levels. Traffic Analyst captures and reports on existing routes via automated network discovery, but will also allow you to create new routing plans to model network reconfigurations.
USAGE PROFILES FOR TREND ANALYSIS
Traffic Analyst’s usage profile charts highlight usage trends and capacity. They take the guess work out of capacity decisions by showing detailed histograms of network utilization. Usage and abnormalities are clearly seen and compared to configured capacity. Quickly find channels or trunks that can be disconnected because of overtunking. Or, uncover where configured capacity is at risk for blocking calls.
PROACTIVE MONITORING WITH LOOK AHEAD ALARMS
When collecting data, Traffic Analyst first scans it for abnormalities and reports those via alarms. A large library of alarms keeps you abreast and ahead of issues, knowing about problems and abnormalities almost as they occur, sometimes even before. Alerts, with user-defined thresholds for low, medium and high priority, are presented on the dashboard and/or emailed. Available alarms include:
- All Trunks Busy
- High Trunk Group Utilization
- Peak Utilization
- No Seizures for a Trunk Group
Traffic Analyst provides a snapshot of alarm conditions in your network and allows you to quickly drill into problems. You decide how you want to view alarms – by priority, by switch, by type.
REAL-TIME MONITORING
Are you tired of waiting to get the metrics and analytics you need? 
Traffic Analyst gives you the latest information available. When data is collected from the switch, your data tables and displays automatically refresh. For example, the %Capacity chart highlights the percent of configured capacity for all trunk groups and routes. With a single glance, you can quickly see:
- Peak percent used over the entire report interval (blue bar)
- Peak percent used the last seven days (orange diamond)
- Peak percent used today (red square)
- Peak percent used during the last data collection interval (green circle)
By seeing the latest trends and new alarms, you won’t get surprised by network blockage and you can proactively manage your network and elevate service levels.
WHAT-IF MODELING
Given the dynamic nature of networks, the flexibility to determine the impacts of changes is a critical component of a network planning application. Traffic Analyst provides a variety of ways to adjust for transitions in your network. Traffic Analyst’s “What if” modeling allows you to analyze the impact that changes – such as site expansion or technology migrations – will have on your network performance. Don’t guess! Use Traffic Analyst to model your scenarios:
- Convert TDM load into VoIP bandwidth and channel requirements
- Define factors for increased or decreased call volume or changes in call length
- Adjust for calls that receive busy signals
- Evaluate varying service levels
- Determine the impact of pooling trunk groups
YOUR NETWORK, YOUR WAY
Traffic Analyst comes with a dashboard based on Microsoft® Silverlight® rich internet application (RIA) technology. Users can customize their dashboard to their preferences by adding, deleting, modifying, resizing and relocating charts and data tables. A broad portfolio of chart types is available and the user has significant control over the chart appearance. Columns in data tables can be added, deleted, sorted or filtered.
Simple, Yet Insightful Analytics
The concepts of Busy Hour, Average Busy Hour, CCITT Busy Hour and the like can be less than straightforward and difficult to understand. While supporting these traditional analytics and metrics, Traffic Analyst introduces graphs and performance metrics that are easy to understand. Simple graphs clearly show the performance levels, measured in number of blocked calls, peak percent utilization and/or quality of service metrics.
Slice & Dice
After you have all the key metrics at your fingertips, the next step is quickly digging into the details, particularly if you see an anomaly. And, you can select your drill down logic. Start with monthly data and drill down to daily, hourly and quarterly hour slices with a simple click of the mouse. Or, maybe you prefer to drill down by switch, trunk group and extension. For each chart or table, you decide.
Customized Reporting Groups
With Traffic Analyst, your reporting options are not bound by the design of your network. You can create “virtual” Shared or Personal groups at any time. You simply create a new group on the explorer tree and drag any item into the group. Choose any combination of switches, trunk groups, gateways and routes.
QoS Analytics
While VoIP in some ways makes configuration management easier, the complexity of performance management has dramatically increased. While still needing to get channel capacity right, VoIP requires bandwidth capacity determination and QOS management. Traffic Analyst is the answer as you deploy and manage your VoIP network! Traffic Analyst does not require specialized hardware while still providing a comprehensive view of the capacity, trends and QOS for an entire voice network.
With Traffic Analyst you can pinpoint specific cards or devices experiencing QOS problems based on metrics such as:
- MOS
- R-Factor
- % Packet Loss
- Latency
- Jitter
You can see trending analysis and quickly spot any abnormalities that you might want to investigate, starting with the integrated SIP response code correlation.
DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS
Traffic Analyst Network allows you to choose the deployment model that fits your business requirements and budget.
24x365 Visibility
You get all the data and use all the data to create an accurate analysis of the state of your voice network. You have all the data you need and can decide what time intervals you want to analyze. Traffic Analyst provides two options to eliminate the risks of limited data samples from limited time ranges.
- Hosted – In the hosted model, Impact maintains all the hardware at our location and assures that you are always benefiting from the latest software enhancements. We will communicate with your switch(es) on a daily basis to collect the raw data. Your employees simply use their web browsers to access the reports they want and define their alarms. You minimize your upfront investment and on-going maintenance but leverage the long-term benefits of Traffic Analyst.
- Premise-Based – Do you prefer to own and operate the solution on your site? Purchase a license and Impact’s Technical Support team will ensure a smooth, effective onsite or remote installation process so your employees can enjoy the same great reports and alarms from behind your firewall. Or, leverage a subscription model with single or multi-year contract.
Snapshot Visibility
Curious to see the insight that Traffic Analyst’s analytics can provide for your network but don’t want to make a long-term commitment?
- Traffic Study – Have data collected from 5 days to 13 weeks and leverage Traffic Analyst Performance, Usage and Capacity Analysis reports for that period plus 30 days to conduct a detailed investigation into your network performance and model changes in your network usage.
- Network Analysis – Enjoy the benefits of the Traffic Study, plus receive an inventory of routing plans and trunk groups, what-if modeling options with alternative routing plans, and optimization recommendations to improve performance and/or reduce costs.
