Further demonstrating its commitment to
improving all forms of Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications, Texas
Instruments Incorporated (TI) today extends its PIQUA
software with its first implementation in media gateways for carrier
networks. TI's PIQUA system of IP quality management elements enables
service providers and carriers to deliver an advanced level of quality to
consumer and business subscribers migrating to Internet and IP-based
services. With TI's PIQUA elements embedded in equipment at both the
customer premise and the network, consumers using IP-based services -- such
as Voice over IP (VoIP), Video over IP, IPTV and Internet-based music --
will realize exceptional quality and performance with their IP
applications. For more information on TI's PIQUA technology, please visit
http://www.ti.com/piqua.
TI's PIQUA technology is a standards-based system for IP quality
management, using RTCP-XR and TI-developed extensions to measure VoIP
performance, with plans to incorporate RTCP-HR and RTCP-Video for future IP
applications. These standards allow the delivery of quality metrics to a
network management and quality assurance system. The PIQUA system extends
the parameters available in these reports with custom features such as its
Echo Quality Index, providing enhanced statistics and diagnostic
capabilities. Together these features allow for the real-time response to
service degradation while providing the carrier or service provider with
extensive metrics that accurately convey the user experience.
"TI's commitment to IP quality speaks volumes about the company's
belief in not only offering high performance hardware, but also ensuring
that its customers have the most complete VoIP solution," said William
Stofega, research manager with IDC's VoIP Services Program. "As carriers
prepare to deliver next-generation services, like IP Multimedia Subsystems
(IMS) and fixed mobile convergence (FMC), they will need greater access to
and better views of their networks to support and monitor the wide variety
of applications delivered via broadband connections."
The transition to an all-IP network enables service providers to
deliver enhanced features for voice, video and data to their commercial and
residential customers. These same service providers are also confronted
with additional performance challenges, as their fixed, cellular and
broadband networks converge over IP. In order to adequately manage these
challenges, it is essential that they focus on quality of service (QoS)
parameters to best manage IP performance and their subscriber's experience.
The advent of IMS and other advanced services and functionality will
make QoS an even higher priority. With TI's PIQUA technology, service
providers can adapt to changing conditions and quickly make adjustments,
enabling the discovery, monitoring and repair of their services and
networks.
"By embedding TI's PIQUA elements in the network, service providers can
focus on meaningfully identifying potential problems and flagging and
repairing degraded service, ensuring they deliver the best IP services and
applications that their subscribers expect and demand," said John Warner,
strategic marketing manager for TI's Communications Infrastructure group.
"Ensuring voice quality in an all-IP network is a complex issue, as there
are many opportunities for problematic service, including signaling errors,
packet loss, echo, delay and dropped calls. TI's PIQUA technology combines
a variety of indicators that identify each of these issues to offer service
providers a more complete view of their network, enabling them to best
protect their initial investments, reduce customer turnover and continue to
add new subscribers." TI's PIQUA system is based on the company's digital
signal processor (DSP) technology and embedded software solutions that
provide a real-time distributed system of complete quality management
elements that monitor and improve the quality of IP-based services, such as
voice, data and video. This unique quality management tool collects data
from a variety of endpoints, including user devices, IP set-top boxes and
residential and media gateways. These endpoints use DSPs to execute
software, which encode voice and perform the signal processing required to
facilitate the transmission of voice between various networks.
With TI's PIQUA-embedded elements represented in more endpoints
throughout the network and CPE devices, better quality can be delivered
with additional information available for monitoring and analysis.
Endpoints with TI's PIQUA elements also provide a valuable resource for
managing today's complex IP networks.
The flexible PIQUA system enables TI's customers to use their own
algorithms and management features to determine which parameters are most
important for their network quality management. This ensures that
manufacturers can implement their own quality features to better
differentiate their products from competitive offerings while making their
solutions ready for quick deployment in advanced IP networks as more
operators begin demanding better quality metrics. Additionally, service
providers can determine which parameters they most need analyzed and
corrected to best meet their customers' needs and requirements.
Availability
TI's PIQUA technology is available today and included in select TI
carrier infrastructure products shipping to customers around the world.