Abstract: Techniques for finding the source of perceptual audio degradation in an IP telephony environment provide a hop-by-hop analysis of a network over which IP telephony is laid, and may be performed by network switching devices, such as routers, gateways and switches. Rather than monitoring packet loss, these techniques employ perceptual measures to determine the source of audio quality degradation in the network, as perceived by a user or caller. Generally, a reference waveform is systematically sent to intermediate network switching devices along the path between two endpoints. Each intermediate device sends back a return waveform that is based on the respective reference waveform received at each device. From comparing the reference waveform with the return waveform, for each round-trip along the path, the degradation of the audio quality is computed for each round-trip path, from which audio degradation is computed for each hop, from which the source of degradation is determined.

Abstract: A test emergency response location (ERL) is used to exercise an emergency response (ER) service. The test ERL does not have any connections to the real external PSAP or OSAN and only routes the call to synthetic phones or agents. A 911 call is intercepted and routed to an ER application to make a decision on which emergency location identification number (ELIN) to use. The ER application recognizes the call originator as a synthetic phone or agent and routes it through the test ERL. In one embodiment, the test ERL is configured so that a second synthetic phone or agent is registered as the PSAP endpoint and a third synthetic phone or agent is registered as the OSAN endpoint. In a properly functioning system, the ER application forwards the call to the second and third agents. When the second and third agents receive the calls, the system is considered to be functioning properly.

Abstract: An approach for managing IP telephony devices in a network generally involves associating physical and logical data with an IP telephony device using identification data that identifies the IP telephony device. The physical data specifies one or more attributes of how the IP telephony device is connected to the network, for example, as a switch address, port, or both. The logical data specifies one or more logical attributes of the IP telephony device on the network, for example, an extension number or IP address. Correlating physical and logical data with an IP telephony device using identification data aids in identifying suspect IP telephony devices in a network by identifying IP telephony devices that have physical data, but no logical data and also IP telephony devices that have the same identification data, such as the same media access control layer address.

Abstract: An approach for tracking IP telephony devices in a network generally involves detecting changes in physical connections of IP telephony devices to the network by evaluating address data for the IP telephony devices. Address data for the telephony devices is evaluated over time to detect changes that have occurred in physical connections. Status data is generated and provided to a network manager application that notifies administrative personnel of the changes. Other embodiments include verifying that a physical connection has changed after an initial detection by waiting a specified amount of time and then evaluating additional address data to determine whether the change still exists.