Route Explorer Applications

VoIP Network Readiness

Route Explorer helps network engineers ensure that their IP networks are ready and will remain steady for VoIP roll-outs, by reducing one of the chief causes of VoIP quality and availability problems--network and routing instability. Route Explorer complements VoIP service management tools by providing real-time, network-wide insight into VoIP-affecting Layer 3 dynamics in the underlying IP network:

Route and Link Flapping
According to studies conducted in carrier-class networks that are engineered for toll-quality VoIP delivery, the number one cause of VoIP quality degradation was link failures and resulting routing problems such as route flapping. Unstable, flapping links can be even more disruptive since they cause constant rerouting of packets. Link and route flapping cause disruptive levels of latency, as well as dropped packets. Route Explorer provides real-time monitoring and alerting on link and route flapping, as well as preserves a completely accurate historical record of routing events in the network, enabling faster troubleshooting and root cause analysis, as well as proactive

Call Path Tracing
One of the key steps in troubleshooting VoIP problems is to understand the precise path that the troubled calls took across the network when the problem occurred. Before Route Explorer, there was no practical and reliable way to perform this analysis, since the state of routing could have changed since the problem was seen. Route Explorer can accurately identifying routes between identified IP addresses through the network at any point in time, aiding problem resolution.

Route Optimization
Route Explorer enables network engineers to examine their entire network to ensure that routing is stable and optimized for VoIP delivery, across protocols (OSPF, EIGRP, IS-IS, BGP and MPLS VPNs), areas and Autonomous Systems. By proactively monitoring and analyzing the state of routing, network engineers can see problems as they emerge in the routing plane, before they affect the forwarding plane. Route Explorer also provides sophisticated modeling of failure scenarios and routing metric changes on the as-running routed topology, allowing network engineers to ensure that there is sufficient redundancy and optimal routing.

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