As VoIP enthusiasts, we’re often forgetful that not everyone speaks in acronyms. So in today’s post, we would like to introduce you to Voice over Internet Protocol’s Quality of Service — or, VoIP QoS.
Remember, that in a nutshell, VoIP is telephone over Internet (for more details, check out our What is a VoIP? post). Now, a huge part of Internet Telephone is the quality of your Internet service. If we were to ask you, “Mr./Ms. Voip Tech Chat Reader, how good is your Internet connection,” what would you say?
If you were to answer very good, great, excellent, phenomenal, or sweet mother of all that is good and holy, my Internet connection rocks — well, you’re going to have no problem with VoIP. In fact, you’ll probably recommend VoIP to all of your friends.
Now, if your answer is ok, decent, or alright, then it’s time to consider upgrading your service or consider holding off on VoIP.
Yes, in the back, you have a question?
Patrick and Fred, your podcasts are hysterical. My question is about QoS. How can I test my quality of service and what do the test results mean?
Wow. Excellent question. And thanks for the complement. We really appreciate it.
There are many free websites that you can use to test your quality of service; especially for VoIP use. Our favorite is TestYourVoip.com by Brix Networks. At TestYourVoip.com, you choose a city from the Call Destinations box (choose one that’s the closest to you) and then the site mimics a VoIP call. At the end of the test (about 30 seconds), you’re given a score and an option to “See Detailed Results.” We recommend clicking the detailed results button (don’t worry… you won’t wake up in the Matrix).
The important test results to look at are (and again, don’t worry, we’ll explain them):
- Latency
- Packet Loss
- Jitter
Latency
Latency is a term used in many professions, such as IT and medicine. In common terms, latency means delay. In our context, latency is the delay from when the digital signal leaves you and is reached by the other end (like the person you’re talking to).
If your test shows a latency of more than 300 msec, you’re going to experience some weird talk-over effects during the call. The biggest factors for improving latency will be your networking equipment (like your router, firewall, modem) or your Internet Service Provider.
Jitter
You ever play scrabble? With scrabble, there are all these nice letters and you mix them all around and what comes up is a really mixed up shuffled version of what you started with. That’s jitter. Jitter for VoIP would be when part of your voice reaches the other side out of order.
Bottom line? Jitter is when your voice gets scrambled like eggs at the waffle house.
Any jitter of more than 50 msec is going to cause a delay in your calls and make talking on a VoIP line pretty annoying. To improve your jitter results, you’ll want to check your networking equipment or talk to your Internet Service Provider.
Packet Loss
When you speak into a VoIP telephone, your voice is turned into digital signals and sent to the other party. These signals are called packets, and packet loss is when some of those signals don’t get to other side. Think of packet loss as the airline losing your luggage.
If your packet loss is greater than 1%, you will experience some skipping or clipping while you’re talking. A 1% packet loss will result in a skip or clip of your conversation approximately once every 3 minutes.
To improve your packet loss, you’ll either want to talk to your Internet Service Provider, upgrade your connection, and/or make sure you’re not downloading or uploading large data while on the phone.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you have any questions, click the old comments link and ask away!
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