BOSTON--Ellacoya this week announced the addition of a VoIP Quality Reporter software module to its IP Service Control System, enabling service providers to determine the real-time performance and use of an VoIP service on their networks, including those of competitors.

Using its deep packet inspection capability, Ellacoya can report quality of calls on a per-provider basis, said Ben Legault, vice president of marketing, and even identify what individual users are doing. One primary use of this capability is to help service providers quickly identify and fix problems with their VoIP services.

“We drill up into the bit stream to identify application signatures,” he said. “We can identify traffic per service provider and per signaling protocol.”

For example, the VoIP Quality Reporter can allow a broadband service provider to evaluate the performance of his VoIP service versus those of others riding his network.

The VQR is an optional software module that works with Ellacoya’s IP Service Control System, which consists of its e30 IP switches and Service Logic Software.

“Service providers install the plug-in modules on the switches, and they will work at the granularity that the service providers sets, recording packet loss, jitter and codec performance,” Legault explained.

The VQR will generate a call quality score, similar to the MOSS scores used to evaluate wireless network quality, and generate reports that reflect performance on all calls within a given time period. That enables a service provider to easily see where problems exist on the network, he added.

“The graph shows calls whose quality falls below the threshold, and the service provider can zoom in on one time period and more easily identify the cause of the problem, and figure out who is affected,” Legault said.

Another optional report will list customers who experience the worst call quality to help identify who needs the most immediate help.

As VoIP providers get more experience in the market, they are realizing that an “all-you-can-eat” service plan may not be the best business model, he added.

“It may not work when bandwidth consumption is affecting your costs,” Legault said. “Thought leaders in this industry are looking at offering tiered services.”

Ellacoya has helped PlusNet, a U.K. ISP that is non-facilities based, put aggregate level controls in place as part of a plan to develop tiered service offerings.

“They are now the fastest growing ISP in the U.K.,” he said.