The customer has reported a call quality issue:  The call went where intended but something–echo, silence, choppy audio, unwanted disconnects–impeded the clarity of the audio or integrity of the call.

Information Gathering

Troubleshooting

     Choppy Audio

     Dropped Calls

Information to gather from the customer:

  1. What issue is the customer reporting?  Common issues:
    1. Delay: Abnormal pause after dialing before the call begins or other delays in interaction
    2. Static/noise: Clicks, fuzz, pops or other unwanted sounds, either for one user or both. 
    3. Echo: The user hears their voice repeated back to them after they say something, impeding their ability to hear the person on the other side.
    4. Choppy audio: The audio cuts in and out, making it difficult for users to hear each other.
    5. Silence/Loss of Audio: A complete absence of audio for the full duration of a call, or a significant portion of it.  The call is still active but lacking audio.  This may affect only one side or both.
    6. Dropped call: The call disconnected, becoming inactive, on its own without being prompted by either user.  To clarify:  Was the call timer still counting?  (If still counting, call was not dropped but lost audio.  Refer to above)
  2. Circumstances of the call–Think in terms of Who, What, When, Where and How:
    1. Who: The parties involved, usually an Originating Party who called out to a Terminating Party.  Did only one party experience the issue, or did both?  
      1. Originating Party (calling number):
      2. Terminating Party (called number):
      3. Scope of the issue: 
        1. Single user
        2. Multiple users
        3. All users
          1. Site-wide
          2. Enterprise-wide
    2. What: The context of the call.  Inbound?  Outbound? Internal? External? What exactly happened?  Is it only certain kinds of calls, or is it all calls?
      1. Direction (Outbound vs. Inbound): Is the issue occurring on only outbound, only inbound or both?
      2. Endpoint: Method of placing and receiving call
        1. Deskphone:
          1. Manufacturer: Polycom, Yealink, Cisco, or other?
          2. Primary Device or SCA?
          3. Hotel/Open Seating host
        2. Remote Office
        3. Softphone:
          1. UC-One
          2. Skype
          3. Teams
      3. Application: Was any call tracking application in use?
        1. Unity
        2. ECS
        3. Call center
        4. Receptionist
      4. Detailed, step-by-step sequence of user's actions and experience on the call
      5. Any additional details pertinent to the call (Was the user transferred or put on hold?)
        1. Any error message on the phone?
        2. Headset?  
    3. When: Was this a one-time occurrence, intermittent or persistent with every call?  Try to get a specific call example
      1. Date:
      2. Time (including time zone): 
      3. When did the issue start?
        1. Today at a specific time
        2. Previous day
        3. Has never worked since implementation
      4. Frequency
        1. Every call?
        2. Intermittent?
        3. Can it be replicated?
    4. Where: Location of each party. 
      1. Remote or in an office behind an Edgewater? (Ask the user, "Are you in the office or remote/at home?")
        1. Check phone in OCOM to see what IP address it's registering from.  If the IP can't be found in Nagios, it's probably remote.
      2. Does Evolve own the numbers involved or are they off-platform numbers owned by another carrier? (Some troubleshooting may be necessary to determine this)
    5. How: How was the call initiated?
      1. Direct call: Originating Party dialed Terminating Party directly
      2. Queued call: The call was presented to the Terminating Party through a call center.
      3. Transfer: The Originating Party reached a Terminating Party, then was transferred to a secondary Terminating Party.

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Troubleshooting:

  1. Try to replicate the issue
  2. Remove variables
    1. If using a headset, try speaker and handset
    2. Try in known-good cable/port (swap out with working phone)
  3. Analyze call example
    1. OCOM
      1. Search by the offnet number.  This is the best way to make sure you get all the legs of a call.  Can search under "User Tracking" or "Calls."
      2. Calls from a softphone like UC-One or ECS will show as inbound.
      3. Common SIP errors:
        • 302: Moved Temporarily
        • 403: Forbidden
        • 404: Not Found
        • 408: Request Timeout
        • 480: Temporarily Unavailable
        • 500: Internal Server Error
        • 503: Service Unavailable
        • 600: Busy Everywhere

Specific issues:

Choppy Audio

  1. Analyze call example
    1. Packet loss?  If so, where is it coming from?  The source Carrier side or the side local to the end user?
      1. If from carrier side, open a ticket with the offending carrier for investigation
      2. If local:
        1. And in the office, is there packet loss on the WAN connection of the Gateway/Edgewater? 
          1. If we manage the circuit, open a ticket with the carrier
          2. If customer manages circuit, advise them to contact their ISP and close the ticket
          3. If only one user is having issues, confirm physical layer
            1. Replace ethernet cable
            2. Move phone to a known-good location
            3. Any issues with the local switch?

Dropped Calls

  1. Gather call example in OCOM
    1. Identify any SIP errors that could have caused the call to drop (404, 603, etc.)
    2. Was the user's phone registered at the time of the call?
      1. If not, why did the registration fail?  Are we getting proper SIP messaging from their gateway?  If not, the customer must investigate their gateway.  If they're remote, provide the Home User Guide and ensure SIP inspect/SIP ALG is disabled
    3. Who sent the first BYE?
      1. If it was the carrier, open a ticket with that carrier to investigate
      2. If it was the user's gateway, the customer must investigate their gateway.  If they're remote, provide the Home User Guide and ensure SIP inspect/ SIP ALG is disabled

Additional troubleshooting steps

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Addendum - Additional Information sometimes applicable to call quality issues

MOSgraphinator - http://mosgraphinator.evolveip.net/

MOSgraphinator is a tool developed internally to view statistics collected by the Edgewater and separate the data according to the LAN, WAN or both sides combined. Depending on which direction the call quality issue is coming from, we can look at either the LAN, WAN or both sides. MOSgraphinator will tell you the following:

  • MOS score 
  • Packet loss
  • Packets that are out of order
  • Max concurrent calls
  • MPJ and MNJ - Maxium Positive Jitter and Maximum Negative Jitter

Ask the caller which side is reporting the issue:

  • Caller side: Issue is on the receiving side of the WAN and/or the phone
  • Callee side: Issue is on the transmitting side of the phone or WAN. (Note: This is often caused by DSL customers who have only a small amount of "up" bandwidth.)
  • Both: Look in both directions

Clicking on "Click here for a CSV of the data" will download a CSV file which will show numerical values for the graphs.

Check Errors on Circuit (ON-NET Customers)

Call quality may be affected by errors on the circuit. If you are troubleshooting call quality for an ON-NET customer, it may be helpful to check for errors. Please refer to the HS01 guide on how to check a circuit for errors

HS01 Guide

OFF-NET Customers

For OFF-NET customers (customers with their own broadband connection not managed by EvolveIP), we are not able to check for errors on their circuits. 


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See also:

Call Quality

Call Quality Troubleshooting: Choppy or Static

Calls Are Not Routing Correctly

Collecting Issue Info 04 - Data Gathering

Documenting Call Examples in JSD