Cisco Monitors VoIP Network Health

Solution providers report customers' chief fear about purchasing an IP telephony system is that it may not be as reliable as traditional circuit-based telephones. For its part, San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems is trying to raise their confidence with software designed to warn administrators about problems with voice and data equipment in a converged network.

CiscoWorks VoIP Health Monitor, which costs $19,995, detects problems in 175 Cisco devices, including routers, catalyst switches, Cisco CallManager call-processing software, gateways and in-line power cards. The product is Windows 2000-based and is part of the CiscoWorks family of solutions.

"Customers are not just managing one device,' says Brian Promes, senior product manager for Cisco's enterprise management unit. "They are managing an entire system. This provides--a voice-only view, as well as a voice-and-data view of the system.'

Health Monitor uses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to query devices in the network. It can detect changes in such things as heat, temperature, voltage and CPU utilization, Promes says.

Midland Systems Integrators (MSI), a solution provider based in Omaha, Neb., tested the VoIP Health Monitor on its own IP network while the software was still in beta. The software "talks" to devices in the network and can detect whether specific servers are down, the status of the call center, or if calls are being dropped, among other functions, according to Kris Lappala, a senior network engineer at MSI.

In particular, Lappala says he likes that the software can warn about weaknesses in the system before they become problems. The software can be programmed to send a network manager e-mail alerts or page alerts, he adds.

During MSI's test, Health Monitor detected a problem with the pathway between the CallManager and IP phones. Upon investigating it, Lappala found that the software in a switch had frozen. The solution provider's network was down for less than two minutes, thanks to Health Monitor, Lappala says.

"We will push this [with our customers] because it helps them do proactive monitoring of the IP telephony network," Lappala says. "When you do have a problem, it's great for troubleshooting. You can go piece-by-piece, starting with the phones and then looking at the switch and the gateway."

In addition, Health Monitor is Web-enabled, which Lappala says opens up the possibility of service revenue for solution providers in the form of remote network management. That means, of course, that it wouldn't always be necessary for Lappala or his staff to travel to a customer's site to investigate problems.

Other vendors, including Oculan and Peregrine Systems, offer network-management tools with remote capabilities, according to Mike DiSabato, an analyst with Burton Group. But, he says, Cisco's device is more focused on VoIP than its competitors.