Network World
Friday, January 9, 2009
DNSstuff.com
Get information about your IP
IP Information
50+ On-demand DNS and network tools

VoIP analysis tools net results

NetResults
Product WinEyeQ Professional ClearSight Analyzer Distributed 6.1.6 PVA-1000
Vendor Touchstone Technologies ClearSight Networks JDS Unisphere
Price* $20,000 $20,000 $8,000
Pros Highly scalable; effective and detailed interface; very accurate VoIP-quality assessment. Excellent remote-management ability; intuitive drill-down interface; excellent real-time voice and video monitoring. Great interfaces and navigability; good alerting capabilities; interoperability with third-party capture agents; strong voice-quality statistics and playback features.
Cons Online help not context sensitive; no data-post-capture analysis; no expert commentator. Online help not context sensitive; no expert commentator; unable to set up thresholds for many of the alerts. No expert commentator; difficult to distribute updates to remote agents (via FTP); real-time graphical display for voice quality limited.

Product OmniPeek Enterprise 5.0 Codima Toolbox 5.1 with autoVoIP  
Vendor WildPackets Codima Technologies  
Price $28,500 $29,000 * Vendor-suggested list price $USD based on five-site deployment based on two DS-3 and two T-1 WAN-connected locations with a central site monitor. No limit on number of users or monitored calls, but pricing limited to the necessary components for four distributed probes or agents and one central monitor.
Pros Good interface-customization capability; extensive plug-ins available for IM and e-mail; full-duplex conversation playback; helpful expert commentator for troubleshooting VoIP networks. Integrated Microsoft Visio network-topology map; expert correlation engine provides troubleshooting guidance; easiest-to-use GUI with autopopulating drill-down icons for IP phones and VoIP connections.
Cons Online help not context sensitive; no granularity for SNMP traps; voluminous reporting could be simplified. Some interface bugs and glitches encountered; autodiscovery of network devices required,which can limit troubleshooting; troubleshooting-analysis-grid feature not intuitive; call voice-quality assessment off about 0.5 MOS.

Scorecard
Category Weight Touchstone ClearSight JDS Uniphase WildPackets Codima
Setup config & deployment 20% 4.6 4.3 4.6 4.2 3.9
Real-time monitoring 20% 4.2 3.3 3.5 3.8 3.2
Diagnostics & troubleshooting 20% 3.8 4.0 3.7 4.1 3.8
Reporting 20% 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.5
Display & interface 10% 3.9 4.5 4.0 4.0 4.0
Advanced features 10% 4.4 4.5 4.4 4.0 4.5
Scoring key: 5: Exceptional; 4: Very good; 3: Average; 2: Below average; 1: Subpar or not available.