MARCH 12, 2008 -- Ixia (search for Ixia) today launched the IxRave, a patent-pending end-to-end remote quality-of-experience (QoE) and service validation platform. IxiRave enables carriers, service providers, and enterprises to actively isolate faults, verify that end-customers are receiving services and that such services are working according to SLAs, and then continue to remotely monitor their networks.
Bell Canada worked with Ixia to deploy remote testing capability for rolling out triple-play services on its network and says it achieved payback in just one year. Ixia will demonstrate its new end-to-end remote quality of experience and service validation platform on stand #144 at IPTV World Forum in London, March 12-14, 2008.
Bell Canada uses Ixia remote testing to reduce truck rolls previously required to handle a high number of service incidents associated with the carrier's DSL service. IxRave is based on the same remote test software and centralized test approach in use at Bell Canada. The carrier says it reduced IP-related unwarranted truck rolls by 98%, a savings to date of CAN$3.2 million. Bell Canada also claims it recovered 86% of DSLAM ports previously tagged defective, a further savings of CAN$3.5 million.
"Voice and video services over the fixed broadband network are poised for rapid growth," confirms Patrick Kelly, co-founder and senior analyst at OSS Observer. "We forecast global IPTV subscribers will increase from 12.1 million in 2007 to 60.2 million in 2012. Ixia provides active probe testing solutions at the edge and access demarcation points to verify service quality and effectively utilize the remote field workforce."
Ixia representatives say the IxRave is a cost-effective, scalable solution that integrates with carriers' operation support systems (OSS) and provides active, rather than passive, service validation. Passive monitoring, long the mainstay of service monitoring, uses costly probes that only view the aggregate health of certain segments or network elements.
IxRave's inexpensive probes can be deployed along network edges, at customer premises, and at key core points to perform real-time active network validation, they say.
"Until now, end-to-end quality of experience and network service validation has been an unmet market need, but it's one that Ixia is uniquely able to fill," contends Atul Bhatnagar, CEO and president of Ixia. "We've been able to leverage our expertise in IP network testing and our leading-edge products to create a solution that can immediately reduce carriers' operating expenses and increase their revenues. We foresee continued innovation and growth in this market segment," he says.
Ixia says it can provide an ROI Analysis for carriers and service providers who would like to see how IxRave can help them reduce operational expenses for new IP services through an ROI calculator.
Visit Ixia
Learn more about the test and measurement industry at Lightwave's Test & Measurement Resource Center.