White Paper

SIP Peering KPIs - How

to Measure Answer
Seize Ratio [ASR] and
other Key Performance
Indicators in a VoIP
World

Teraquant Corporation
2400 Central Ave, Suite P-2
Boulder
CO 80301

Phone: +1 719 488 1003

Fax: +1 303 547 3248

www.teraquant.com
SIP Peering KPIs Page 2/12

IXCs always measure KPIs such as ASR [Answer Seize Ratio]

or Post Dial Delay at SS7 Interconnects with other operators.
This allows them to optimize Billable MOUs versus cost of
termination.

Service providers have for many decades measured key performance indicators
for their SS7 interconnects with long-distance or international operators or
peering partners. Such measurements are defined in ITU-T Recommendation
E.411 "International Network Management Operational Guidance" and E.422
"Quality of Service for Outgoing International Calls" and include Answer Seize
Ratio [ASR], Post Dial Delay [PDD] and Network Efficiency Ratio [NER].

Name Description
Counted Number of calls
ASR Answered calls (percent)
SSB Subscriber busy (percent)
CGC Circuit Group Congestion (percent)
SEC Switching Equipment Congestion (percent)
CFL Call Failure (percent)
RSC Reset Circuit Signal (percent)
UNN Unallocated Number (percent)
ADI Address Incomplete (percent)
CLF Clear Forward (percent)
LOS Line Out of Service (percent)
rt Response time (average)
wt Wait time with answer (average)
wna Wait time with no answer (average)
ct Call time (average)
ht Hold time (average)
Minutes Total Call time in minutes

Table 1

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SIP Peering KPIs Page 3/12

Answer Seize Ratio [ASR] is the common measure for call

completion but it discounts calls that are not answered by
the Callee. This is not necessarily a network fault but it does
depress the success rate.
Answer Seize Ratio [ASR] is used as a measure of network quality although the
measurement also includes user behavior. In other words, if the call was not
answered, the network could not be faulted, although the ASR measurement
would be reduced by the uncompleted call, indicating lower quality. However,
because for a given hour within a day, unanswered calls would always represent
the same percentage, from day-to-day, this offset would be normalized out and
carriers are able to monitor the trend of ASR and treat it as a relative
measurement

Network Efficiency Ratio is a measurement that more

accurately shows calls succeeding and calls failing due to
network errors.
Network Efficiency Ratio was designed to eliminate the impact of user
behavior on the measurement and better represent pure network performance.

Network Efficiency Ratio [NER] is defined as:

User Answers or Normal call clearing - Cause code: 16

+ User Busy - Cause code: 17
+ Ring No Answer - Cause code: 18 & 19
+ Terminal Rejects) - Cause code: 21
NER = ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x 100
(Total # of Call Attempts i.e. IAMs)

SIP is a more flexible protocol and has wider uses than simple call control.
Therefore, use cases differ widely and systems such as voicemail and call
forwarding skew expected behavior for answered calls

Furthermore, SIP is a more flexible protocol and has wider range of response
messages which can be used to specifically indicate certain types of failures from
either servers, network devices or the movement or absence or other behavior of
users. Accordingly, IETF has defined KPI's equivalent to Answer Seize Ratio and
Network Efficiency Ratio. These are described under SIP End-to-End Performance
Metrics draft ietf-pmol-sip-perf-metrics-04. For example, the equivalent of ASR is
Session Establishment Ratio (SER)

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SIP Peering KPIs Page 4/12

Session Establishment Ratio (SER) is defined as follows, to quote the IETF

The SER is calculated using the following formula:

# of INVITE Requests w/ associated 200 OK

SER = -------------------------------------------- x 100
(Total # of INVITE Requests)

- (# of INVITE Requests w/ 3XX Response)

Here is the message flow which defines the SER.

UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
+-------------------->|------------------>|
| | 180|
| |<------------------|
Session Established | |
| | |
| | 200|
+-------------------->|<------------------|
| |

A more realistic representation of a SIP call setup is shown below using IPTEGO's
Palladion message flow presentation

IPTEGO Palladions Message Flow

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SIP Peering KPIs Page 5/12

In SS7, the fate of the call is determined by the RELEASE message which ends
the call. The fate of a SIP call is determined by the Response to each Request for
each transaction within the SIP call. For example as above, session establishment
is determined by a successful outcome from the call session establishment phase

Similar to NER in SS7 ISUP, Session Establishment

Effectiveness Ratio (SEER) is SIP INVITES which successfully
setup a voice call plus busy scenarios or VoIP Phones has
been moved i.e. the network has done its job

Similar to NER in SS7 ISUP, SIP End-to-End Performance Metrics also defines
Session Establishment Effectiveness Ratio (SEER)

This metric is complimentary to SER, but is intended to exclude the potential

effects of the terminating UAS from the metric and therefore more closely reflect
the performance of the network. SEER is defined as the number of INVITE
requests resulting in a 200 OK response and INVITE requests resulting in a 480,
486, or 600; to the total number of attempted INVITE requests less INVITE
requests resulting in a 3XX, 401, 402, and 407 response.

In order to simplify the formula, the following variable a is used to summarize

multiple SIP responses

a = 3XX, 401, 402, and 407

The SEER is calculated using the following formula:

# of INVITE Requests
w/ associated 200 OK, 480, 486, or 600
SEER = ------------------------------------------------------------------- x 100
(Total # of INVITE Requests) -
(# of INVITE Requests w/ 'a' Response)

All these KPIs for both SS7 ISUP and for SIP are easily selected for graphing with
in IPTEGO's advanced service assurance monitoring platform, Palladion. As
shown below, such KPI's can be selected from a GUI, graphed and alerts can be
raised [SNMP, PCAP/Wireshark Trace, or e-mail sent to or communication to

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SIP Peering KPIs Page 6/12

other network devices over API] in response to KPI thresholds being exceeded.
In addition, these Palladion KPI metrics can be selected for network elements,
realms or trunks specified by you in your network. So this makes it very easy for
you to monitor the
performance provided to you
by each peering partner, SIP SIP Response Codes
trunk or route/LCR or the
quality you are delivering to o 2xxSuccessful Responses
each of your realms or o 200 OK
enterprise customers. o 4xxClient Failure Responses
o 401 Unauthorized (Used only by
registrars or user agents. Proxies
should use proxy authorization 407)
o 402 Payment Required (Reserved for
future use)
o 480 Temporarily Unavailable
o 486 Busy Here
o 6xxGlobal Failure Responses
o 600 Busy Everywhere

IPTEGO Palladion supports hundreds of KPIs measured

for each network device or Trunk

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SIP Peering KPIs Page 7/12

Another very useful measurement defined by the IETF here is Session Defects
Ratio (SDR), also graphed by Palladion by checking a box. 503 SIP Response
messages commonly indicate a route to one of your peering partners is failing
due to congestion of the Gateway or SoftSwitch.

Session Defects Ratio (SDR) is the percentage of call attempts receiving the
following responses, in relation to total call attempts or INVITES:

o 500 Server Internal Error

o 503 Service Unavailable
o 504 Server Timeout

The SDR is calculated using the following formula:

# of INVITE Requests w/ associated 500, 503, or 504

SDR =-------------------------------------------------------------- x 100

Total # of INVITE Requests

Palladion can be set up to monitor, measure, graph and alert

on any specific SIP response code. The diagram below shows
404s and 503's

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SIP Peering KPIs Page 8/12

IPTEGO Palladion set to measure 503s

for each network device or Trunk

In addition to this, some carriers like to plot Post Dial Delay, [PDD] and to alert
when it exceeds a certain time threshold. PDD is defined as the time interval
between transmission of the INVITE and reception of the 180 Ringing response
message. This is an earlier indication of congestion soon to occur on a given
route and at this time, Palladion can be configured to provide an SNMP trap all
other notification to the Network Operations Center [NOC].

A trend of increasing Post Dial Delay, [PDD] is used to

indicate the on-site or imminence of congestion at a peering
point. Early alerts can allow rerouting of LCRs to avoid
dropped calls

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SIP Peering KPIs Page 9/12

The IETF defines many more KPIs. the table given below maps these to the
equivalent SS7 or circuit switched performance measurement, wherever a
comparison makes sense or is valid.

SIP End-to-End SIP Definition ISUP ISUP

Performance Equivalent Definition
Metrics
draft-ietf-pmol-
sip-perf-metrics-
04
Successful Request INVITE to 100 Response Time IAM to ACM
Attempt [SRD]
Session Request INVITE to non-100 Post-Dial Delay IAM to ANM
Delay [SRD] Trying eg 180 (PDD)
Failed Session Setup INVITE to 4XX (excluding 401, N/A IAM to REL
[SRD] and 402, and 407 non-
failure challenge response
codes), 5XX, or possible 6XX
message.
Successful session BYE, to 2XX Ack Time to Clear REL to RLC
completion [SDD] Call or CIC
Failed session BYE, to Timer F Expires Release with Missing RLC
completion SDD no release
complete
Session Duration Average Call
Time [SDT] Hold Time
(ACHT)
Successful 200 OK response to an INVITE
Session to BYE
Duration
Time [SSDT]
Failed 200 OK response to an INVITE, Average Call
session and the resulting Timer F Hold Time
duration SDT expiration. (ACHT)
Session (# of INVITE Requests w/ associated 200 OK)
ASR
Establishment [SER ] x 100/-----------------------
(Total # of INVITE Requests)
Ratio
- (# of INVITE Requests w/ 3XX Response)

Session (# of INVITE Requests

w/ associated 200 OK, 480, 486, or 600) N/A
Establishment x 100------------------------------
Effectiveness Ratio (Total # of INVITE Requests)

(SEER) - (# of INVITE Requests w/ 'a' Response)

Session Defects (# of INVITE Requests

w/ associated 500, 503, or 504) N/A
Ratio (SDR) x100---------------------------
Total # of INVITE Requests

Ineffective Session Ineffective

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SIP Peering KPIs Page 10/12

Attempts (ISA) Machine

Invites resulting in:- # of ISA x 100 Attempts (IMA)
o 408 Request ----------------------------- in telephony
Timeout Total # of Session Requests applications of
SIP, and was
o 500 Server
adopted from
Internal Error Telcordia GR-
o 503 Service 512-CORE
Unavailable [GR-512].
o 504 Server
Timeout
Session Disconnect Cutoff Calls Telcordia GR-
Failures [SDF] 512-CORE
Session disconnect [GR-512].
failures occur when an # of SDF's x 100
active session is -----------------------------
terminated due to a Total # of Session Requests
failure condition that
can be identified by a
REASON header
[RFC3326] in a BYE or
CANCEL request.
Session Completion # of Successfully Completed
Call Completion
Ratio (SCR) Sessions x 100 Ratio (CCR)
------------------------------------------
Total # of Session Requests

Successful Session A session completes successfully

Completion when it begins with a setup
request
and ends with a session
completion message ie SIP 200
Failed Session
Session completion fails when an INVITE is sent from a UAC, but
there is no indication the INVITE reached the intended UAS. This
can also occur if the intended UAS does not respond to the UAC or
Completion the response never reaches the UAC associated with the session.

Eg only responses are from proxies eg 407 or 408

Session Success SSR = 100% - (ISA% + SDF%) Call Success

Ratio [SSR] Ratio (CSR)

References

- SIP End-to-End Performance Metrics draft-ietf-pmol-sip-perf-

metrics-04
- ITU-T Recommendation E.411 : International network management -
Operational guidance
- ITU-T Recommendation E.422 : Observations on international outgoing
telephone calls for quality of service
- Telcordia GR-512-CORE - LSSGR: Reliability, Section 12

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For more information on SIP KPI's, visit our website at www.teraquant.com

For more information on Palladion, please click the "mail to" or email
admin@teraquant.com

Or call +1 719 488 1003

www.teraquant.com

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