JDSU's PVA-1000 VoIP Capture Agents reside across the network and collect detailed VoIP call statistics for signaling and voice-transport quality. JDSU's unique approach — providing unlimited remote agents at a bargain price of $8,000 to every user on the network — makes this package both flexible and scalable.

JDSU's agents — there even is a version that can be embedded with a user's desktop for use with a softphone — capture bad VoIP calls as they happen. This information is combined with data about network jitter and packet loss and plugged into company's PVA-1000 VoIP Analysis software.

JDSU offers great interoperability — the analysis software works with any agent that uses pcap (a common API for packet-capturing). In other words, you don't need to use a JDSU agent or monitor to capture the traffic you wish to analyze with the PVA-1000.

In testing, it was quite apparent that JDSU's roots are in the protocol-analysis market. Drilling down through the displayed alerts, you quickly land on screens full of the protocol statistics and packet decodes that you would expect to see from a protocol analyzer.

We found the PVA-1000's interfaces and navigability to be extremely effective. The context-sensitive online help was excellent

Signaling trace diagrams for SIP, MGCP or Network-based Call Signaling (NCS), and SCCP are displayed clearly and in real time on the main interface as specific calls are selected from the continuously updating interface. By clicking on a message in the signaling ladder-diagram, the troubleshooter can obtain full protocol decode for Cisco SCCP, SIP, H.323, MGCP or NCS, Megaco, H.248, and RTP or RTCP.

The PVA-1000 identifies and evaluates every VoIP call by using a capture file, a process that then allows IT personnel to select individual calls for analysis. Each call can be scrutinized for signaling, jitter and packet loss. Additionally, the software can identify the RTP stream without the presence of signaling, if only a portion of a call is available in the capture file. The system works using a round-robin revolving capture-buffer, always capturing, just in case you want to trigger a capture and catch what already happened.

Being able to go into a huge capture buffer — to find the call you are looking for and then decide which component you wish to analyze — is an extremely impressive feature. The product also assists in finding exactly what you are looking for by providing a link from the GUI, finding the call either in its actual location or finding a portion of the call in the capture buffer. It's like being able to find a needle in a haystack.