Bad Voice Qulity Issue

[watermark]

Recently I noticed my FPL voice quality was often bad at night, and found both FPL proxy/RTP and register server had packet loss and high jitter problem. I wrote a script and run "ping -s 164 -i 0.02 -c 100 74.205.216.26" every minute. The icmp packet to the real proxy server 74.205.216.77 was filtered by 74.205.216.26 (firewall?). Then I ping 74.205.216.26 instead. The log shows if the packet loss is over 10% or the mdev value is over 20ms. The script check the google dns server 8.8.8.8 at the same time. 8.8.8.8 does not have any issue. The result is as follows:

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2012-02-21 19:02:14 Freephoneline 16 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:07:17 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 26.641 ms
2012-02-21 19:08:18 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:08:18 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 54.941 ms
2012-02-21 19:09:14 Freephoneline 90 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:11:15 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 21.173 ms
2012-02-21 19:12:16 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 27.780 ms
2012-02-21 19:14:14 Freephoneline 12 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:15:18 Freephoneline 18 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:16:13 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:17:14 Freephoneline 14 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:19:14 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:21:14 Freephoneline 24 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:21:14 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 24.293 ms
2012-02-21 19:24:14 Freephoneline 16 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:25:13 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:28:13 Freephoneline 11 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:31:13 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:34:14 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 29.824 ms
2012-02-21 19:38:14 Freephoneline 11 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:38:14 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 21.202 ms
2012-02-21 19:43:14 Freephoneline 12 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:45:14 Freephoneline 16 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:50:13 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:51:14 Freephoneline 14 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:58:14 Freephoneline 11 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 20:01:14 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 38.490 ms
2012-02-21 20:15:14 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 32.298 ms
2012-02-21 20:16:16 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 26.177 ms
2012-02-21 20:17:15 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 33.068 ms
2012-02-21 20:18:15 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 48.428 ms
2012-02-21 20:38:14 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 27.486 ms
2012-02-21 21:07:20 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 50.452 ms
2012-02-21 21:09:15 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 52.731 ms
2012-02-21 21:10:15 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 50.032 ms
2012-02-21 21:11:13 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 23.442 ms
2012-02-21 22:06:13 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 25.859 ms
2012-02-21 22:08:19 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 52.390 ms
2012-02-21 22:10:15 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 29.724 ms
2012-02-21 22:34:14 Freephoneline mdev/jitter 38.078 ms

The round trip time is about 130ms, which is a little bit high too. Another simple check on register server.

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# date
Tue Feb 21 23:08:51 PST 2012
# ping -s 164 -i 0.02 -c 10 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 164(192) bytes of data.
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=1 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=2 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=3 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=4 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=5 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=6 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=7 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=8 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=9 ttl=48 (truncated)
72 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=10 ttl=48 (truncated)



--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 180ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 12.470/12.680/12.991/0.176 ms
# ping -s 164 -i 0.02 -c 10 voip.freephoneline.ca
PING voip.freephoneline.ca (208.65.240.142) 164(192) bytes of data.
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=1 ttl=48 time=154 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=2 ttl=48 time=124 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=3 ttl=48 time=94.8 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=4 ttl=48 time=144 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=5 ttl=48 time=114 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=6 ttl=48 time=84.9 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=7 ttl=48 time=146 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=8 ttl=48 time=116 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=9 ttl=48 time=86.9 ms
172 bytes from host-208-65-240-142.static.295.ca (208.65.240.142): icmp_req=10 ttl=48 time=142 ms

--- voip.freephoneline.ca ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 250ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 84.908/121.175/154.418/24.544 ms, pipe 6

[bridonca]

Any chance your ISP is shaping your data? Is there a difference between upload and download? I have never had this problem, but sometimes the router is just not up to the task.

As you can tell, I find it hard to believe Fongo is the problem. Fongo could be the issue, but experience tends to make me blame the ISP that has a phone business to protect.

Btw, who is your ISP, what do you have for a router?

[watermark]

The problem is that a PC behind my router run heavy P2P traffic sometimes. Those video P2P is hard to shape and I limit bandwidth for that IP instead. Now things are better. My monitor script run at a data centre which has 1G fibre Internet connection. FPL is at fair quality as follows:

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2012-02-21 16:28:15 Freephoneline 71 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 18:35:14 Freephoneline 14 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 18:41:14 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 18:57:14 Freephoneline 14 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:02:14 Freephoneline 16 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:08:18 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:09:14 Freephoneline 90 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:14:14 Freephoneline 12 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:15:18 Freephoneline 18 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:16:13 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:17:14 Freephoneline 14 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:19:14 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:21:14 Freephoneline 24 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:24:14 Freephoneline 16 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:25:13 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:28:13 Freephoneline 11 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:31:13 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:38:14 Freephoneline 11 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:43:14 Freephoneline 12 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:45:14 Freephoneline 16 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:50:13 Freephoneline 13 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:51:14 Freephoneline 14 percent packet loss
2012-02-21 19:58:14 Freephoneline 11 percent packet loss
2012-02-23 12:15:05 Freephoneline 12 percent packet loss
2012-02-23 17:29:14 Freephoneline 90 percent packet loss
2012-02-25 00:07:04 Freephoneline 16 percent packet loss
2012-02-25 09:34:04 Freephoneline 40 percent packet loss
2012-02-26 02:26:05 Freephoneline 15 percent packet loss
2012-02-26 09:58:04 Freephoneline 15 percent packet loss
2012-02-26 09:59:04 Freephoneline 22 percent packet loss
2012-02-26 10:01:04 Freephoneline 18 percent packet loss
2012-02-26 18:08:04 Freephoneline 11 percent packet loss
2012-02-28 05:12:14 Freephoneline 97 percent packet loss
2012-03-01 17:08:13 Freephoneline 11 percent packet loss
2012-03-02 12:28:16 Freephoneline 75 percent packet loss
2012-03-04 13:28:15 Freephoneline 46 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 07:28:13 Freephoneline 14 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:28:18 Freephoneline 65 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:45:14 Freephoneline 35 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:46:13 Freephoneline 29 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:47:13 Freephoneline 31 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:49:13 Freephoneline 23 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:50:14 Freephoneline 22 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:51:13 Freephoneline 30 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:55:13 Freephoneline 28 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:56:13 Freephoneline 27 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 18:57:13 Freephoneline 27 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 19:10:14 Freephoneline 21 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 19:11:14 Freephoneline 28 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 19:12:13 Freephoneline 23 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 19:23:13 Freephoneline 22 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 19:24:13 Freephoneline 32 percent packet loss
2012-03-05 19:25:13 Freephoneline 21 percent packet loss

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2012-02-22 10:07:12 Google DNS 15 percent packet loss
2012-02-25 23:04:11 Google DNS 14 percent packet loss
2012-02-26 00:28:11 Google DNS 26 percent packet loss
2012-02-26 05:06:11 Google DNS 12 percent packet loss
2012-02-26 07:28:08 Google DNS 56 percent packet loss
2012-02-27 14:28:11 Google DNS 51 percent packet loss
2012-02-27 18:28:13 Google DNS 79 percent packet loss
2012-02-28 00:28:20 Google DNS 90 percent packet loss
2012-02-29 13:28:21 Google DNS 90 percent packet loss

[bridonca]

yeah, I forgot to even consider bit torrent. You need a really good router to handle VOIP and bit torrent at the same, but even if you do not want to stump for a router, you can modify the bit torrent client to make it more VOIP friendly. A good start would be to limit the connections to 50, and only have 2 upload slots per torrent. And try not to download the internet, just one torrent at a time if possible. These limitations actually do not slow the torrents all that much, but certainly improve the quality of everything else, including VOIP.

[bridonca]

to mention there is a site to test out your VOIP connection, and it tends to be better than a ping test. try here. http://myspeed.visualware.com/servers/n ... athcom.com