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FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) Q. Another manufacturer recently announced a new test management suite for IP. How does this compare with FATHOM? A. FATHOM makes an actual real-time test call and reports how much the network impacted the call. The other product you reference simulates network degradation during a call, so one can project how well an endpoint tolerates network problems. As an analogy, consider Automobile Safety Testing. Two things are important: 1) Is it a dangerous highway? 2) Is it a dangerous car? Equate "highway" to network and "car" to video endpoint. The following is true: FATHOM drives the car on the actual highway and records how many times it crashed due to bad drivers or potholes. It provides you with highway safety. Meanwhile, the other product you mention puts test dummies in your car and smashes it into a wall (simulated highway crash) - determining if the dummies were smashed reflects the safety of the car. FATHOM is the superior technology for evaluating your network's impact on your Video-over-IP calls. Q. What is the significance of SIP? A. SIP is a protocol for call set-up and control, a.k.a. call signaling. FATHOM presently uses H.245 signaling for its test calls and plans to add support for SIP signaling at some future point. The protocol used for call set-up does not affect how your network impacts video quality. Rather, it generally determines how many milliseconds you have to wait for a call to connect. Therefore, FATHOM's measurements of network performance are valid predictors of videoconference quality for IP endpoints using either the SIP or the H.245 call setup protocol. |
