Client and server applications for speech quality measurements in IP-based networks

In today’s Internet, it is difficult to make predictions about the service quality experienced by real-time applications. To Internet telephony, this is an issue of vital importance to become accepted by users accustomed to the high reliability of traditional, circuit switched telephony. Currently, there are many proposals on mechanisms inside the network for controlling service quality. In this thesis a system is presented and discussed which does not add any mechanisms for guarantees, but instead implements a monitoring function, located in the end-systems, to discover and report problems with the experienced speech quality. The collected information can then be used to manage and provision networks to avoid further quality problems. A prototype system has been implemented, which may be used as a simulation tool for further research and development.