Both enterprise and service provider networks, whether PSTN-based, cellular or mobile-based, or IP-based, provide monitoring ability to the administrators of the network. Most of the network monitoring involves providing analytic information so the network administrators know how the network is behaving. Some monitoring involves line tapping, both for “lawful intercept,” and in the case of call centers, to help (or hopefully) improve your experience. Let’s take a further look at some specific monitoring applications.
Network Management: Network Management is typically used in a service provider network and provides the ability to analyze protocol traces, statistics, quality of data stream and bandwidth utilization. Alerts would be raised to the network administrators so they would know if the network is getting close to out of bounds parameters. In many cases, there would be some form of artificial intelligence invoking automated changes (in the old days, I would have said preprogrammed flows). Or the network administrator may become directly involved. Either way, the end result would (hopefully) be a stable network due to network monitoring. Or if poor network quality persists, it may result in an additional cell phone tower near your house!
Network Monitoring: You as a subscriber may also benefit directly from some form of network monitoring. For instance, you received missed call alerts to your mobile number, or you may get some form of advertising (most common is “welcome to the network” message when your plane lands as the network will detect you are not in your home location when it registers on the network).
Real-Time Listening/ Recoding/ Archiving: As discussed above, obviously, another network monitoring application is to provide real-time listening or recording/archiving of voice and/or video calls for regulatory compliance. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just watch your basic police show or movie and it will pop up during the show.
Computer “Listening”: From an enterprise call center perspective, you are probability familiar with the “all or part of this call may be recorded”. Most likely, all of the call is recorded. Some of it is to make sure there is a record in case there is a subsequent agent/caller dispute. Some of it is to provide a record to see if there are rote kinds of questions that can be more automated. Increasing more of it is to add an element of artificial intelligence as a “computer” listens in and “word spots” or “emotion detects” and can swoop in to help in agent. Speaking of helping agents, and some of it is for training the agent since it provides the ability for managers in a call center environment to monitor calls and provide necessary support to call center personnel, especially when being trained for the position. No matter what, the recording in the call center is designed to both reduce costs for the call center and to provide an increased level of service.
Dialogic provides software based media servers and signaling servers that can help in whatever monitoring application you may need. Please contact Dialogic sales for assistance.
