Are you experiencing call drop outs? Latency? Try these basic troubleshooting steps to make sure you're getting the most of your Dialpad service experience
VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol works by essentially breaking up the sound of your voice into thousands of tiny digital packets. These packets move along the network, hopefully through the most efficient path, to reach their destination. Once there, the packets are reassembled, and your words are communicated to the people on the other end of your call.
Good call quality requires a robust network that can reliably convey all packets to their destination to be put back together into a coherent whole.
How to identify common call quality issues
Three common issues can wreak havoc on clear communication using VoIP: packet loss, jitter, and latency:
Packet loss
VoIP breaks sound into tiny digital packets that move along the network. They don't all necessarily move in order or even along the same route. The goal is to get those packets to their endpoint as quickly as possible. Once there, they are reassembled in the correct order for natural sound to issue from the speaker.
But what if some of the packets are lost? If there are network issues, packets may be dropped inadvertently on their way to the endpoint. Missing packets result in sound loss experienced by callers as a drop in audio.
If the packet loss is severe enough, the call is partially or even entirely dropped.
Jitter
You may have heard jitter during a call. It occurs when there is a change in the amount of time it takes for the packets to travel across the network. They get stuck somewhere, often because the network is congested.
The result is sound that arrives at the caller at irregular intervals, which creates a choppy audio sound.
Latency
Latency is somewhat related to jitter. It has to do with the amount of time it takes a packet to travel across the network. Instead of irregular intervals, the entire message arrives later than intended. Callers experience "double talk," even if they stop speaking ahead of hearing audio from the other end.
The audio delays make conversation tricky, with people accidentally speaking over each other.
With these three common issues in mind, how can you measure VoIP (HD) call quality?
Troubleshooting: How to improve call quality
1. Check system requirements needed for Dialpad service to perform well.
Windows 8, 10 (32- and 64-bit):
- +1 GHz processor
- Minimum of 2GB of memory
- 300MB of hard drive space
Mac OS X, MacOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or later:
- +1 GHz processor
- Minimum of 2GB of memory
- 300MB of hard drive space
2. Make sure that network speed is sufficient to support the bandwidth requirement.
To ensure the best possible voice quality, we recommend using either any high-speed DSL, Broadband, or Fiber-optic connection. With a minimum dedicated upload and download bandwidth of 100 kilobits/sec for each voice line, you plan to run.
3. Update your Dialpad app to the latest software build
Head on over to the Untangled Article, Diagnosing causes of Voice Quality Issues to perform diagnostics and assessments to help you find the culprit of voice quality issues such as call lag, latency, delays, choppiness, or voice distortions.