CScan Network Assessment Tool for SP – Broadcloud PBX

Introduction

The CScan Tool for SP guide is intended for BroadCloud PBX Service Providers and contains information about how to use the Rialto SP portal to access the CScan tool used for end users service prequalification.

Prequalifying service availability for a customer involves the important step of confirming that the customer network is ready for the service.

Before you begin

Understanding the CScan Tool and its requirements is key to running it successfully. Please note the following requirements:

• A correctly configured firewall is essential for a successful calling deployment. Outbound ports are required to be open for signaling, media and network connectivity. Consult the Port Reference Information for Cisco Calling Service. to ensure that all required firewall rules are in place when running CScan.
• Run your CScan test from the same network that you will use your Calling services.
• It is not possible to test every requirement from a web-based tool. Please note the below items which CScan cannot detect.
• Whether user is using a wired or wireless network
• Availability of a DHCP and DNS server
• SRV support
• NTP port for date/time synchronization
• Proxies
• QoS

Network Assessment – CScan

In order to deliver outstanding service to a customer’s location, the site is prequalified using our network analysis tool, CScan as an integrated component of Rialto. Before a quote can be confirmed and the Order created, a CScan network assessment is required.

If Require CScan on quote: a flag should be checked in Party Manager for that SP.

See example below:

1. Initiate Test Request
1. The test request is issued from within the Sales Management Interface during or post order creation. From the home screen window under CScan tab, click Initiate Request

See Order Creation Guide for additional information



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2. Once a test is submitted, it is added to the Requests table to view status and detailed results.

2. Conduct Test – End User Actions
1. The test request email that is sent to the customer contains a brief overview of the test and a link to conduct the test. Clicking the link will open a browser and begin the test.
   See Customer View section below for details on the end user experience.

3. Review Test Results
1. The Home view of the Sales Management Interface contains two areas to check CScan requests & results.


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2. If the Status on the request summary page displays “pass”, the test passes for the site. If it fails, you can click on the ID portion to view the detailed results. The results will indicate the scoring for several network metrics/elements investigated in the testing process. These may indicate Fail, however that does not necessarily fail the site for service but is a cautionary advisement.

Support View

Support members can access CScan test requests and results to assist in troubleshooting service for customers. To view results of pending, passed or failed tests, follow the same process outlined in Step 3: Review Test Results above. To initiate new test requests, apart from the Order Creation process, follow the steps below, then follow the process outlined above, in Step 1: Initiate Test Request.

Branding Email

Here are steps to create Email branding for CScan.
Under the left pane, my account tab, click on profile. Then select Setup Email content. Scroll further down and click to expand the option CScan Email in order to modify your Email subject and body.

Example screenshots attached below:

Customer View

The end customer will receive an email containing a link to access the client. Clicking the link will open the CScan test page in a browser.

Running a CScan test

1. Click on the CScan link which you received via email. This will load CScan on a web browser.

2. When the CScan execution limit is reached, the user will see an error message (illustrated below). Make sure you have a valid link before proceeding to the test. If further testing cycles are required please contact your service representative for additional access.

3. Select your Location, Language, then click Pick Server

Note: When choosing your location, pick the nearest calling service location where you might be homed. If you are unsure which one to choose, leave it be with the default selection.

4. Choose the kind of test you’d like to run:
• Advanced Diagnostics test
• Basic test

Note: Details about Basic and Advanced tests are listed in the "CScan report information" section.

5. Select the option box (by checking or unchecking) if you would like to share your public IP address information with your provider, then click Start Test.

6. Click Continue to Advanced Test.

Note: When running the Advanced Diagnostic test, CScan must open a WebRTC connection to your computer, which requires access to your computer’s camera and microphone. This permission is used for measuring packet loss and jitter. Audio and video portions are not stored or shared. CScan will never access your camera or microphone outside of running a test and permissions can be revoked at any time.

CScan Report Information

CScan runs a series of Basic & Advanced tests on port & bandwidth requirements to ensure a customer’s network is ready to deploy calling services.

Basic Test
The Basic test analyzes the following between your computer and the Calling services data center:

• Concurrent calls estimate
• Download and upload bandwidth
• Latency (RTT)
• Traceroute reports
• TCP ports required for calling service

Advanced Diagnostic Test

The Advanced Diagnostic test collects the same information as the Basic test but adds the following:

• Packet loss (download and upload)
• Jitter (download and upload)

Note: If access is not granted for either of the camera or microphone, it falls back and runs only the “Basic Test” So, this permission is required for an “Advanced diagnostics Test” for measuring packet loss and jitter.

CScan doesn’t test a wider UDP port range using WebRTC because of browser limitations, it picks a random port range between 19560-65535 and then runs the test.

Reverse Traceroute Report

A traceroute report is provided any time you run a CScan test. To generate this report CScan initiates a reverse traceroute from a Calling service data center to the public IP address of your computer.

This can provide insight to where issues might be occurring along the path between the Calling Service data center to your computer.

Note: The reason for using reverse traceroute option is that we can’t initiate a ‘normal’ traceroute from the Calling service data center to the client’s computer.

Reverse traceroute reports can take a while to generate and the link is greyed out until the report finishes generating.

Interpret Test Results

• The CScan tool estimates potential concurrent calls that could traverse your network. This is a conservative estimate based on the bandwidth that is required for audio calls, allowing for a buffer of extra internet traffic. Since the CScan test is taken at a single point in time, this is an estimate and not a guarantee of performance during peak traffic times.

  Call concurrency is calculated assuming 50% overhead of other traffic on the customer network and by assuming all audio calls require two legs of approximately 100kbps for each leg.

• If the CScan report indicates that ports are blocked, check your firewall configuration and refer to Port Reference Information for Cisco Calling Service. If ports are blocked, you may have issues registering devices or making calls. It’s not possible to test all ports listed in the Port Requirements document, so if all ports on CScan are listed as open, there may still be other ports not possible to test that could be causing issues.

• If latency or bandwidth figures are low, you may have a lower quality Calling Service experience. Ensure you have enough bandwidth from your ISP, and that your device has a strong connection to the internet. If you’re using Wi-Fi, ensure that your signal is strong.

• CScan test results can be viewed in two different ways
• Downloadable in PDF formats. Once the test execution is complete click on the “Download this report” and “Download traceroute report” links.
• Login to your SP Portal and, from the left pane, under the CScan tab, click “View requests” and choose the request ID. This is detailed in the “Review Test Results” section.

Troubleshooting Guidelines

Example 1

The figure below indicates that the CScan tool was unable to establish a UDP connection from the customer location to the Calling service. This may be due to a NAT/firewall blocking UDP traffic for ports 5004, 19560-65535.

Example 2
The figure below indicates that the CScan test failed to establish SIP over TCP connectivity to the Calling service. This may cause phone registration failures.

Example 3

The figure below indicates that the CScan test identified high latency and outbound packet loss. This may be due to possible traffic congestion or bandwidth limitations at the customer location.

Example 4

If your connection meets requirements, then you are ready to use your Calling service. Below is an example of what a successful test interpretation would look like.