VoIP network failure detection and user notification

The impact of network failures can be minimized if users are promptly notified by appropriately designed applications. Specifically, for voice-over-IP (VoIP) networks, an RTP/RTCP-based detection method can be used to rapidly distinguish between network congestion and network failures. Users and network managers can exploit this information in various ways, such as rapid network recovery or seeking alternatives at the application layer. In this paper, we present the main ideas behind these proposals, some analytical/simulation results, insights from a Linux-based implementation and experimental results.