ESChat adds enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) options for its Verizon Wireless subscribers in the United States

ESChat today announced availability of two new QoS options for its secure Push to Talk platform. Leveraging Verizon Wireless’ Private Network Traffic Management (PNTM), the ESChat network is now able to offer enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) to its U.S. based subscribers operating on the Verizon Wireless Network.

ESChat is most commonly operated as an “Over the Top” (OTT) service. “Over the Top” provides the most flexible architecture for Push to Talk (PTT) systems. Perhaps the most significant advantage is seamless carrier to carrier PTT communications, a feature not available in traditional carrier integrated PTT solutions. Over the Top service uses the wireless carrier network’s ‘best effort’ algorithm which is sufficient for most use cases. However, during times of significant network congestion accessing the wireless carrier using ‘best effort’ can result in limited access and poor call quality.

ESChat has integrated its Amazon AWS based servers with the Verizon Wireless network via private MPLS circuits. ESChat encrypted voice and signaling traffic uses prioritized packet markings that are recognized by the Verizon network, which then provides a differentiated QoS level rather than the ‘best effort’ algorithm. ESChat’s AWS integration to Verizon Wireless allows customers to take advantage of enhanced QoS without having to install their own private MPLS circuits to Verizon Wireless.

Two levels of enhanced QoS are available for Verizon Wireless ESChat users. Business and commercial users receive ‘Traffic Priority’ that provides the supporting structure on how packets are treated within the 4G LTE network and ‘Admission Priority’ that provides the framework to allocate and retain network resources during heavy network utilization. Government and Public safety users also receive ‘Access Priority’ that provides the network mechanism to allocate radio resources to subscribers during heavy network utilization

“We are very excited to offer these QoS enhancement options to our Verizon customer base,” said Brett Moser, Chief Technical Officer, ESChat. “One of the key requirements for providing mission critical Push to Talk over LTE is the ability to ensure sufficient access to the wireless carrier network. During events where crowds are large, bandwidth can be diminished due to the high volume use of social media and live streaming applications. Integrating ESChat’s AWS infrastructure to the Verizon Wireless network and allowing our subscribers access to enhanced QoS profiles assures their ability to communicate in these situations".

The ESChat product suite supports Android and iOS smartphone devices and personal computers. ESChat can be purchased as a monthly service hosted on the Amazon AWS Commercial or GovCloud platforms. ESChat servers can optionally be hosted by the end customer where required.

The integrated communication will be available for demonstration at the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) in Las Vegas, NV Conference on March 29-30, 2017.