Monitoring Microsoft Teams Direct Routing Calls: OVOC, CQD, or Local SBC Logging?

The Monitoring Gap Nobody Talks About

You have deployed Direct Routing. Calls are flowing. Then a VP calls IT and says "my call to the client in Tokyo was terrible quality." Now what?

You open Teams Admin Center and see some call quality data from the Teams client side. You log into your AudioCodes SBC and see SIP messages and CDRs from the trunk side. But you have no way to correlate the two. You cannot see the full picture — from the Teams client through the Microsoft cloud, through your SBC, to the SIP trunk provider.

This is the monitoring gap in Direct Routing, and it is the number one operational challenge I see in production deployments.

The Three Options

Option 1: Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard (CQD)

CQD is included with your Microsoft 365 license at no additional cost.

What CQD Gives You:

Call quality metrics from the Teams client perspective (jitter, packet loss, round-trip time)

Audio, video, and screen sharing quality data

Aggregate reporting across the organization

Per-user and per-call drill-down

Building and subnet mapping for location-based analysis

Integration with Power BI for custom dashboards

What CQD Does Not Give You:

Zero visibility into the SBC-to-PSTN leg of the call

No SIP message analysis (you cannot see INVITE, BYE, re-INVITEs)

No SBC health monitoring

No trunk utilization or capacity data

Limited real-time alerting (designed for historical analysis)

No root cause analysis for issues on the carrier or SBC side

Best For: Organizations that want basic call quality visibility at zero additional cost.

Option 2: Local SBC Logging

Every SBC (AudioCodes, Oracle, Ribbon) has built-in logging capabilities.

What Local SBC Logging Gives You:

Full SIP message traces (every INVITE, 100 Trying, 180 Ringing, 200 OK, BYE)

CDR (Call Detail Records) stored locally on the SBC

RTCP quality metrics from the SBC perspective

Syslog export to external log collectors (Splunk, ELK, Graylog)

SNMP traps for threshold-based alerting

Real-time debug capabilities for live troubleshooting

What Local SBC Logging Does Not Give You:

No correlation with Teams client quality data

No centralized view across multiple SBCs

No historical trending unless you build a log aggregation pipeline

No user-friendly dashboards (you are reading raw SIP messages)

Logs can fill up the SBC storage if not managed (especially on hardware SBCs)

Requires deep SIP knowledge to interpret

Best For: Engineers who need to troubleshoot specific call failures and have SIP expertise.

Option 3: AudioCodes OVOC (One Voice Operations Center)

OVOC is AudioCodes' dedicated voice network management and quality of experience monitoring platform.

What OVOC Gives You:

End-to-end call correlation — this is the killer feature. OVOC correlates Teams client QoE data with SBC-side metrics to give you the complete picture of every call.

Centralized management of all AudioCodes SBCs from one dashboard

SIP ladder diagrams for visual call flow analysis

Quality of Experience monitoring with thresholds aligned to Microsoft CQD classifications

Proactive alerting when quality degrades

Firmware management and configuration backup for SBCs

Capacity planning with trunk utilization reporting

Integration with Microsoft Teams QoE data via API

Historical trending and SLA reporting

What OVOC Costs:

OVOC server license (can be deployed on-premises, Azure VM, or as AudioCodes Live Cloud service)

Per-device/session licenses for each managed SBC

EMS (Element Management System) license on each SBC

Optional Voice Quality Monitoring license on each SBC

Annual maintenance and support

The exact pricing depends on deployment size and is obtained through AudioCodes or a reseller, but budget approximately $5,000 to $15,000 for OVOC server licensing plus $500 to $2,000 per SBC for the required licenses.

Best For: Enterprises running AudioCodes SBCs that need end-to-end visibility and centralized management.

Comparison Matrix

My Recommendation by Company Size

Small Business (1-2 SBCs, under 500 users)

Use CQD + local SBC logging. The cost of OVOC does not justify itself at this scale. Train your IT team to read SIP traces on the SBC and use CQD for Teams-side quality data. Build a simple process: if the issue is on the Teams side (CQD shows poor quality), engage Microsoft support. If the issue is on the trunk side (SBC logs show SIP errors), engage your carrier.

Mid-Market (3-10 SBCs, 500-5,000 users)

This is where OVOC starts to make sense, especially if you are running AudioCodes SBCs. The centralized management alone saves hours of operational time. The end-to-end call correlation eliminates the finger-pointing between your network team, Microsoft support, and the carrier. Consider OVOC on Azure for minimal infrastructure overhead.

Enterprise (10+ SBCs, 5,000+ users, multi-country)

OVOC is a necessity, not a luxury. At this scale, you cannot troubleshoot by logging into individual SBCs. You need centralized visibility, proactive alerting, and the ability to generate SLA reports for management. Deploy OVOC as part of your initial Direct Routing architecture, not as an afterthought.

What About Non-AudioCodes SBCs?

If you run Oracle or Ribbon SBCs, OVOC is not an option (it only manages AudioCodes devices). Alternatives include:

Nectar (now IR) — multi-vendor monitoring for Teams and SBC environments

Vyopta — collaboration performance monitoring with Teams integration

Martello Vantage DX — Microsoft 365 performance monitoring including Teams voice

Custom solution — export CDRs from your SBCs to a log analytics platform (Splunk, Elastic) and build custom dashboards

None of these provide the same depth of SBC integration as OVOC does for AudioCodes devices, but they offer broader multi-vendor coverage.

The Bottom Line

Every Direct Routing deployment should have a monitoring strategy defined before go-live, not after the first executive escalation. At minimum, configure CQD with building data and train your team on basic SBC log analysis. If your budget allows and you are running AudioCodes SBCs, OVOC is the best investment you can make for operational peace of mind.

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