The big to do: Here's what a telephony engineer at Telnyx does all day

by Brian Nordli
July 5, 2017

Rogelio Perez is doing his part to make bad reception a bad memory. As telephony engineer at Telnyx, it’s his job to ensure customers have the best audio quality online.

Telnyx provides messaging and wholesale VoIP services, helping customers “be their own carrier” through its cloud communications platform and API.

For his part, Perez uses geo-targeting DNS features to find the best audio quality and latency for customers, fine tuning Telnyx’s call system to handle higher loads of calls.

Read on to learn what’s on his to do list — and how he celebrates a job well done. Hint: It comes in a bottle, and often sits on the top shelf (but not always).

What’s the most exciting item on your “to do” list right now?
I’m using geo-targeting DNS features to load balance WebRTC traffic to the closest location for better latency and audio quality. We want to make sure that our offerings are top notch and comparable to, if not better than, what our competitors are offering.

How do you plan to tackle it?
We’re in the process of partnering with a DNS provider, but not just any. We’re looking for one that truly has reliable geo-targeting capabilities — features that are very necessary to what we’re trying to accomplish. Once we find the right one, we can then integrate our systems.

What will happen when you cross that item off your list?
First, a big sigh of relief! Second, we’re hoping that this integration will result in even better voice quality for our phone calls. We push ourselves to constantly improve our offerings because, at the end of the day, we’ll only be successful if people are using our services.  

How will you celebrate?
I’ll probably buy a good bottle of bourbon and have a couple of drinks with my friends!

What’s the most challenging item on your “to do” list?
Fine tuning our telephony engine system for high loads of phone call traffic using Docker containers. Like I said, it’s really good now, but there’s always going to be room for improvement.

How do you plan to tackle it?
I’m going to set up a lab, simulate phone call traffic with SIPp — a free open source testing tool — and identify bottlenecks in the call flow between our two main open source applications (Kamailio and FreeSWITCH). I’ll change settings, retest and repeat until our system's performance has improved.

What will happen when you cross that item off your list?
We’ll get even more capacity per instance, which will give us more room to accommodate new customers without spending resources on infrastructure. This is necessary, as we’re in the next stage of growth, and I’m very excited to see what the future holds.

How will you celebrate?
More bourbon!

Got a great "Big To Do" story to tell? Let us know

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