Introduction to QoS Concepts

Transmission Planning, QoE, User Perception, Distinction & Selection of

Appropriate Regulatory Approaches; Best Practice

Senior Engineer, TIS ETSI STQ Vice Chair

Joachim POMY

Contents

Introduction to QoS Concepts

Transmission Planning
Quality of Experience (QoE)
User Perception
Distinction & Selection of Appropriate
Regulatory Approaches
Best Practice

Where it All Begins:

Real Communication Situation

... and where End-to-End Quality comes to Play:

Employing a Telecommunication System

... can you

hear me ?

... I want to
speak now !

Definitions start here: ITU-T Rec. E.800

Network Performance (NP)
Pre-requisite to Quality of Service (QoS)
Not directly visible to the user

Quality of Service (QoS)

The ability of
a service to
be obtained

Performance of the Service offered to the User

Some QoS Aspects directly perceivable, some indirectly

Quality of Service

Network Performance

Charging Performance
Provisioning Performance
Administration Performance
Availability Performance
Transmission Performance

Service Support Performance

Service Operability Performance
Serveability
Service Security Performance

Four Viewpoints of QoS

Consistent Approach to QoS
Well-defined and Relevant (e.g. Customer-affecting)
Used to Plan and Deploy Networks
Includes Monitoring Service Quality

ITU-T Rec. G.1000 Defines four Viewpoints of QoS

Customer's QoS Rrequirements

Service provider's offerings of QoS (or targeted QoS)
QoS achieved or delivered
Customer survey ratings of QoS

Ideally there would be 1:1 Correspondence between

Delivered QoS and Perceived QoS

4 Viewpoints of QoS
CUSTOMER

SERVICE
PROVIDER

Customers
QoS
Requirements

QoS Offered
By
Provider

QoS
Perceived
By Customer

QoS
Achieved by
Provider

T1213040-02

Contents

Introduction to QoS Concepts

Transmission Planning
Quality of Experience (QoE)
User Perception
Distinction & Selection of Appropriate
Regulatory Approaches
Best Practice

ITU-T Rec. G.101

The Transmission Plan
Fundamental principles of transmission planning
a good transmission plan is set up in order to deliver to users
signals that are at a desirable level and free from objectionable
amounts of delay, echo and distortion
has to take into account transmission parameters and
impairments, different network configurations and elements
specific transmission plans have to be set up in order to take
care of specific transmission impairments and conditions e.g. for

traditional narrow-band telephone networks

mobile networks
packet switched networks
multimedia applications

Traditional Transmission Planning

International Switching
Centres (ISCs)

a
t

t
a
National system

b
International chain

National system
T1204G.101_FI.1

Exchange
ISC that carries international transit traffic
a, b

Virtual International Connecting Points

Transmission Planning Today

ITU-T Rec. G.108: Transmission Planning with the E-Model
Traditional transmission planning methodologies no longer flexible
enough to account for new factors
Multinational networks require planning which takes into account
regional differences in loss plan requirements and inter-network
transmission plans
Due to liberalization of the telecommunication markets (e.g. in Europe)
there are no longer laid down ranges of values for transmission
parameters by regulation
The changing scenario in the public network operator domain is
impacting transmission performance
G.108 is applicable to the use of new technology within the networks,
including wireless (cordless or mobile), IP transmission etc.
G.108 provides planning methods and contains necessary information
and tools which will enable the planner to design the network
transmission plan
Guidelines and planning examples are based on the use of the E-Model

E-Model - ITU-T Rec. G.107

Computational model for use in transmission planning
Assessing the combined effects of variations in several
transmission parameters that affect conversational
quality of 3.1 kHz handset telephony
Covers also packet loss
For many combinations of high importance to
transmission planners, the E-model can be used with
confidence
Caution must be exercised when using the E-model for
some conditions

Reference connection of the E-model

Receive side
Send side
OLR
SLR

RLR
0 dBr point

Ds-Factor

Weighted Echo
Path Loss WEPL
Round-Trip
Delay Tr

Room
Noise Ps

Coding / Decoding
Circuit Noise Nc
referred to 0 dBr

Equipment Impairment Factor Ie

Packet-Loss Robustness Factor Bpl

Packet-Loss Probability Ppl

Mean one-way Delay T

Dr-Factor
Room
Noise Pr
Sidetone Masking
Rating STMR
Listener Sidetone
Rating LSTR
(LSTR =
STMR + Dr)

Absolute Delay Ta
Quantizing Distortion qdu
Expectation Factor A

Talker Echo
Loudness Rating
TELR
G/107_F01

Effects of Talker Echo

in the Presence of Delay
100

E-Model Rating R

90

no Talker Echo
TELR=65 dB
TELR=55 dB
TELR=45 dB
TELR=35 dB
TELR=25 dB

80

70

60

50
0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Mouth-to-Ear-Delay / ms

350

400

450

500

Voice Quality Continuum

Categories of Communication Quality

in Terms of Users' Satisfaction Classes

Example with Delay as Impairment

Contents

Introduction to QoS Concepts

Transmission Planning
Quality of Experience (QoE)
User Perception
Distinction & Selection of Appropriate
Regulatory Approaches
Best Practice

QoE Definition
ITU-T Rec. G.100 / P.10 defines
Quality of Experience (QoE): The overall
acceptability of an application or service, as
perceived subjectively by the end-user.
NOTE 1 Quality of experience includes the
complete end-to-end system effects (client,
terminal, network, services infrastructure,
etc.).
NOTE 2 Overall acceptability may be
influenced by user expectations and context.

QoE Implications
QoE includes everything
Many aspects out of control of Operators
Includes Terminal Aspects

Proper QoS and NP

technical prerequisites
For achieving desired QoE

Relationship between customer satisfaction, QoS and NP

trends

advertising

tariffs,
costs

customer expectation of QoS

customer satisfaction
QoS
(technical)

Network
Performance

Terminal
Performance

QoS
(non-technical)

Point of Sale

Customer
Care

Contents

Introduction to QoS Concepts

Transmission Planning
Quality of Experience (QoE)
User Perception
Distinction & Selection of Appropriate
Regulatory Approaches
Best Practice

Users Perception of Speech Quality

Sound Quality &
Naturalness

Intellegibility

Speech
Charakteristic

Listening & Talking

Efforts

Individual
Perception

Speech
(Transmission)
Quality

Environmental
Conditions
Doubletalk
Capability

...

Conversational
Efforts

Network
Conditions
Expectation

Backgroundnoise
Transmission

...

Motivation for Multimedia Quality

Quality as perceived by the User
A Promotional Factor for the Market

User compares Quality of New Telecommunication Services

With Quality experienced in the Past
With other Telecommunication Service offers
With Quality experienced for Entertainment Services

Individual Quality Threshold

Users try new Service only few times ( ~ 3x 5x )
If Quality below Indivdual Threshold Users give up
e.g. Download of a Website takes too long
User remembers this experience
Will try a few times and conclude this as Static Effect:
"This website is not useable - let's try the Offer of the Competitor"

Diffusion, Transmission Quality

and Expectation for an Innovation

Diffusion Theory generally

accepted for describing Consumer
Behaviour on the Introduction of
an Innovation or New Service
Number of Users develops in
S-shaped Curve
5 Classes of Users:

(1) Innovators
(2) Early Adaptors
(3) Early Majority
(4) Late Majority
(5) Laggards

Trade-off between Transmission

Quality and New Functionality

Changes in Users' Behaviour

Users tend to be much more reluctant to accept lower quality
This is quoted frequently
True for some sorts of social calls
Definitively NOT true for sensible business calls

Does it help network operators when defining QoS for their network ?
High quality has to be provided when demanded by business customers or
other sensible clients
But the distribution of quality acceptance over time and areas cannot be
matched with the occurrence of impairments in the network

Not really useful for designing networks

Users switch between different communication devices

Wireline, wireless, PC, PDA etc
Depending on place, task, purpose
And depending on QUALITY

25

Key Parameters affecting MM Quality

Media Distortion
End-to-End Delay
Echo Effects
Information Loss
Background Noise Distortion
Loss of Synchronization between Media Streams

Impairments in packet networks

Distinction between Effects

that occur in the Network and
Mechanisms in the Terminals that are affected

Terminals can be used to correct for the Effects in the Network

Remaining Issues are:
End-to-End Delay is increased when compensating for other Effects
Loss of Information can be Concealed but Not Recovered

Contents

Introduction to QoS Concepts

Transmission Planning
Quality of Experience (QoE)
User Perception
Distinction & Selection of Appropriate
Regulatory Approaches
Best Practice

Regulatory approaches
Regulation
orientated

Customer
orientated

Reporting

To regulator

To customer

Targets

In regulations

In contracts

Penalties

Fines

Compensation

or a combination?

QoS regulations
Measurement and reporting are expensive
Do you scratch everywhere? or scratch where it
itches?
Need to focus on the known problem areas
But the problem areas may change over time
Issue of cost effectiveness

Service Level Agreements

Considered highly important
Indication of the level that the supplier aims to
achieve
Only tangible benefit if there is compensation for
failure
Is the compensation a token or a rebalancing of
the failure
A token at least imposes some incentive to
perform
Tokens are noticed by management

Criteria for QoS Parameters

QoS parameters should be easily understood by the public, and be useful and
important to them.
All parameters are applicable at the network termination point. Where
measurements are possible, they should be made on the customer's premises,
using in-service lines. To be as realistic as possible, real traffic rather than test
calls should be used as a basis of the measurements, wherever possible.
Parameters should be capable of verification by independent organizations. This
verification might be made by direct measurements or by audit of the operator's
measurements.
The accuracy of QoS parameter values should be set to a level consistent with
cost effectively available measurement methods.
The parameters are designed for both statistical and individual application. The
statistical values should be derived by the application of a simple statistical
function to the individual values. The statistical function should be specified in
the standard. The standard should also contain guidelines on how statistically
significant samples should be selected.

From ETNO: European incumbents club

Regulation and Customer

Compensation
Initial levels of compensation should be low

Any such payments will be monitored by management of operators

Experience is that the benefit in alerting management to problems far exceeds
the value of the sums paid as they expose mangers to internal criticism

However for critical parameters that have a seriously damaging effect on

customers
Levels of compensation should rise depending on the extent on the problem with
higher payments to business customers than to residential ones
For example failure to repair a fault within a specified time would incur a penalty
of say $X per day
this rate should not be capped at a maximum of say 5 days but continue
possibly rate per day should rise if the time exceeds say 10 days

This formulation is needed to ensure that the managers concerned take

appropriate steps to resolve the issues and prepare adequately for the problems
that inevitably will occur.

Regulatory Aspects (1)

QoS parameters for Regulation should be
Limited in number
Focus to hot topics
where problems already exist or expected to occur
soon

Taylored to the special situation in the

Maldives

Regulatory Aspects (2)

Network operators but also customers have
experience
with regulation & resulting QoS in other countries of
the region

For National Regulators it is important to prove

customized regulation regime
but no re-invention of the wheel
no over burdening of operators

Contents

Introduction to QoS Concepts

Transmission Planning
Quality of Experience (QoE)
User Perception
Distinction & Selection of Appropriate
Regulatory Approaches
Best Practice

Best Practice
Some Advantages (postulated)
QoS Regulation not needed
Market Powers regulate overall Quality

Some Requirements (obvious)

All Stakeholders Stick to Standards
Appropriate Standards are available in Time
QoS Responsibilities must be clear defined

Some Problems (surprise !)

connect your fridge to the network it might be legal

Market Mechanisms

Forces of the Market will bring users into a position where they can obtain the end-toend QoS they wish to perceive

Has been postulated for a long time in Europe

Has been proven to be more than questionable
Mostly, contracts between users and network operators

Currently, traditional Telcos have no incentive to provide high end-to-end QoS for
their NGN customers

have a longterm binding character

do not contain any QoS provisions

Number of customers remains stable

In parallel the commercial company value

In contrast are Internet based communication service providers

Receive their revenue not directly from users

But by other business models which rely on a high (and increasing) number of users of the
service every day
Customers not satisfied with end-to-end QoS will stop using the service
Consequently the number of customers decreases immediately and so the company value
Thus the incentive to offer high end-to-end QoS to the user is extremely high.

38

India
Comprehensive regulation for fixed and mobile
Some parameters are to be reported, others
monitored and recorded
Rent rebates for slow fault repair
Publication in named newspapers
Results collected and published separately for
different cities and areas

Malaysia
Parameters and targets for PSTN, mobile,
Internet
Self reporting subject to audit and
independent verification by regulator
No mention of penalties

Malaysia - Parameters
Common

Mobile

Billing complaints

2%

Service availability
Blocked + Dropped calls

Billing complaint
resolution

90% in 15 business days

95% in 30 business days

Number of
Complaints

50 per 1000 lines per 12

months

Number of Complaints

Emergency speed
of answer

90% in 10 secs
100% in 20 secs

Emergency busy

Dropped calls

PSTN
Installation order fulfilment

80% in 24 hours
90% in 48 hours

On-net Lost calls = failed call

attempts

6%

Off-net national Lost calls =

failed call attempts

6%

Emergency busy

1%

Inter network post dialling

delay

13 secs for 95% of calls

On-net post dialling delay

10 secs for 95% of calls

Fault repair

80% in 24 hours
90% in 48 hours

Fault rate

500 per 1000 lines per 12

months

90%
5%
50 per 1000
lines per 12
months
5% in busy
hour

Internet
Dial up access
attempts

<3

Log in time

95% less than 40 secs

Download time

80% modem line

speed for 95% of the
time

Pakistan

Approach based on independent surveys

Results reported separately for different areas
Surveys cover mobile and ISPs
Mobile is checking against licence obligations
ISPs:

availability of service
connection setup time
Download speed
download time
connection stability during busy hours

Pakistan
Mobile SMS

Mobile voice
Parameter

Threshold

Network Accessibility

99.5%

Service Accessibility

96%

Call Completion Ratio

96%

Avg Setup Time

Avg MOS

< 7 sec
>3

Parameter
Service Accessibility
Access Delay

Threshold
99%
<2

Oman
Major study around 2007
Consultation 2009
Comprehensive set of parameters developed for

Mobile
PSTN
Broadband and dial-up Internet
International voice
Leased lines etc
Internet

Regulations in force or expected (website under translation)

European approach -1

Universal Services Directive 2002/22/EC Articles 11 and 22

Publication of performance for common list of parameters
Target levels and additional parameters may be added by National
Regulatory Authority
Public communication network
Supply time for initial connection
Fault rate per access line
Fault repair time

Publicly available telephone service

Call set up time

Response times for operator services
Response times for directory enquiry services
Proportion of coin and card operated public pay-telephones in working order
Bill correctness complaints
Unsuccessful call ratio

All according to ETSI EG 201 769-1 is 1.1.1 (April 2000)

European approach -2
Nothing on mobile because mobile retail market is
competitive
Some regulators require(d) drive round surveys of
coverage
Nothing on broadband
Ofcom (UK) - voluntary Code of Practice on broadband
speeds
Accurate estimate of speed, Fair use policies must be clear
Monitor with mystery shopping, publish members of Code

Germany
?????????

Any Questions

Contact
Name

Joachim POMY

Position

Senior Engineer & Owner, TIS

Member of Staff of OPTICOM GmbH

tel:
+ 49 6251 71958
mob:
+49 177 78 71958
fax:
+49 1803 5518 71958
skype:
harryfuld
E-mail:
[email protected]
_____________________
Company address:
Telecommunications & Intl Standards (TIS)
Darmstaedter Str. 304
64625 Bensheim
Germany