Measurement system ensures call and session quality are monitored throughout
QUALITA, a new measurement and analysis tool being launched by AIRCOM International addresses many of the quality issues faced by 3G, GPRS and GSM operators. With their emphases now on retaining existing subscribers, especially the high value ones, and preventing churn, the need is for end-to-end measurement of network quality and the analysis of any under-performance.
3G services are adding further impetus to the measurement of end-to-end quality as the complexity of measuring QoS is greater in IP networks. To offer the guaranteed high service levels demanded by applications such as ‘real-time’ video, quality parameters such as delay, packet loss and throughput have to be continuously monitored for each service type; relying on the ‘best effort’ QoS of the Internet is not an option.
QUALITA achieves this by measuring performance not just at the network and service levels, but also at the subscriber level where a new metric, Quality of Experience (QoE), allows operators to determine the exact experience of the user at the terminal level. The user judges performance in terms of service availability and accessibility together with speed and excellence of communications.
Apart from QoE the system measures the Quality of Service at the service level and Key Quality Indicators at the network level providing end-to-end measurement of the quality of calls across the complete network for each service type, subscriber group, terminal model and network location; or a combination of them.
QUALITA works by analysing Call Detail Records( CDRs) for quality indicators such as reliability; delay; and peak and mean throughputs together with specific 3G indicators such as conversational and streaming. QoE indicators include location updates and roaming plus success with call, sessions, services, content and SMS, as well as networks and VAS availability.
An effective and unique method devised by AIRCOM for quantifying quality-based on subscriber groups, locations, services and terminal types ranging from Q1 (best) to Q6 (worst) offers a quick and comprehensive method of understanding the degree of degradation that customers experience for a certain service in a particular location for a particular terminal type.
Operators also benefit from the use of QUALITA’s CDR database to extract valuable marketing information about subscriber behaviour, usage patterns and service usage together with reports comparing quality offered to users by locations, services, terminals or subscriber groups. ‘Top 10’ reports highlight best performing terminals, areas and services with high call usage, services and locations with best quality; and subscriber groups with highest call usage.