15. October 2023
  • focus infocom
  • NET CHECK

Development & trends in QoS and QoE

International experts convenedfor 2023's second ITU-T Study Group 12 meeting to advance global standards - a resume.

Global standardisation of quality of service and quality of experience (QoS and QoE) in mobile networks

 

The meeting, the second one in this year, was held in Mexico City from September 19 to September 28. The ITU-T Study Group 12 is part of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

a specialized agency of the United Nations. The ITU-T is responsible for coordination and development of standards (ITU-T Recommendations) for telecommunications and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Study Group 12 is the expert group responsible for the area of performance, quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE).

The work advanced by experts from all over the world advances metrics – such as key performance indicators – and methodologies to reliably measure them, for a wide spectrum of applications and services including audio, video and multimedia, AR and VR. Such methodologies include “traditional” means as well as new approaches such as AI-supported, machine-learning and pattern-recognition technologies.

NET CHECK and Focus Infocom, which is part of NET CHECK since 2022, are actively working in international standardization for many years, in the European ETSI as well as, with ITU-T SG12, in the global context. Here, Dr. Wolfgang Balzer, Director of Innovation, Testing Specification and Mobile Standards at NET CHECK, leads two thematical sub-groups (“Questions”) in the role of “Rapporteur”.

 

What is the significance of the SG12 sessions?

W. Balzer:

Doing standardization work, this is, exchanging opinions and sharing experience with colleagues from all over the world, contributes to the development of technology in this sector and is of course, also a way to actively shape it.

Participation in this work takes definitely some effort. The return is, however manifold. Most importantly, it increases the quality of our own work. It helps to avoid methodological weaknesses or inventing wheels twice. Therefore, it widens the professional horizon which of course also benefits our customers.

 

Dr. Wolfgang Balzer (right) in a meeting of working group ITU-T SG 12. Copyright: ITU

W. Balzer: Some examples of ITU-T standards in force (“Recommendations”) that we initiated and played a major role in shaping are G.1034 Quality of experience metrics for mobile telephony communication during rail travel; G.1023, Framework for capacity assessment of packet data services in mobile networks; Y.1545.2, QoS metrics for continuity-of-performance of packet data based services.

 

Details: ITU-T Recommendation G.1034 deals with mobile radio quality during train travel. Here, for the first time, a metric, i.e. performance indicators, and the associated measurement methodology were defined in order to measure the ability of a mobile radio network to guarantee interference-free and uninterrupted telephony on a specific travel route in a holistic view.

 

ITU-T Recommendation G.1023 defines a common conceptual framework and concrete instructions for various methods to determine the capacity – i.e. the overall performance capability, not just the quality from the point of view of an individual user – of a mobile radio network.

 

ITU-T Recommendation Y.1545.2 addresses the quality assessment of different types of mobile internet usage in the presence of fluctuating mobile network performance and defines corresponding performance indicators against which mobile networks can be compared. An illustrative example would be that video streaming – because here data is stored in advance for a few seconds of playback – still works to some extent even with occasional “dead spots”, while interactive applications such as video conferencing can already show severe interference here.

 

These standards are also good examples of how many years of practical experience and expertise are translated into something that can benefit users in a wide variety of fields.

What were the results of the last meeting from your point of view?

W. Balzer: We were able to achieve the adoption of two further standardisation documents.

 

The “Technical Report” ESTR-NUI (“RF level based single-number indicator for mobile network usefulness for a given range of applications”) is about methods how quality predictions for a whole range of concrete types of mobile radio use can be obtained from easily measured mobile radio level data.

 

Supplement 30 to the P-Series deals with the automation of tests for “Digital Financial Services” (DFS), i.e. the direct transfer of money from mobile phone to mobile phone or between mobile phones and company or merchant accounts; these services are particularly widespread in emerging and developing countries and are also in the context of worldwide UN development goals (“banking for the unbanked”).

 

In addition to working on concrete standards, I currently have the role of a “Rapporteur” in two thematic working groups (“Questions”), i.e. the leader of the respective working group in which corresponding thematic work is bundled.

 

What are the tasks of an ITU rapporteur and what were the working groups about?

W. Balzer: A rapporteur has the task of preparing and chairing meetings in which substantive work is done on topics (“work items”) submitted by members of Study Group 12. The result of a work item is usually a standardisation document, i.e. a Recommendation, a Technical Report or a Supplement.

 

Question 17 (Q17 for short) deals with standards to define performance indicators for packet-based networks and other network technologies and corresponding measurement methods. Such indicators are essential for improving networks and technologies; they function like a compass that points the way to better quality. In this respect, this Question works in a central area of the technical evolution of mobile as well as fixed networks.

 

The area of Question 20 (here I share the role with two colleagues) is quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) of digital financial services (DFS), defined as money transfers via mobile networks, where there is not necessarily a classic “account”, but the credits exist quasi directly on the mobile device.

 

This question is relatively “young”; ultimately it follows on from work that was started in an ITU-T Focus Group, which also includes the World Bank and, as a sponsor, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This work was then continued on a larger scale in the Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI). During this time, we carried out a number of projects on behalf of the ITU, which then became FIGI Reports and later Recommendations (G.1033, P.1502, P.1503).

What is the connection between a UN organisation dealing with technical aspects of telecommunications, and digital financial services?

W. Balzer: At first glance, this link to the topic of “financial services” may look somewhat exotic; however, the matter is basically simple. DFS is essentially based on mobile radio networks. In this respect, there is a very direct connection to other mobile network-related quality topics. Accordingly, there is also strong interest from national regulators in Q20, specifically around practical minimum performance specifications to ensure the smooth functioning of such mobile-based financial services – which of course again points to NET CHECK’s competence and expertise in the field of mobile measurements.

 

Beyond working on current topics – such as a work item on mapping and visualisation strategies for assessing connectivity and QoS – we also have our eye on what promises to be relevant tomorrow or the day after. For example, we presented a contribution that defines metrics and methods to express the suitability of mobile networks for autonomous driving.

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