Customer-driven Regulation of Broadband ServicesBroadband Services

Prof. Timothy A. GonsalvesDept of Computer Science & Engg

I I T MadrasI.I.T. Madras

10 Dec 09

Telecom RegulationTelecom Regulation

• Highly technical driven largely by operatorsHighly technical, driven largely by operators, vendors and independent experts

• Public review usually only cursory• Public review usually only cursory

Broadband DefinedBroadband Defined• ITU-T: 1.5 Mb/s• TRAI : 256 kb/s• TRAI : 256 kb/s• QoS Metrics Standardization - operator-oriented

– ITU-T 1540/1541– IETF IPPMIETF IPPM

• TRAI 15Jan09 paper discusses the QoSE requirements to be met by Operators

• Subscriber:Subscriber: Good experience with common services -- multi-media browsing, downloads, streaming media, VOIP, multi-player gamesRequires 256 kb/s - 2 Mb/s

Mismatch between regulator’s requirements and subscribers’ expectationsand subscribers expectations

Broadband Network Architecture

Regulators specify last-mile access

CoreN/wAggregatio BRAS/

xDSL

speed

Aggregation

N/w

BRAS/IP Edge

AggrNodeFibre

Access NetworkAccess Node

Wireless AAA Server

Wireless

CoreN/w

CoreN/w

Content Server

The Customer-driven ApproachThe Customer driven Approach

• Define metrics that relate to customer’sDefine metrics that relate to customer s expectations

• Provide test tools that the customer canProvide test tools that the customer can run

• Aggregrate and disseminate test resultsAggregrate and disseminate test results from many customers of the same operator/tariff planp p

Influences operators and the regulator

www.broadbandasia.info

AT QoSE MetricsAT QoSE Metrics

• Defined by TeNeT Group of IIT-Madras and LirneAsiay p• Subscriber-oriented metrics, objective way of measuring subscriber

QoSE• Measured by subscriber without operator involvement

1 D l d th h t1. Download throughput Download Bandwidth available to the user

2. Upload throughputUpload Bandwidth available to the userp

3. Round-trip delay (RTT)Time taken for a packet to reach a destination and return

4. Delay jitter Average variation in RTT

5. Packet lossNo of packets lost, expressed in %

6 Availability of service6. Availability of service

Relevance of MetricsRelevance of Metrics

+++ highly relevant, ++ very relevant, + relevant, - not relevant

Test Methodologygy

• Tests 6 parametersTests 6 parameters– Covers most aspects of subscriber QoE

• Tests three servers (ISP NationalTests three servers (ISP, National, International)– ISP local network, National Peering and

International bandwidth

• Repeated at different times of the day– Provisioning & Dimensioning of NetworkProvisioning & Dimensioning of Network

• Repeated at weekdays and weekendsProvisioning & Dimensioning of Network

ISP National International– Provisioning & Dimensioning of Network

Network Diagram of a Test

Internet

Yahoo203 208 151 xxx

66 163 169 xxxNetwork Solutions222.165.130.xxx

203.208.151.xxx

L t il 66.163.169.xxx

Singtel(S )

Network Solutions(USA)

220.247.232.xxx

Last mile

SLT

(Singapore)

National Server(eg Dialog)

User(eg Dialog)

202.69.200.xxx

AT TesterAT Tester www.broadbandasia.info

• Windows-based test software to run the AT test suite

• Server aggregates the results• Server aggregates the results (www.broadbandasia.info)

• Web and mobile versions soon

Testing RoundsTesting Rounds

• Mar 08: India Sri LankaMar 08: India, Sri Lanka

• Oct 08: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

09 di S i k l d h• Mar 09: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

• Oct 09: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, US, Canada, Sweden

About 200 locations

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the InternationalDevelopment Research Centre, Canada and the Department forInternational Development, UK.

Sample Test ResultsSample Test Results

Download speed, RTT, jitter, loss metricsmetrics

Download speed (Chennai/Delhi 256k unlimited):Relatively healthy in National domains, Int’l much lower

1400

1600

)

Chennai

400

600

800

1000

1200

ow

nlo

ad

(K

bp

s)

BSNL-Unltd-ISP

BSNL-Unltd-National

BSNL-Unltd-Int'l

0

200

400

08:00 11:00 15:00 18:00 20:00 23:00

D

• Nat’l good

• Int’l marginal

1000

1200

1400

1600

(Kb

ps)

Airtel-ISP

• Both operators similar

0

200

400

600

800

Do

wn

load

Airtel-National

Airtel-Int'l

08:00 11:00 15:00 18:00 20:00 23:00

Delhi

Nat’l Round-trip time -- hop-by-hopTrace route from PC in Chennai to server

BSNL RTT to www.tataindicombroadband.co

60

G t t th

Chennai

19 10 10

34 32 3229

0

20

40

dem nai lhi ore ore bay bay bay

• Gateway to other ISP is bottleneck

• RTT 10-15 ms achie eable

Local modemNIB-Chennai

NIB-New Delhi

NIB-Bangalore

NIB-Bangalore

TATACom-Bombay

TATACom-Bombay

TATACom-Bombay

Route in sequence

achieveable

RTT to www.tataindicombroadban

41

30 30

60 59 59 5560

40

60 • Gateway to other ISP and ADSL link are bottlenecks

1

30 30

0

20

40

m ai ai lhi lhi bay bay bay bay

are bottlenecks

•RTT 10-15 ms achieveable

Local-Modem

airtel-Chennai

airtel-Chennaiairtel-Delhi

airtel-Delhi

TATAComm-Bombay

TATAComm-Bombay

TATAComm-Bombay

TATAComm-Bombay

Route in sequen

Delhi

Int’l download/minimum speed % (all India metro): metro):

300BLR-OpA-256k-Unltd-Int'l

200

250

m s

peed

(%

)

BLR-OpA-384k-2M-Ltd-Int'l

CHE-OpA-256k-Unltd-Int'l

100

150

d/

Min

imu

m

CHE-OpB-256k-1M-Unltd-Int'l

DEL-OpC-256k-Unltd-Int'l

DEL O B 256k U l d I 'l

50

00

Do

wn

loa DEL-OpB-256k-Unltd-Int'l

DEL-OpB-384k-Unltd-Int'l

DEL-OpD-256k-Unltd-Int'l0

08:00 11:00 15:00 18:00 20:00 23:00

p

• Most plans under 100%• OpA gave better than minimum

Download speed (India and US): India: ISP good, big differences; US: only small differences

1500

2000

)

Delhi

500

1000

1500

Do

wn

load

(K

bp

s)

Del-Airtel-ISP

Del-Airtel-Nation

Del-Airtel-Int'l

0

500

08:00 11:00 15:00 18:00 20:00 23:00

D

2000

3000

(Kb

ps) Verizon-3M-ISP (US)

Verizon 3M National

1000

Do

wn

load

( Verizon-3M-National(US)

Verizon-3M-INT'L (US)

0

08:00 11:00 15:00 18:00 20:00 23:00Verizon NY

Premium plans QoSE may not increase with “higher” plansQoSE may not increase with higher plans

L t il i t th800

1000

bp

s)

• Last-mile is not the bottleneck, so increasing minimum in it does not help200

400

600

ow

nlo

ad

(K

TN-512K-Lt

TN-256K-Lt

help

• End-to-end speed of TCP depends on RTT

2 6K 12K

08:00 11:00 15:00 18:00 20:00

Do

and loss (not raw bandwidth)

• Premium plans offer

256K 512K

500

pother benefits e.g. higher data transfer

200

300

400

RTT (

ms)

TN-512K-Lt

TN-256K-Lt

0

100

8:00 11:00 15:00 18:00 20:00

Chennai vs. Tamilnadu (256k-2M limited): The digital divide still existsThe digital divide still exists

Also, power failures , pcommon in rural areas

1500

2000

Kb

ps)

TN-National

500

1000

nlo

ad

(K TN National

Chn-NationalTN-Int'lChn-Int'l

0

500

00 00 00 00 00 00

Do

wn Chn Int l

8:00

11:0

0

15:0

0

18:0

0

20:0

0

23:0

0

ConclusionsoThe AT Test Methodology empowers the customer to “regulate” broadband qualityto regulate broadband quality

oInputs to TRAI, on contention-ratio have been partly acceptedp y p

oOnly the first step, need many more volunteers

oDefinition of broadband should shift away from oDefinition of broadband should shift away from raw last-mile speed -- specify QoSE to reference servers

Thank You!

tag@iitm.ac.in wattegama@lirne.netwww.tenet.res.in www.lirneasia.net

i i i i iThanks to the LIRNEasia, TeNeT, Nilgiri Networks and DesiCrew teams,and to R. Thirumurthy and C. Jagadish

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the InternationalDevelopment Research Centre, Canada and the Department forInternational Development, UK.