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Main Topic

JUN 2011.

ISSUE 60

By Li Xiaoyan

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traditional

network KPIs

perators are increasingly ocused on enhancing endusers’ QoE in order toincrease their revenue, yet

challenges still remain. For example,how can they measure user experienceo dierent services and thus realizeQoE-oriented network management?

Traditional network KPIs as basis of QoE are

Moving beyond traditional network KPIs

Onot perfect

Mobile networks are trending towardIP ollowing a booming growth inservices; besides traditional voice andSMS, other services and applicationslike web browsing and streaming mediaare also using the mobile broadbandpipe. Richer services, higher quality, andenhanced QoE are becoming the key torunning a proitable business. Higher

service quality helps retain existingusers and win new ones, while degradedservice quality is directly linked toincreased churn rate and a poor brandimage.

Service quality has become the corecompetitiveness o any operator. oimprove user experience, operators needto manage service quality in real time andoptimize it to attract and retain users. Inaddition, active prevention is required toguard against any potential ault.

Moving beyond 

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Huawei Communicate

JUN 2011.

ISSUE 60

As user culture is changing

and driving rapid evolution of

mobile broadband (MBB) and IP

transformation, user demand andexpectation from network quality

has increased, and created a new

denition of network quality. In

some cases, though the network

KPIs like call completion rate

look good, many operators still

face user complaints about

background noise during voicecalls and slow loading of web

pages. Are traditional network

KPIs still enough to fulll

operators’ needs?

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element in the key quality indicator(KQI) system.

Currently, there are no uniied

criteria to measure QoE in the industry.hrough in-depth research and basedon its rich experience in network andservice O&M, Huawei has rolled out aQoE evaluation system. Incorporatingthe research o MS, ESI and 3GPP,the system consists o a ser ies o  objective and measurable QoE, KQIand KPI.

Perceived E2E user experience:Huawei’s QoE evolution system is user-oriented and based on actual service

scenarios. By analyzing service eatures,application scenarios and the network elements and processes involved, thesystem can detect the key actors thatimpact QoE and acilitate troubleshooting.Te indicators selected are comprehensiveand can re lect the QoE eaturesindependently and efectively. As a result,the indicators remain consistent with realuser experience.

Real-time QoE monitoring and measurement: Indica tors in the Editor: Xu Peng HWtech@huawei.com

QoE evolution system have clearly deined the meanings, objectives andmeasurement methods, which simpliesthe processes o veriying QoE or eachservice in the network. Operators can

ensure service quality and QoE basedon a unied O&M platorm. Obtainingdata through the NMS and probes, theQoE evaluation system can monitorindicators classiied by user groups,users, regions, holidays, and speciicdays. In this context, the service quality and QoE are clearly stated, whilepotential networks aults are detected.

QoE, KQI, and KPI evaluationmodel: o enable ast troubleshooting,the system adopts an evaluation model

  which correlates QoE, KQI and KPI.By reerring to the MF GB923,Huawei has established a correlationmodel or each service, which coversactors like QoE, service KQI andnetwork KPI. By clearly indentiyingthe relationships among those threeactors, the model helps enhance serviceand network quality, while enabling asttroubleshooting o user complaints. Inaddition, the model helps locate serviceaults in an E2E manner, thanks to its

capability to trace and analyze the wholeservice transaction, i.e. rom the irstow message to the last.

Huawei’s QoE evaluation systemhas been adopted and well-received by operators. For example, China Mobileteamed up with Huawei and launchedthe QoE evaluation system to optimizeits voice service quality. Covering theestablishment o service KQI, network KPI, and equipment perormanceindicators, the system enhances the

service quality monitoring methodology on voice services in terms o E2Ecompletion rate, call duration, and calldrop rate. In addition, new indicators

  were integrated to extend ChinaMobile’s monitoring system to coverthe QoE domain, such as voice quality,one-way audio, crosstalk, and echo.his helps monitor in real time thenetwork perormance and troubleshootaccordingly.

Operation and maintenance (O&M)based on traditional KPIs can hardly meet operators’ QoE managementneeds. In most cases, user complaintsare mainly related to poor voice quality,

noise, and one-way audio, whiletraditional network management system(NMS), which only measures KPIs likesignaling connection rate and call droprate, lacks measurement on voice quality indicators to help identiy the causes o user complaints.

he r e a r e t w o cha l l e n g e s t onetwork quality management due tothe increasing quality demand andcomplexity o diversiied services inMBB and IP transormation: First,

the KPIs are measuring network quality on network level instead o service application level or user level,lacking the indicators to monitor voicecommunications quality in an end-to-end (E2E) manner. As a result, theuser QoE is inconsistent with the KPIperormance. Second, the NMS uses amacro approach to collect data, whichis too broad to reect the QoE quickly and correctly based on the actualnetwork perormance.

  W i t h m o r e c o m p r e h e n s i v e ,measurable and visualized indicators,operators can promptly spot the QoEgap or services across diferent periodsand networks, and optimize theirperormance accordingly.

Establishing an improvedQoE evaluation system

Involving complex psychological

and physiological actors, QoE reers toan end user’s satisaction level when itcomes to a service provider or speciicnetwork perormance. Factors afectingQoE can be divided into non-technicalactors and technical actors. Non-technical actors are mainly associated

  with the policies and services providedby operators; while technical actors areclosely related to networks and terminals– they are the cornerstone when itcomes to user satisaction and a critical