incognito_incognito 09/07/2014 15:40 Page 1
Measuring QoE
et’s face it: it is becoming
increasingly difficult to
increase ARPU from cable TV
services. Yet, fuelled by the
availability of affordable over-the-top
services and the popularity of IPconnected devices such as tablets,
subscribers continue to push the limits
of their data plans and have ever
increasing expectations for the quality
of their services.
In a way, competition amongst service
providers and the resulting race to the top in
providing both faster and a higher variety of
services, such as on-demand TV, has whet the
consumer’s appetite for choice. It also opened
the door for the delivery of OTT entertainment
services, especially given that consumers are
now willing to trade a
lower price for lower
video quality. As a result,
pay-TV has essentially
become a premium
service where poor quality
is not tolerated.
In this environment,
quality of experience
(QoE) continues to be a
top-of-mind issue for
service providers
worldwide. Though
difficult to measure, QoE
can be defined as whether
TR-069 assures service
a service provider is
performance and boosts QoE
delivering their promise
to its subscribers, how
reliable services are, and how quickly an issue
expected to sustain an annual growth rate of
can be resolved when a subscriber requests
6% through 2017.
support. Or, put simply, QoE is how happy a
To understand the impact of video
subscriber is.
streaming and video conferencing services on
From an access network and a connected
the network, service providers draw
home perspective, QoE is predominantly
information from various disjointed sources
affected by bandwidth congestion and LAN
such as SNMP utilisation measurements,
issues within the home network. To improve
subscriber complaints, and the length of time
QoE is to not only understand the impact of
between network upgrades. While the result
OTT on network traffic and home network
helps providers establish a basic but
performance, but to sactively manage Internet
incomplete understanding of network issues, it
traffic and prevent issues from happening.
does not equip them with the information they
There’s no question that IP video is a
need to make informed network investment
bandwidth hog that strains networks, and this
decisions.
trend is expected to continue in an upward
Fortunately for cable service providers, the
trajectory. Globally, IP video is expected to
technology to generate accurate bandwidth
represent 79% of all Internet traffic by 2018,
utilisation data already exists within the
up from 66% in 2013. Netflix continues its
DOCSIS framework. Internet Protocol Detail
expansion into the European and Latin
Record (IPDR) is a method of collecting and
American markets and has grown its
recording data traffic statistics that are
international membership by 1.75 million in
produced on a network. IPDR information
the first quarter of 2014 alone, bringing its
includes counters on data sent and received
international total to 12.7 million subscribers.
through specific interfaces, as well as service
Meanwhile, the video conferencing market is
flows required by certain applications like
L
20 LATAM Briefing
According to Incognito
Software, a specialist
provider of broadband
device provisioning, IP
address management,
bandwidth monitoring,
and service activation
solutions, measuring and
managing quality of
experience is vital for
cable TV providers in
facing competitive
threats.
video streaming, voice, and social media.
Because it is incorporated into the CableLabs
DOCSIS protocol, a CMTS can be configured
to produce information about IP-based service
usage on a per cable modem basis. IPDR data
provides consumption usage information
about every subscriber device on a network.
Unlike SNMP, IPDR uses a ‘push’
mechanism that imposes less strain on the
network. The data is collected and periodically
streamed to a collector and the CMTS waits
until it has spare CPU cycles before it sends
data, eliminating the possibility of disruption
to normal operations. One collector receives
IPDR data from a large number of CMTS units
and should ideally have the ability to filter,
analyse, and organise the data to turn it into
accurate utilisation trends. Armed with this
intelligence, providers
can understand the
impact of OTT services
and make network
investment where and
when they are needed
most.
Even so, expanding
the pipe is only half the
congestion management
equation, the other half
is managing
consumption and
alleviating congestion. A
research report
conducted by Incognito
Software on how service
providers are managing
the growth of OTT content found that a small
handful of service providers have turned to
video caching and strategic partnerships to
help manage the increasing bandwidth
consumption. Meanwhile, a majority of
providers are turning to fair access policies
and traffic shaping to alleviate congestion, but
not without controversy.
Over the last half a year, there has been the
establishment of net neutrality legislation in
various parts of the world. In April 2014, the
European Parliament passed a law that allows
providers to slow or block Internet access only
when preserving network security, enforcing a
court order, or mitigating temporary network
congestion. When applied, the measure must
not only be “transparent, non-discriminatory,
and proportionate” but also should not last
longer than necessary. In Brazil, the Marco
Civil has not only established that