Quality of service experience

Quality of Service Experience (QoSE), used mainly in the field of telecommunications, is the actual measure of user’s experience with an operator in terms of delivered quality with or without reference to what is being promised. This is measured technically and not subjective. So it is different from Quality of Experience, sometimes also known as "Quality of User Experience," which is a subjective measure of a user's experiences with an operator.

QoSE also differs from Quality of Service (QoS) which, in the field of computer networking and other packet-switched telecommunication networks, refers to resource reservation control mechanisms rather than the achieved service quality. Quality of service is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow.

The term Quality of Service Experience (QoSE) was first used by LIRNEasia researchers when benchmarking ten most widely used broadband packages in India and Sri Lanka under their project [Broadband QoSE Benchmarking] [http://lirneasia.net/projects/2006-07/bbqos/] .

LIRNEasia's project on Broadband QoSE Benchmarking

In the absence of an efficient pro-market regulatory environment, it has become common for some operators to offer lower bandwidth than stipulated. This practice is often justified by the partially true claim that the bottleneck can happen anywhere between the user and the destination site, so may not necessarily within the control of the local operator. Ordinary user, possessing neither the equipment nor the technical knowledge to ascertain or deny that usually has no alternative than taking the word of the operator.

Broadband performance can be evaluated by conducting speed tests. Test sites provide a variety of information about the speed of a link. A meticulous design of tests can illustrate not just the performance in each case but the exact segment where the bottleneck happens. The tests can also be the basis for Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between the operators and users. SLAs ensure the users receiving promised bandwidth or compensation in case of a failure from the operator’s part.

The following were the QoSE parameters measured from the user end:

Download speed (kbit/s): One of the key advertised metrics in broadband services in the download speed, how much traffic a subscriber can receive to the maximum.
Upload Speed (kbit/s): This metrics define the speed in which the subscriber can send traffic to Internet. Plays a significant role in responsiveness and real-time applications like VOIP.
Round Trip Time (milli-sec): Time taken for the traffic to reach a particular destination and return. This is significant in systems that require two-way interactive communication, such as voice telephony, or online games.

Jitter (milli-sec): Jitter is the variation of end-to-end delay from one packet to the next within the same packet stream/connection/flow. Jitter experienced by the packets, more relevant for Real-time traffic like VOIP.

Packet-Loss (in percentage terms): Number of packets (in percentage terms) which doesn’t reach the destination. This can result in highly noticeable performance issues with Streaming Technologies, VOIP and Video conferencing.

Availability (in percentage terms): This measures the number of times we are able to access the Broadband services. If T attempts are made to connect to the Internet, and if F times the attempt failed, then Availability = (1–F/T) x 100

[http://lirneasia.net/projects/2006-07/bbqos] LIRNEasia's Broadband QoSE Benchmarking project