Wireless Video Streaming to IP-Data Testing
05 January 2005 09:27
QVoice Gears Up to Meet the Challenges of the Latest Mobile Network Applications
With the arrival of mobile video and the growing usage of IP-data applications, Ascom stood prepared. At a recent user conference the company announced that QVoice was ready for the challenge with innovative technical features.
Most exciting in the communiqué was how video streaming testing is being implemented in QVoice. The approach – different from all competitive solutions on the market - provides the user with real subscriber visual experiences which tend to weight, masque and interpolate data singles. This is achieved by applying a unique video MOS (Mean Opinion Score) that evaluates the overall satisfaction of the subscriber on seeing the streaming video. Output is related to human visual parameters like ‘blockiness’ and ‘blur’ that help pinpoint possible video problems.
One big advantage of the QVoice video streaming test compared to other test systems is that it uses "live content" (real video stream that fee-paying subscribers see). This can be sports, news, music stars and practically any video streaming that a subscriber would typically be viewing - as opposed to an artificially created stream sample for testing purposes.
Thanks to this "live content" capability, other advantages are realized including the detection of possible network problems - not only in the air interface, but also along the whole route between the streaming server and the subscriber, covering router / firewall problems to addressing. The QVoice network problem detection function is not confined to the route or just one test server (where a test stream resides), but is applicable to any server that the subscribers may access.
The world of 3G applications may be capturing the limelight with video streaming and video telephony. However, the mobile internet era started with the introduction of GPRS a few years back. And with the ever-increasing performance coming from new packet switched air interface technologies - such as EDGE, WCDMA and WiLAN)-the quality and diversity of IP-based services has continued to increase almost immeasurably.
And the requirements of radio engineers have equally matured. Accordingly, Ascom offers a QVoice IP-data option that can test and benchmark key performance indicators for packet switched services such as availability, reliability and throughput. The basic IP based services like FTP, UDP, HTTP and Email can be measured in up to eight different mobile networks / channels in parallel - and in all possible combinations of tests and with different air-interface technologies. This power allows operators to benchmark different services, networks and technologies with the same tool and during the same drive test.
By using QVoice equipment with engineering trace test-mobiles, all detailed information needed for trouble shooting and optimization is available. One important technical performance indicator in a packet data network is the round trip delay (RTD) which can be measured with QVoice by performing dedicated ICMP Ping tests. But with the latest software release (version 4.3), RTD can also be calculated based on the TCP handshake times from measurements of TCP / IP services, typically FTP and HTTP.
The QVoice IP-data test application also functions with most commercial mobile phones and data-cards, thus delivering all the service KPI reports.
For more information on this company:
Ascom Mobile Test Solutions - Mobile Test Solutions - Leading in Mobile Network Testing
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