The Quest for Mobile Video Experience Improvement
Mobile video continues to grow in volume and importance and mobile network operators are evaluated by their ability to deliver a good experience. According to OpenSignal, mobile video is the single largest category of traffic carried on mobile networks. Consumption is expected to grow to keep pace with consumer demand and is an extremely relevant metric.
Current networks are KPI-centered, reporting information such as Primary Resource Blocks availability, packet loss or jitter variation. MNOs all over the world will need to optimize their networks to ensure a good video experience and they will need to reassess how capacity planning is done as current engineering practices don’t provide a comprehensive view on E2E video QoE.
Understanding the processes to map network KPIs to video KQIs – ie: application throughput, video start time and buffering ratio- that determine QoE enables MNOs to ensure a better video experience. With the advent of live streaming and large sports events, this issue increases in criticality with lower end-to-end latency requirements, as seen below.
However, a question that MNOs need to ask is “What are the network optimizations which should be considered to improve performance without adding capacity to the existing cell sites?”
Over a recent study conducted with a Tier 1 Mobile Operator, Bell Labs found several improvements to the existing 4G network, if proper TCP and policy enforcement parameters were adjusted to a group of cells during its busy hours.
The scenarios in the study show a trade-off between mobile device resolution versus video QoE impact during cell busy hour. As a result, there’s a considerable 20%-30% reduction in cells reporting poor video experience, moving them to fair or good video QoE according to a specific scenario.
As we enter 2019, mobile video gains even greater significance and heavy-users are paying attention to the rankings companies like OpenSignal are publishing, amplifying the word of mouth.
What is your MNO doing to improve your mobile video experience?