Journal of Communications and Networks

The Korean Institute of Commucations and Information Sciences (한국통신학회)
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A "GAP-Model" based Framework for Online VVoIP QoE Measurement

  • Published : 2007.12.31
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Abstract

Increased access to broadband networks has led to a fast-growing demand for voice and video over IP(VVoIP) applications such as Internet telephony(VoIP), videoconferencing, and IP television(IPTV). For pro-active troubleshooting of VVoIP performance bottlenecks that manifest to end-users as performance impairments such as video frame freezing and voice dropouts, network operators cannot rely on actual end-users to report their subjective quality of experience(QoE). Hence, automated and objective techniques that provide real-time or online VVoIP QoE estimates are vital. Objective techniques developed to-date estimate VVoIP QoE by performing frame-to-frame peak-signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR) comparisons of the original video sequence and the reconstructed video sequence obtained from the sender-side and receiver-side, respectively. Since processing such video sequences is time consuming and computationally intensive, existing objective techniques cannot provide online VVoIP QoE. In this paper, we present a novel framework that can provide online estimates of VVoIP QoE on network paths without end-user involvement and without requiring any video sequences. The framework features the "GAP-model", which is an offline model of QoE expressed as a function of measurable network factors such as bandwidth, delay, jitter, and loss. Using the GAP-model, our online framework can produce VVoIP QoE estimates in terms of "Good", "Acceptable", or "Poor"(GAP) grades of perceptual quality solely from the online measured network conditions.

Keywords

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