Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) compete for content provider business by promoting quality. Communication Service Providers (CSPs) compete for subscribers by promoting speed & reliability. Consumers of streaming video invest time and money to obtain network service, capable device(s), subscribe to content sources, and often pay premiums for quality content.
Although a large number of players are involved in the delivery of video streaming to the end customer, when quality deteriorates, the first party to bear the brunt is the CSP - subscribers switch to another service provider or change their plans, but hardly look into other factors that could have contributed significantly to their poor experience. This situation is exacerbated by the lack of uniform standards in the delivery of streaming video, making it more difficult for the various parties within the ecosystem to zoom into the actual reason for the deterioration in end-customer experience .
Most network equipments are capable of providing reports and statistics based on access quality of service (QoS). QoS measuring transport layer however lacks the ability to compare actual metrics that sophisticated consumers could otherwise reveal. For example, network access with very few packets retransmitted is not a reliable indication that a consumer’s tablet or set-top-box is playing streaming video in HD.
CSPs therefore, need metrics that are aligned to the customers’ perception of quality. Measuring a customer’s experience requires analyzing application layer quality and detecting the same metrics the device is capable of reporting. This requirement becomes more critical with the video delivery eco-system currently undergoing significant change, with giants such as Apple launching their own CDN to ensure better control of the content experience.
The ability to deliver this level of information hinges on the ability of existing solutions to provide analytics from both the network layer end as well as the consumer end. This in turn calls for the following key functions to be incorporated in the analytics - a method that analyzes streaming video with the ability to detect a wide range of metrics in real-time; application specific score that enables comparing the video quality to the entire delivery eco-system transport quality segmented by internet hop; and a web user interface enabling CSPs to create graphs and other visuals to compare the metrics supporting the presented score.
The QoS analytics must therefore go beyond reporting on the transport layer to capturing the actual experience delivered on the user's screen. The resulting scores can then be used by CSPs to manage their service plans, address customer care issues and improve network planning with customers' experience being a focal point across these processes. Toward this end, a comprehensive solution must integrate administrative and analytic tools to enable the CSP to pinpoint the delivery quality within or beyond its own control while determining the most impactful strategy to improve customer experience.
This article was originally published in Procera Networks' Blog.
