ITU Regional Standardization Forum for Africa
(Kampala, Uganda, 23-25 June 2014)
QoS systems in Uganda
Echeda Robert,
Compliance Specialist,
Uganda Communications
Commission
recheda@ucc.co.ug
Kampala, Uganda, 23 June 2014
Uganda Communications Commission
Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) established by
the Communications act 2007 (which was revised in 2013) as
the regulator of the Communications Sector in Uganda. Its
core mandate is to promote the interests of consumers and
operators as regards the quality of communications services
and equipment.
UCC has licensed 6 PLMN networks, 5 ISP, 2 fiber cable
operators, 3 Mast operators and 3 technical service providers
each operator is required to ensure services meet the basic
QoS standards.
Kampala, Uganda, 23 June 2014
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QoS legal Framework
The Communications act
QoS regulations
License requirement
The Name and Shame Policy
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Mandate of UCC
to set national standards and ensure compliance with
national and international standards and obligations laid
down by international communication agreements and
treaties to which Uganda is a party.
promote and safeguard the interests of consumers and
operators as regards the quality of communications
services and equipment.
establish an intelligent network monitoring system to
monitor traffic, revenue and quality of service of operators
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Roles of UCC
Establish Quality of Service Framework.
QoS assurance through periodic monitoring and
evaluation.
Adopt internationally inter-operative standards
Establish equipment type approval regulations
Carry out and certify Type approval of epment.
Manage scare resource
Establish and maintain a mutually conducive
environment for operators, the public and authorities
Promote consumer awareness through public
dialogues and stakeholder workshops.
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Roles of service providers
Operators to provide services that meet the
minimum requirements of QoS standard.
Establish Monitoring system, customer support centers and
proactively address consumer complaints.
Ensure redundancy of network infrastructure
Ensure use of type approved equipment
Ensure optimum usage of authorized scare resource
through use of efficient technologies.
Establish open standard interoperable points of interconnect
and share resources where technically feasible.
Ensure integrity of network systems and protect consumer’s
privacy or confidentiality of information.
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Consumers
Buy Type approved terminals
Ensure proper use of services
ensure to Use services of licensed
operators
Demand and Pay for services used
Use the right channels for Complains
May resort to UCC for arbitration
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QoS Monitoring system
Drive tests along routes of high traffic
in towns with the highest traffic.
Auto generation of calls from Mobile unit, the call
profile is: setup time out of 12s, duration of 60s
and a call window of 90s based on common usage
patterns.
Parameters monitored Call success rate, Dropped
call rate, Blocked call rate, call setup success
rate.
Data collected in the 10 major towns
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Monitoring Ctn
Other statistics submitted by
operators include network outage
stats, Consumer Compliant reports
and network performance statistics.
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Parameters
Congestion: Probability of not accessing a traffic Channel- TCH congestion
– (0.5%)
Call Drop Rate: Percentage number of calls that are dropped after
connection to the system or Network during the call duration - (<2%)
Call Block Rate: Percentage number of calls that are blocked after call set
up - (<2%)
Percentage of good quality calls: the percentage of Good calls made
within the hour – (>95%)
Success call rate: Success call is one which terminates with ‘no’ answer’ on
voice mail service, announcement that subscriber is not available, with a
busy signal, with an announcement that wrong number has been dialled,
and in conversation – (>99% )
Network Availability: time that the network resources
Are available to the consume, >95% for MSCs and BSS And >95% for BTS
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Evaluation and enforcement
Following conclusion of monitoring, the major
cause and areas of failure are identified
through a consultative forum with respective
operator and remedial action plan developed.
The comparative performance of the
operators are published in public media.
The remedial plan is periodically monitored for
effectiveness and potential impact to QoS
performance. The UCC may institute other
measures of enforcement like penalities for
repeated failure to achieve minimum targets.
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QoS Eco system
QoS
REQUIREMENTS
UCC-QoS
REGULATIONS
SERVICE
PROVIDER QOS
OFFERED
CONSUMER
PERCEPTION
NETWORK
PERFORMANCE
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Inter relations of different views of
QoS
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Relationship between QoS and NP
QoS criteria
Non network related
Network related
QoS criteria
QoS criteria
Mapping
Network performance
parameters
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Target - range
or limit
Parameter 1
xxxx
Parameter 2
yyyy
Parameter N
zzzz
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Methodology for Mapping QoS to
Network performance
The user's QoS requirements is the starting point. This is
mapped to QoS offered parameters by the service provider.
These are mapped to network and non-network related
performance parameters.
The network related parameters are mapped into NP
parameters and target values are assigned. A set of
monitoring systems keeps track of the desired performance.
The achieved end-to-end QoS performance is derived from
the measurements and combined with the non network
related QoS.
QoS performance is compared with the users/customer's QoS
perceived and Corrective action is taken to address the
difference.
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Mapping QoS to Network performance
The achieved QoS is the end-to-end QoS performance is derived from
measurements.
users/customer's QoS perceived is obtained from customer surveys,
consultative workshops and could be indicated by number of complaints.
Corrective action is taken to resolve difference between QoS Perceived and
QoS achieved.
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Relationship btn QoS and NP
An example of mapping of QoS into NP is shown below:
- QoS requirement for telephony: not more than x % of
connections made to experience difficulty on the clarity
of conversation;
- the NP requirements are the parameters identified as
contributing to call clarity:
transmission loss, noise (impulsive and non impulsive),
echo, delay, crosstalk, voice clipping, (and possibly
others);
end-to-end target values for each parameter may be
specified. The sum effect should result in not more
than x % of calls experiencing difficulty in call clarity.
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Challenges
Correlating QoS targets to consumer
perception
Correlating QoS achieved to QoS perceived by
the consumer.
Correlating QoS perception to network
performance.
Establishing the cause of failure and
determine the appropriate remedial action.
Addressing thefts, vandalism, unstable power
and delays in issuing way leaves.
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Conclusion
Uganda has established technical and legal mechanisms for
monitoring and enforcement of QoS to ensure consumer’s
interests are addressed.
Monitoring is designed to benchmark respective operator
performance against set target and identify major cause and
areas of failure for remedial action.
Over the years as subscriber numbers grow and services are
unified on one platform there is a growing need for proactive
monitoring of end to end performance facilitated by
methodology of relating QoS performance target to
performance target of network requirements for the service.
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RECCOMENDATION
A standard Guideline to correlate QoS
performance targets to performance
targets of the network requirements
for the service.
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TO BE CONTINUED
ITUT SG12 AFR
Kampala, Uganda, 23 June 2014