Development of a quality of service (QOS) policy framework for mobile broadband services in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Development of a QoS Policy Framework for Mobile Broadband Services in Sri Lanka Quality of Service (QoS) has become an important aspect of regulation as part of industry monitoring and consumer protection objectives. The statutory framework that exists currently in Sri Lanka for mobile broadband QoS regulation is elementary, outdated and no proper monitoring mechanism in relation to the telecommunications environment today. Therefore, the current regulations falls short of driving improvements in quality of service in the telecommunications industry, promoting investment and innovation in the provision of services, and empowering consumers to make informed decisions about the choice of services and service providers. This research is mainly focused to identify the most suitable parameters required to measure the broadband QoS in mobile telecommunication; define target values for those parameters; define the procedures to get the measurements and define the auditing procedures for the regulator. There are few steps used to gather information for the policy framework. A survey was conducted among the professional in mobile telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka as the premier step. Then a study was done about the already implemented broadband policy frameworks in other countries. And also, it was thoroughly followed the definitions and standard introduced by ITU and ETSI. Finally seven QoS parameters were identified which are suitable for the proposed QoS policy framework and defined their target values. The measurements for three parameters have to get from live tests and remaining four can be calculated from the network tools already used by the operators. Therefore first three measurements should be taken by the regulator and remainings should be taken by the operator and required to send them to the regulator. It is proposed to do these testings once a month and the regulator should do an audit once a quarter for each and every operator.