improving the volte experience
TRANSCRIPT
Improving the VoLTE Experience: Best Practices from Early Launches
An Infonetics Research Webinar Co-produced with Spirent Communications
#VoLTE The Webinar Will Begin Shortly
Improving the VoLTE Experience: Best Practices from Early Launches
An Infonetics Research Webinar Co-produced with Spirent Communications
#VoLTE
Today’s Speakers
3
JoAnne Emery Event Director Infonetics Research (Moderator)
Rich McNally Director Service Experience Programs Spirent Communications
Stéphane Téral Principal Analyst, Mobile Infrastructure and Carrier Economics Infonetics Research
Eric Sinclair Manager Service Experience Programs Spirent Communications
#VoLTE
Agenda
4
Market Trends
3
4
Challenges
Best Practices
Case Studies
Sponsor Background
Conclusions
Audience Q&A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4
#VoLTE
Mobile Broadband Rules but Voice Stays
‣ Global mobile revenue forecast:
• US$815.8 billion by year end (+2% over last year)
• US$852.5 billion in 2017
‣ Broadband is the next growth engine, surpassing SMS/MMS revenue this year
• We forecast US$290 billion in 2018, up 75% from 2013
‣ Voice will still account for >48% of total mobile service revenue in 2018
$0
$200
$400
$600
$800
$1,000
CY12 CY13 CY14 CY15 CY16 CY17 CY18
Rev
enue
(US$
Bill
ions
)
Voice SMS/MMS Broadband
© Infonetics Research: 2G, 3G, LTE Mobile Services and Subscribers Market Size and Forecasts, June 2014 5
‣ 1.5 billion active users worldwide of OTT mVoIP in 2013…
• Mobile operators using OTT for subscribers travelling out of country
• Activity continues to expand in Japan, China, and South Korea
‣ …that will taper as users whittle choices down and over-penetration settles out
‣ Proliferation of smartphones fueling growth
• We expect OTT mVoIP subscribers to more than double from 2013 to 2018, to 3.1 billion
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
CY11 CY12 CY13 CY14 CY15 CY16 CY17 CY18
Subs
crib
ers
(Mill
ions
)
OTT mVoIP VoLTE
6 Infonetics Research: 2G, 3G, LTE Mobile Services and Subscribers Market Size and Forecasts, June 2014
Although OTT Dominates mVoIP…
…the Revenue Model Remains Challenging
‣ In 2013, 1.5 billion mVoIP OTT subscribers contributed $10 billion in revenue
• Successful providers are using the app as a platform to upsell
• Revenue declines as users eliminate multiple OTT apps
‣ VoLTE is starting to have an impact but values are small; only 12 operators have commercial service so far
‣ We forecast combined native and OTT mobile VoIP to grow to $24.7 billion in 2018
• Based on 3.4 billion mVoIP subscribers, 90% of which are OTT
$0
$5
$10
$15
$20
CY11 CY12 CY13 CY14 CY15 CY16 CY17 CY18
Rev
enue
(U
S$ B
illio
ns)
OTT mVoIP Native mVoIP
7 © Infonetics Research: 2G, 3G, LTE Mobile Services and Subscribers Market Size and Forecasts, June 2014
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Cumulative W-AMR HD Voice Networks
HSPA commercial VoLTE commercial
‣ 119 mobile operators offer HD voice with W-AMR* as key HD voice enabler
• 95 on HSPA
• 12 on LTE (VoLTE + IR.94 video calling)
• 8 on GSM/HSPA
• 2 on HSPA/LTE
• 2 on GSM
‣ 92 smartphones (including carrier and frequency variants) support VoLTE
• Including products by Asus, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung, and Sony Mobile
• The new Apple iPhone 6 & 6 Plus models support VoLTE
Source: GSA, September 23, 2014
8 *W-AMR: Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate codec
VoLTE Taking Off, Marketed as HD Voice…
…and SK Telecom Fuels the Momentum
‣ 20 commercial VoLTE networks and 51 million VoLTE subscribers this year
‣ Worldwide revenue of $1.2 billion at the current voice ARPU
• In spite of SK Telecom’s VoLTE adoption (8M+ subscribers in May 2014)…
• …no evidence VoLTE is increasing ARPU (despite SKT charging a premium!)
‣ By 2018 we expect ~325 million VoLTE subscribers and $7 billion in revenue
9
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
$0
$2
$4
$6
$8
CY12 CY13 CY14 CY15 CY16 CY17 CY18
Subs
crib
ers
(Mill
ions
)
Rev
enue
(US$
Bill
ions
)
VoLTE Market Opportunity
© Infonetics Research: 2G, 3G, LTE Mobile Services and Subscribers Market Size and Forecasts, June 2014
The Feedback Is Extremely Positive so Far
‣ Connection is super fast, ringtone sound quality exceptional
‣ Virtually no background noise; voice is crystal clear
‣ Video call quality is crisp and sound
• Superior to Skype and other OTT apps
10
The ultimate goal is to keep every subscriber on your network with the carrier-grade service features that beat OTTs
There Is Little Surprise!
‣ VoLTE is reliable
• Offers guaranteed QoS
‣ VoLTE provides high quality
• Uses W-AMR codecs (12.65kbps or 23.85kpbs) and QoS Class Identifier (QCI) SIP signaling
‣ VoLTE is spectrally efficient
• Due to LTE’s all-IP architecture and new features in 3GPP releases —such as MIMO antenna technology — voice requires less bandwidth in LTE spectrum than it does in 2G/3G networks
11
Source: Nokia Networks, 2012
Agenda
12
Market Trends
3
4
Challenges
Best Practices
Case Studies
Sponsor Background
Conclusions
Audience Q&A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
12
#VoLTE
The Experience Matters
14
‣ VoLTE needs to deliver a better user experience than OTT and legacy services
• There is only one way to truly know if new devices and services are ready to launch
• You need to measure the experience at the device, using actual consumer devices
‣ Spirent has been in the trenches, rolling out VoLTE with leading operators for 2 years
• Following are some best practices for evaluating and improving VoLTE…
• …to ensure a successful launch of new devices and services
Agenda
15
Market Trends
3
4
Challenges
Best Practices
Case Studies
Sponsor Background
Conclusions
Audience Q&A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
15
#VoLTE
Practice #1: Measure What Matters
16
‣ Our experience: • Functional testing is increasingly insufficient for
assuring user experience
• Combined live network and lab evaluation of user experience (UX) is a better approach
• If you don’t measure everything that matters to users, problems will emerge
‣ Best practices: • Focus on objective assessment of what the
user experiences
• Measure all key factors impacting user experience
• Measure quality and consistency
MOS (wideband mobile-to-mobile and narrowband landline) Mobile Originated and Terminated Block/Drop
Rates Conversational Audio
Delay
Video Delivery
Audio / Video Sync
Battery Life
VoLTE UX Metrics
Practice #2: Stress the Device Like a User
17
‣ Our experience: • Measurements of UX are only valid if they
reflect real user behavior
• Multi-service voice and data usage stresses the device
• Dropped calls and other UX elements are impacted by multi-service usage
‣ Best practices: • Implement multi-service use cases for
pre-launch device evaluation
• For example, set up continuous push emails during test calls
1.1% 0.9%
1.1%
Manufacturer 1 Manufacturer 2 Manufacturer 3
Voice only Multi-service
Dropped Call Rate by Device Manufacturer Voice Only Vs. Multi-Service
1.3% 1.4%
1.9%
Practice #3: Rank Devices (and Services)
18
‣ Our experience: • There is a wide variance in UX across
device models
• It’s a competitive marketplace - showing rank by UX category is a powerful motivator
‣ Best practices: • Consider the relative performance of
devices and not just the absolute
• Rank and compare all pre-launch devices by UX category
• Set thresholds based on population performance (and raise over time)
No one wants to be in this range
Speech Quality Downlink Uplink
Device A
Device A
Device B Device B
Device D
Device D
Device C
Device C
Device E
Device E
Practice #4: Assess from the Top Down
19
‣ Our experience:
• You can spend a lot of time and money gathering stack-loads of data you don’t use
• Broad statistical assessments with focused drilldown into problems saves time
• RTP and RF tracing can provide key insight into root causes of poor experience
‣ Best practices:
• Only collect RTP/IP and RF DM logs at UE (and IMS) where problems are identified or in focused pre-planned instances
• Use the data to accelerate triage/isolation of UX issues to network/device/service
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
200 300 400 500 600Pa
cket
s/s
Received Packets/s Missing Packets/s
HO HO
Isolating the Root Causes of Poor VoLTE Speech Quality
0
1
2
3
4
5
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Dow
nlin
k M
OS
RTP Metrics Help Identify Cell-Specific Issue
Agenda
20
Market Trends
3
4
Challenges
Best Practices
Case Studies
Sponsor Background
Conclusions
Audience Q&A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
20
#VoLTE
Case Study: VoLTE Speech Quality
21
‣ Drive test of live US VoLTE network with varying RF
‣ MOS very flat across good, fair and poor RF environments
• Average speech quality mean opinion score (MOS) of 3.5
• In very poor RF conditions, MOS tends to degrade rapidly
‣ RTP jitter and delay also flat across varying RF conditions
• In very poor RF, RTP performance drops off rapidly
22.1
17.2 16.8 16.2 16.6 16.2 15.9
-105 -100 -95 -90 -85 -80 -75
Average RTP Jitter (ms) by RSRP (dBm)
3.55 3.53 3.46 3.53 3.48 3.52
Good Fair Poor
Device 1
Device 2
VoLTE MOS (POLQA) by RF Environment
Case Study: Typical Causes of Poor MOS
22
‣ Week-long drive test of VoLTE in major US city
‣ RF issues are most common and fairly easy to detect • Distant or no dominant server
• Interference / weak server
• Dragging handover
‣ IP (RTP) issues also common • Configuration / IP connectivity
‣ Other issues • No apparent RF or IP issues
• Device issue related to buffering, packet re-assembly or codec
RF 79%
IP 16%
Other 5%
Root cause of VoLTE MOS < 2.5 by category for week long drive test of major US city
‣ Are problems due to: device, network, or interaction?
‣ Comparative scorecards help identify the source of issues
‣ Scorecard on right comes from tests on a live VoLTE network
• Network RF conditions are good
• Device 2 is less efficient at using air-interface resources, but…
• RTP performance is okay
• Ideal MOS from RTP stream shows speech quality should be good
• Device 2 jitter buffer or codec is not working properly!
Case Study: Isolating Root Causes
23
VoLTE Analytics Scorecard
Overall Rank Device 1 Device 2
User Experience
Speech Quality
Network – RF Conditions
Received Power (RSRP)
Signal Quality (RSRQ)
Interference (CINR)
Device-Network Interaction
Resource Allocation
Modulation Efficiency
RTP – Packet Jitter
RTP – Packet Delay
RTP – Packet Loss
Device Buffering and Decoding
Ideal MOS from RTP
Actual - Ideal MOS
Case Study: Isolating Root Causes
24
‣ Used RTP analysis to isolate issue with service infrastructure / IP layer
‣ Collected IP sniffer data via device and server-side logs in area with low MOS • RF is good
• RTP jitter and delay is okay
• RTP packet loss rate very high
‣ Diagnosis • The network is working and packets are
getting through but…
• There is a major IP connectivity issue leading to dropped packets
-86.3 -98.7
Serving Cell Neighbor Cell
RSRP
One location: VoLTE MOS < 2.5 with good RF but packet loss rate > 9%!
RTP Jitter: 14 ms RTP Delay: 20 ms RTP PLR: 9.3%
RF
RTP
RSRQ: -12.3 CINR: 4.6
Case Study: Making Improvements
25
‣ Results from live network testing of VoLTE and IR.94 video
‣ Key factors that matter to users:
• Speech quality (MOS)
• Frozen or impaired frame rate
‣ Prior to optimization, VoLTE performs poorly
‣ After optimization VoLTE is 1st or 2nd best in all UX categories
3.4%
13.2%
19.5%
25.3%
Frozen/Impaired Frames
IR.94 (Optimized)
OTT 2
OTT 1
IR.94 (Pre-optimization)
Frozen/Impaired Frames for IR.94 Video vs. OTT
2.4
3.0
3.3
3.6 3.8
Speech Quality (POLQA MOS)
OTT 1
VoLTE (Pre-optimization)
Circuit-Switched
VoLTE (Optimized)
OTT 2
VoLTE vs. OTT and CS Speech Quality (HD Codec)
Optimization improvement
Optimization improvement
Agenda
26
Market Trends
3
4
Challenges
Best Practices
Case Studies
Sponsor Background
Conclusions
Audience Q&A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
26
#VoLTE
27
Partnering with service providers and device manufacturers to improve the user experience of devices and services
Over 2 years F4L program led to decreased variance between devices, more
consistent speech quality
F4L program also led to better average speech quality across portfolio
Effect of Fit4Launch on Portfolio Speech Quality over first 2 years
Fit4Launch programs for evaluating user experience of pre-launch devices are
deployed at 3 US operators
Improving User Experience
28
Inventing systems and methodologies for measuring and analyzing the user experience of mobile devices and services
Inventing Systems and Methods
Location
2003 2008 2010 2012 2013 2014
Live Lab
Spirent User Experience Analytics timeline
Speech File Transfer & Web Browsing Call Battery Life
Voice & Video Calling
2011
Video
Agenda
29
Market Trends
3
4
Challenges
Best Practices
Case Studies
Sponsor Background
Conclusions
Audience Q&A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
29
#VoLTE
‣ With the RF in order, beat the OTT with voice and video calling over LTE!
• Video calling over LTE is very challenging because it requires low latency, low error rate and high bit rate
• With the GSMA toolbox, IR.92 and IR.94, when the LTE network is congested, VoLTE and video calling services can use LTE QoS features to prioritize packets to ensure service quality
- Pure OTT can’t
‣ With 71 operators currently investing in VoLTE studies, trials or deployments, it’s only a matter of time for mobile operators to retake their destiny
30
The VoLTE Advantage
Agenda
31
Market Trends
3
4
Challenges
Best Practices
Case Studies
Sponsor Background
Conclusions
Audience Q&A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
31
#VoLTE
Audience Q&A
32
JoAnne Emery Event Director [email protected] Infonetics Research (Moderator)
Rich McNally Director Service Experience Programs [email protected] Spirent Communications
Stéphane Téral Principal Analyst, Mobile Infrastructure and Carrier Economics [email protected] Infonetics Research
Eric Sinclair Manager Service Experience Programs [email protected] Spirent Communications
#VoLTE
Thank You This webcast will be available on-demand for 90 days
For additional Infonetics events, visit https://www.infonetics.com/infonetics-events/
#infoneticsevent
#VoLTE