Quality of Experience in Telecommunications: theory, fundamentals, application guidelines

Description

Abstract

On the road to 6G, there is an opportunity to evolve existing 5G QoS model and make the network able to manage the users Quality of Experience (QoE). This tutorial consists of three parts. First, this tutorial will present the core concepts and principles required to implement QoE management in communication networks, from fundamentals to the state-of-the-art research and recent standardization initiatives on the topic. In particular, we will address the current landscape but also open challenges regarding QoE in 5G and 6G. The QoE influence factors are discussed, with a focus on 6G use cases like immersive media (6-DOF streaming, point clouds, etc.). The fundamentals of QoE include a proper definition of (a variety of) QoE metrics like MOS or Poor-or-Worse ratios, as well as their relationships. Some concrete QoE models are discussed to illustrate how to get from QoS to QoE.

The second part discusses then QoE in a 6G environment. We will introduce the concept of “system QoE”, as a means to evaluate the QoE across a set of users in a system. To this end, the fundamental relationships and mathematical models for system QoE are presented. This also includes the concept of QoE fairness and appropriate models. Thus, the first two parts will cover in-depth the theoretical knowledge required to successfully manage QoE in a telecommunication framework: an actionable definition of QoE, statistical models of subjective ratings and their relations and principles of QoE management.

Finally, the third part will present the state of the art of QoE management approaches, providing practical solutions for most relevant use cases. To this end, this tutorial will leverage the current joint effort being done by the Video Quality Experts Group to write a white paper on QoE management for future communication networks. Open discussions on those topics and getting involved in the  VQEG 5G-KPI Whitepaper will conclude the tutorial.