Turning up Services

Video service quality is ultimately determined by the end user or subscriber. Video quality of experience (QoE) is a subjective concept with components that are nearly impossible to measure in a practical, operational manner. Yet a service provider can make objective measurements on a set of parameters that can be used to judge the performance of the network.  A model for mapping objectively measurable metrics to QoE is the basis for good installation and troubleshooting procedures.

Video quality of service (QoS) testing results displayed on the field technician’s test device should show all the critical parameters that affect video flows. If the program clock reference (PCR) jitter is high, for example, the decoder cannot properly decode the video payload. 

Trouble with IGMP latency affects the time it takes to change broadcast video channels and, therefore, is an important component of customer experience. 

The number of lost packets in the video transport stream, as measured by the continuity error indicator, is the most critical.  Setting pass/fail thresholds in test devices for each of these parameters helps promote consistency in operational practices and improve service assurance processes for IP video services.  

When turning up VoIP service, field technicians should verify service provisioning and connectivity to signaling gateways.  They must also verify call quality by placing test calls both within the network and to the public switched telephone network. Critical test call parameters include packet delay, packet loss and jitter. However, the mean opinion score (MOS) will be the most critical service-level agreement (SLA) metric used to measure overall VoIP quality.

To verify Internet data services, field technicians must verify FTTH physical layer performance, ISP connectivity and data service throughput. This is accomplished using a test tool with Web browser and FTP throughput test capabilities. Using selectable test file sizes and both upload and download testing, FTP throughput tests establish performance of the link that models actual use cases more closely than simple download tests. Performing an HTTP test using a Web browser to ensure end users’ ISP access and connectivity is also wise

Verify service provisioning and connectivity to signaling gateways before a FTTH Boxes by tester

Notes: In turning up IP voice service, field technicians need to verify service provisioning and connectivity to signaling gateways.

Related Knowledge:

What is FTTH?

PON Type of FTTH

FTTH Access Node

CWDM OADM Module

FTTH Optical Line Terminal