ETSI releases new specification on Quality of Service for F5G

Sophia Antipolis, 20 June 2022

The ETSI's 5th-Generation Fixed Network group (F5G ISG) has released a new specification, ETSI GS F5G 005 on “High-Quality Service Experience Factors”. This specification studies the end-to-end Quality of Experience (QoE) factors for services over the broadband network. High QoE reflects the overall performance of services from the end user's perspective. It also analyses the general factors that impact service performance and identifies the overall high-QoE dimensions for each service, mainly using Virtual Reality (VR) as a benchmark for F5G applications.

The QoE combines objective, measurable components (such as metrics on the network and service platform conditions required for a specific service to work properly) and subjective components (such as user expectations of the service, previous user experience or personal user preferences). Quality of Experience is an important factor in the success of F5G services and is expected to be a key differentiator between competing service offerings. Subscribers to network services and applications are increasingly sensitive to how well a service meets their expectations for performance, operability, availability and ease of use. This specification focuses on QoE assessment based on measurements made on the network and the application levels and summarizes the requirements and recommendations for F5G QoE. The main take-aways of this specification are:

  • Measurable Key Quality Indicators (KQI) on the application level
  • Specification of the measurable Key Quality Indicators on the network level in the different segments of the network
  • Specification of different mechanisms and approaches to either measure or improve QoE

Several measurement approaches to key performance indicators and QoE assessment methods are addressed, including some novel approaches, such as network slicing- and AI-based QoE assessment. “The Quality of Experience we provide to our customers is of paramount business importance and gives us an edge in the market. Therefore, I am very pleased that ETSI F5G is providing guidance to improve QoE management in our networks with this first document on the topic", says Luca Pesando, Chair of ETSI F5G ISG.