QoS systems in Uganda

1. ITU Regional Standardization Forum for Africa (Kampala, Uganda, 23-25 June 2014) QoS systems in Uganda Echeda Robert, Compliance Specialist, Uganda Communications Commission recheda@ucc.co.ug

2. Uganda Communications Commission Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) established by the Communications act 2007 (which was revised in 2013) as the regulator of the Communications Sector in Uganda. Its core mandate is to promote the interests of consumers and operators as regards the quality of communications services and equipment. UCC has licensed 6 PLMN networks, 5 ISP, 2 fiber cable operators, 3 Mast operators and 3 technical service providers each operator is required to ensure services meet the basic QoS standards.

3. QoS legal Framework The Communications act QoS regulations License requirement The Name and Shame Policy

4. Mandate of UCC to set national standards and ensure compliance with national and international standards and obligations laid down by international communication agreements and treaties to which Uganda is a party. promote and safeguard the interests of consumers and operators as regards the quality of communications services and equipment. establish an intelligent network monitoring system to monitor traffic, revenue and quality of service of operators

5. Roles of UCC • Establish Quality of Service Framework. • QoS assurance through periodic monitoring and evaluation. • Adopt internationally inter-operative standards • Establish equipment type approval regulations • Carry out and certify Type approval of epment. • Manage scare resource • Establish and maintain a mutually conducive environment for operators, the public and authorities • Promote consumer awareness through public dialogues and stakeholder workshops.

6. Roles of service providers Operators to provide services that meet the minimum requirements of QoS standard. • Establish Monitoring system, customer support centers and proactively address consumer complaints. • Ensure redundancy of network infrastructure • Ensure use of type approved equipment • Ensure optimum usage of authorized scare resource through use of efficient technologies. • Establish open standard interoperable points of interconnect and share resources where technically feasible. • Ensure integrity of network systems and protect consumer’s privacy or confidentiality of information.

7. Consumers Buy Type approved terminals Ensure proper use of services ensure to Use services of licensed operators Demand and Pay for services used Use the right channels for Complains May resort to UCC for arbitration

8. QoS Monitoring system Drive tests along routes of high traffic in towns with the highest traffic. Auto generation of calls from Mobile unit, the call profile is: setup time out of 12s, duration of 60s and a call window of 90s based on common usage patterns. • Parameters monitored Call success rate, Dropped call rate, Blocked call rate, call setup success rate. • Data collected in the 10 major towns

9. Monitoring Ctn Other statistics submitted by operators include network outage stats, Consumer Compliant reports and network performance statistics.

10. Parameters Congestion: Probability of not accessing a traffic Channel- TCH congestion – (0.5%) Call Drop Rate: Percentage number of calls that are dropped after connection to the system or Network during the call duration - (<2%) Call Block Rate: Percentage number of calls that are blocked after call set up - (<2%) Percentage of good quality calls: the percentage of Good calls made within the hour – (>95%) Success call rate: Success call is one which terminates with ‘no’ answer’ on voice mail service, announcement that subscriber is not available, with a busy signal, with an announcement that wrong number has been dialled, and in conversation – (>99% ) Network Availability: time that the network resources Are available to the consume, >95% for MSCs and BSS And >95% for BTS

11. Evaluation and enforcement Following conclusion of monitoring, the major cause and areas of failure are identified through a consultative forum with respective operator and remedial action plan developed. The comparative performance of the operators are published in public media. The remedial plan is periodically monitored for effectiveness and potential impact to QoS performance. The UCC may institute other measures of enforcement like penalities for repeated failure to achieve minimum targets.

12. QoS Eco system

13. Inter relations of different views of QoS

14. Relationship between QoS and NP QoS criteria Network related Non network related QoS criteria QoS criteria Mapping Network performance Target - range parameters or limit xxxx Parameter 1 yyyy Parameter 2 zzzz Parameter N

15. Methodology for Mapping QoS to Network performance • The user's QoS requirements is the starting point. This is mapped to QoS offered parameters by the service provider. These are mapped to network and non-network related performance parameters. • Thenetwork related parameters are mapped into NP parameters and target values are assigned. A set of monitoring systems keeps track of the desired performance. • The achieved end-to-end QoS performance is derived from the measurements and combined with the non network related QoS. QoS performance is compared with the users/customer's QoS perceived and Corrective action is taken to address the difference.

16. Mapping QoS to Network performance • The achieved QoS is the end-to-end QoS performance is derived from measurements. • users/customer's QoS perceived is obtained from customer surveys, consultative workshops and could be indicated by number of complaints. • Corrective action is taken to resolve difference between QoS Perceived and QoS achieved.

17. Relationship btn QoS and NP An example of mapping of QoS into NP is shown below: • - QoS requirement for telephony: not more than x % of connections made to experience difficulty on the clarity of conversation; • - the NP requirements are the parameters identified as contributing to call clarity: transmission loss, noise (impulsive and non impulsive), echo, delay, crosstalk, voice clipping, (and possibly others); • end-to-end target values for each parameter may be specified. The sum effect should result in not more than x % of calls experiencing difficulty in call clarity.

18. Challenges • Correlating QoS targets to consumer perception • Correlating QoS achieved to QoS perceived by the consumer. • Correlating QoS perception to network performance. • Establishing the cause of failure and determine the appropriate remedial action. • Addressing thefts, vandalism, unstable power and delays in issuing way leaves.

19. Conclusion Uganda has established technical and legal mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement of QoS to ensure consumer’s interests are addressed. Monitoring is designed to benchmark respective operator performance against set target and identify major cause and areas of failure for remedial action. Over the years as subscriber numbers grow and services are unified on one platform there is a growing need for proactive monitoring of end to end performance facilitated by methodology of relating QoS performance target to performance target of network requirements for the service.

20. RECCOMENDATION A standard Guideline to correlate QoS performance targets to performance targets of the network requirements for the service.

21. TO BE CONTINUED ITUT SG12 AFR