Specialist Task Force 374:
Assessment of Quality of Service (QoS) via audits and surveys including the life cycle steps other than utilization of the service

Who we are:

Team Leader: Pierre-Yves Hébert py.hebert@afutt.org
Team Members: Antony Oodan oodan@btinternet.com
Armelle Trotin armelle.trotin@lsti.fr
Christoph Stepping christoph.stepping@qualigon.de
Georgios Karachos georgios.karachos@qualigon.de
François Fischer francois.fischer@fscom.fr
Jean-Yves Monfort jeanyves.monfort.6@orange.fr

Why we do it:

This STF was launched in support to the Commission services priorities for ICT standardisation in 2008, more specifically in support of the INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE clause of the document, with a particular emphasis on consumer protection. Its aim is to help users to take advantage from competition:

-       ensuring that users, including disabled users, derive maximum benefit in terms of choice, price, and quality;

-       promoting the provision of clear information, in particular requiring transparency of tariffs and conditions for using publicly available electronic communications services;”

Maximum benefit in terms of choice, price, and quality means that users should have available reliable information on the Quality of Service (QoS) they can expect from the various offers at any stage of the service life cycle including stages other than utilization of the service.

At the moment, there are more user complaints to the user organizations about the stages of the service life cycle other than utilization of the service than about the utilization of the service itself. Therefore there is a need to refine the QoS indicators in this area in order to allow for making available a more reliable and representative information to the users. 

For more details, see our Terms of Reference

How we do it:

The STF will develop two deliverables, an ETSI Guide and an ETSI Technical Specifications:

• DEG/USER-00024 "Methods of testing for the QoS parameters of the service life cycle steps other than utilisaton" 
  Scope: The whole range of indicators and QoS parameters for the service life cycles steps other than utilization of the service, e.g. Preliminary information. Establishment of the contract, Service  provisioning, Service alteration, Technical upgrade, Service support, Complaint management, Repair, Charging/Billing, Network/service management and Cessation. The purpose of the STF is to fulfill the gaps of the missing standardized test protocols for Qos parameters in EG 202 009-2 so that the result are fully comparable and reproducible whatever provider is targeted and whoever carries out the tests. It is intended also that these protocols are applicable to any kind of services.
• DTS/USER-00025 "Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies providing QoS audits and surveys"
  Scope: the purpose is to list the rules needed to ensure that the results of QoS audits and surveys are objective, reproducible and comparable. The work aim will be to review the existing standards in the QoS area (ISO 9000, ISO 17021, ISO 20000, etc.) in order to identify what are those applicable to this particular case and to define the additional requirements for bodies providing QoS audits and surveys. Finally, it will carefully describe the QoS assessment process including the rules to select a representative panel of user. All together, these statements are intended to be used as a frame of reference. Regarding the work on DTS/USER-00024, the objective of the STF is to define the missing methods of testing needed for the QoS parameters related to the following cycle steps:

• Preliminary information,
• Establishment of the contract,
• Service provisioning,
• Service alteration,
• Technical upgrade,
• Service support,
• Complaint management,
• Repair,
• Charging/Billing,
• Network/service management and 
• Cessation

For each of the above life cycle steps, the STF will define the methods of testing all the QoS parameters detailed in Annex A of the ToR. While doing that, a particular attention will be given to check the provision of a clear information, in particular on transparency of tariffs and conditions for using publicly available electronic communication services;

These methods of testing will define the precise conditions to measure time and percentages where appropriate but also, when a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) has to be evaluated, the content of the questionnaires that the interviewees will have to answer to assess such MOS in order to ensure the comparability of the results as well as the composition of the interviewee panel.

• Review of existing standards in the field;
• Requirements to ensure the impartiality of the body in charge of a survey i.e no link with any provider under survety;
• Description of the QoS assessment process including the rules to select a representative panel of users.

Time plan for the work:

The ETSI deliverables will be published before the conclusion of the action: 31 October 2010.
The following reports will be submitted to the EC/EFTA:

• Interim Report to be delivered to EC/EFTA before 30 November 2009

• Final Report to be delivered to EC/EFTA before 31 October 2010

How to contact us:

Pierre-Yves Hébert: py.hebert@afutt.org +33 6 09 40 09 57

This information is based upon STF working assumptions.
The views expressed do not necessarily represent the position of ETSI in this context.

Last updated: 2013-04-13 17:26:34