Managing the OTT Challenge: OPTICOM Launches App-2-App QoE Testing on Smartphones

ERLANGEN, Germany, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- MWC Barcelona Hall 1 B 39 -- At this year's Mobile World Congress, OPTICOM is promoting 'Smart Testing': That is embedding Quality-of-Experience (QoE) measurement capabilities on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Smartphones. As an alternative to the expensive wireless communications drive test equipment owned by Telcos, OPTICOM's App-based measurement, best described as 'App-2-App Testing,' offers OTT service providers the chance to manage their QoE with Standards based end-to-end metrics on the Smartphone.

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"We expect 'Smart Testing' by Apps to be the next step of an evolution that might radically affect the wireless communications drive test equipment market. Currently, most of the installed base of Quality-of-Experience test equipment is in the hands of Telcos, so it is just not accessible for OTT service providers," explains Michael Keyhl, CEO and founder of OPTICOM. "In this highly competitive scenario, however, OTT service providers need versatile tools which - regardless of any network infrastructure – can guarantee they deliver services of adequate or even premium quality, as in the case of HD Voice."

Based on OPTICOM's experience in the co-development of the latest ITU-T Standards, such as POLQA for end-to-end (E2E) voice quality testing, this approach works independently from a network infrastructure, in the same fashion that OTT services are not tied to a specific Telco's network. OPTICOM's software-based Apps can easily be installed on COTS Smartphones, or embedded in applications, both, hidden or visible to the end user. Unlike dedicated network test infrastructure, Q-Apps can be released in volumes and spread without limits and therefore enable crowd sourcing Quality-of-Experience (QoE) benchmarks from the subscriber base.

OPTICOM's Q-Apps for voice quality testing currently include POLQA (P.863); the Next-Generation Mobile Voice Quality Testing Standard for 3G and 4G/LTE networks, including full HD Voice listening quality analysis, and its predecessor Standard PESQ (P.862). Further analysis comprises ECHO measurement and talking quality analysis. Video quality testing is expected to follow.

Starting with a pair of Smartphones, complete walk and drive test tool systems can be realized without additional hardware. Benchmark results can easily be reported to a network monitoring centre, or uploaded and archived in 'the Cloud.' The Cloud approach enables sharing of benchmark data among OTT service providers, Telcos and the subscriber base.

OPTICOM GmbH - Hall 1 B39

About OPTICOM

OPTICOM GmbH is the leading vendor for Voice, Audio and Video quality measurement technology and OEM products for the analysis of Mobile and IP-based networks. Since its foundation as a spin-off from Fraunhofer's MP3 development team, the pioneers in perceptual quality testing have continuously been providing International world-class standards for audiovisual quality evaluation, including PESQ, PEAQ and PEVQ, and now also source POLQA.

For 17 years, the Perceptual Quality Experts from Germany have been striving to evangelize a growing community of soft- and hardware developers, network operators and quality assurance people, how to properly assess digital networks, carrying Voice, high-quality Audio and Video.

OPTICOM's proven OEM technology can be found in most state-of-the-art products, including the Who's Who of the Test &Measurement and Telecom's industry.

www.opticom.de

SOURCE OPTICOM GmbH