End-to-end performance evaluation in high-speed wireless networks

When dealing with lossy networks, performance management through conventional Quality of Service (QoS) based methods becomes difficult and is often ineffective. We find, in fact, that in this case quality emerges as an end-to-end factor, for it is particularly sensitive to the end-user perception of the overall service. To better explore the value of assessing Quality of Experience (QoE) alongside QoS in high-speed, lossy networks, this paper investigates the case of video streaming services in Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) networks, a prominent example in which network performance is critically related to the application. By means of a pilot RoF test-environment, we study the sensitivity of QoE to the most critical network parameters for different test case scenarios. The outcome is a QoE-based method to assess networks performance, which allows to underpin the network criticalities and non-linear relationships between service and network planes.