Defining Internet Access Service QoS Measurement Server Placement Criteria in National Internet Network

The internet service plays a crucial role in the development and provision of many modern services, including governmental services, leisure, transportation, and even medical services. Therefore, evaluating the quality of service (QoS) of internet access service is important for both operators and end-users, as well as for governmental institutions. This evaluation helps to determine whether the provided internet QoS meets the promised QoS parameters values and to understand the development of the internet service at the national and international level. European Union (EU) regulations set different aims for internet access service measurements, including determining the maximum operator network capacity. For this purpose, internet QoS parameters should be measured after the direct peering point. Evaluating the quality of service available for every end-user is another aim of the EU regulation. For this purpose, all measurements should be made to one measurement point, preferably national internet exchange point (IXP). National regulatory authorities (NRAs) are responsible for evaluating internet quality on the national level. They must provide a tool that enables internet QoS measurements and ensure compliance with regulation regarding the reference measurement server location. The placement of a measurement server is a costly and resource-consuming measure, which also requires the maintenance of each measurement server. Therefore, placing many measurement servers in the national internet network could be impossible for NRA. The research described focuses on evaluating different measurement server locations and their correspondence to regulation. It prescribes the cases and conditions by which NRAs can choose a single internet measurement server location in the national internet network that would meet all or most of the requirements of the regulation. The research also evaluated the practical implementations of the results by analyzing the peering of autonomous systems (AS) of the national internet network. The study practically determined a single measurement server location in national internet network that meets regulatory requirements.