QoS metrics for performance assessment in integrated terrestrial-satellite multimedia platforms

This paper presents the results of a study concerning the issue of QoS guarantee to multimedia applications over a satellite platform. The main objective of our study is the definition of QoS metrics at the service level (customer QoS metrics) and, most important, their mapping onto QoS indexes defined at the network level. This allows the monitoring of the quality perceived by the end user through the control of parameters directly defined and modifiable at the system level. The proposed metrics are exploited to test the physical and functional architecture of the SkyplexNet satellite platform developed within the framework of an ARTES-3 line 1 ESA project.