By Jos Delbar & Bart Vercammen, Technicolor
Today OTT is becoming a common way of delivering video to the home, with Wi-Fi as the transport medium once inside. Wi-Fi quality of experience (QoE) is far from acceptable in today's deployments, and streaming solutions try to overcome this disadvantage by using adaptive streaming algorithms and packet prioritization techniques. However, when a consumer chooses to stream 4k content from an OTT service, he or she will not be satisfied with SD video quality due to bad Wi-Fi.
Today's full home coverage solutions offer a combination of RRM/SON capabilities, extenders and roaming solutions. Although these solutions vastly increase the Wi-Fi QoE for the subscriber, they are unable to guarantee a 4k video service delivery over Wi-Fi.
Technicolor is convinced the desired experience for a subscriber lies in a dynamic, self-adapting home network. Dynamic is the key word, as it ensures the Wi-Fi network does not impact non-video applications when there is no video content active. All services need to blend seamlessly, without creating an impression that a consumer needs to sacrifice. Furthermore, the network needs to be able to deal with environmental changes, without noticeable impact for the subscriber.
A dynamic, service-aware system that can monitor and guarantee 4k OTT content delivery must be capable of the following:
1) Detection: Dynamic identification of video service flows and required bandwidth.
2) Monitoring: Through continuous monitoring of the system, indicate whether video service quality was adequate at any moment in time.
3) Proactive care: The system will proactively steer non-video devices to other bands or access points, to reduce their airtime consumption and safeguard the 4k video services.
4) Reactive care: In cases where Wi-Fi issues are so impactful that 4k video quality cannot be guaranteed, the system must indicate root causes and potential cures for the future.