Measurement of QoS parameters and comparative performance analysis of the major mobile networks in Bangladesh

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to study the mobile network, in terms of coverage and quality of service. Mobile communication played a vital role in changing the social, economic and technological change in Bangladesh over last 2 decades. Mobile operators use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to judge their network performance and evaluate the Quality of Service (QoS) to understand end user perceived quality. The KPIs are derived with the help of some counters using different formulations. On the other hand, KPIs sometimes misled about network quality perception of users as there are some specific network problems that cannot be identified through KPI measurement. In some cases, KPI gives a general idea about a problem rather than pinpoint the problem location or specific reason causing the problem. Therefore, operators perform drive test periodically in different locations to understand the actual network scenario experienced by the users. Benchmarking drive test is the standard procedure to measure competitive network scenario among operators. Drive test tool is used to collect the network data. Coverage, different quality parameters like CSSR, CDR, FER, C to I can be calculated from the drive test data. The drive test log can also be used for further dig down to find out the actual reason that caused the network problems; for example, why the call drop occurred in a specific location- can be found out. Benchmarking is mostly important in city area, where all the major mobile operators exist and quality of the service is very important to the users. On the other hand, few operators are present in rural area and coverage is the deciding factor to comment on the network of rural area. In this study, we have measured 2G network scenario in 5 thana (of 3 city, namely- Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet). From the benchmarking drive test, we have found that Banglalink is the best operator followed by ROBI. Airtel stood the last where Grameenphone secured the third place. It should be noted that, the performance difference among the 4 mobile operators is very marginal. Several recommendations have been placed to improve the network condition.