Quality of service assessment: a case study on performance benchmarking of cellular network operators in Turkey

This paper presents findings on performance benchmarking of cellular network operators in Turkey. Benchmarking is based on measurements of standard key performance indicators (KPIs) in one of the metropolitan cities of Turkey, Ankara. Performance benchmarking is formulated by incorporating customer perception by conducting surveys on how important KPIs are from the user's point of view. KPIs are measured, with standard test equipment, by drive test method on specified routes. According to the performance benchmarking results, the GSM and UMTS network operators achieving the best performance were determined in Ankara. Speech qualities of network operators, as the most popular service, were also evaluated by several statistical methods including pdf/cdf analysis and chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. The network operator providing the highest speech quality in Ankara was determined with the methods applied. Overall, the results and approaches on benchmarking of cellular networks in Turkey are reported for the first time in this paper. The approaches proposed in this paper could be adapted to wide-scale benchmarking of services in cellular networks.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Cellular networks, benchmarking, key performance indicators, speech assessment, quality of service

Quality of service assessment: a case study on performance benchmarking of cellular network operators in Turkey

Keywords:

Cellular networks, benchmarking, key performance indicators, speech assessment, quality of service,

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organizations should take more responsibility in the assessment of networks and services given. This could be achieved by either planning regular benchmarking studies or subcontracting benchmarking works to third parties (some authorized companies with nondisclosure agreements), and then reporting some relevant outcomes and findings to the public.
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