The paper focuses on assessing the real-world quality of experience and investigates how this correlates with existing definitions of mobile coverage, which may be more general in nature.
Abstract
In Project Timbre, data is being collected from around twenty standard, off the-shelf mobile phones to examine the performance of live audio streaming over today’s mobile networks. The project focusses on assessing the real-world quality of experience and investigates how this correlates with existing definitions of mobile coverage, which may be more general in nature. The analysis presented uses a statistical approach based on the collected data to examine the probability of a given level of service, much as is done today for broadcast networks. It shows that there can be a marked difference between so-called ‘signal coverage’ and ‘service coverage’ and has identified the ‘Time to First Byte’ as a key metric of interest for live audio distribution over mobile networks. This paper also makes the case for using better data to enable continued dialogue between content providers, the mobile industry and regulators to both optimise live audio streaming and to better inform listener expectations.
Introduction
Audio apps from broadcasters give access to the widest possible range of both live radio stations and on-demand content. Listening live and on the move, for example as a pedestrian or in a car, is almost certainly delivered by mobile networks.
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