Quality of Service: An Enigma!

Abstract

While India’s “Digital India” program is trying to usher in a digitally empowered society, Quality of Service (QoS) of the vital telecom and Internet infrastructure that powers digitization has received little attention. While India relies predominantly on wireless data services, the burgeoning demand for more data and better services is indeed becoming a challenge. According to Nokia India Mobile Broadband Index 2017, total data payload in Indian telecom network grew 60% over the last year to reach 165 peta bytes. Despite the high indices on consumption, India is ranked 89 among 100 countries on average mobile Internet connection speed at 4.9 Mbps compared to other Asia Pacific countries such as Sri Lanka (6.9 Mbps) and Thailand (8.6 Mbps), as per Akamai State of the Internet 2017 report. As in any developing countries, inadequate radio spectrum allocation, poor backhaul, and high-capacity optic fiber connectivity, poor right of way conditions, have resulted in poor QoS of broadband services in the country. There are also problems with spam calls and message that affect the experience of the users (Sridhar et al. 2017). Taking into account all these, the chapter tries to answer the following questions:

• What are the QoS parameters especially with respect to broadband services?

• How do we measure and enforce QoS norms on the service providers?

• How can pesky calls and messages that affect the experience of users be controlled—both through technological and regulatory interventions?

Trying to introduce QoS in IP routed and connectionless networks is indeed a Utopian idea. This is like trying to introduce fine cuisine, gourmet dishes, and a la carte menus in fast food restaurant.

—Meddeb (2010)