Platform for Quality of Experience Evaluation in Real Time Applications over LTE Networks

Abstract

GREEN-T is a CELTIC-Plus project which lists as one of its goals to develop and implement a 4G emulator, allowing the end-user to evaluate the quality of experience of real-time based services. There are many simulators for various wireless technologies (LTE, UMTS, WI-FI) and almost all of them have as outputs different values, such as bitrate, received power, SNR, depending on the simulation type. In spite of the reliability of these simulators, it is difficult to understand the impact of those values in real communication. This paper describes the implementation of an LTE emulator based on system simulator results where the end user can experience real time and real scenario communication conditions and interactivity with applications. This platform aims to convert the merely numerical values, obtained through the use of simulation tools, to a real-time experience for the simulated scenario. We demonstrate a 2Mbits/s bitrate video application, with a BER value of around $1 \times 10^{ - 6}$ or a received power around 1 nW in a simulation scenario. In spite of the fact that the implementation was based on the LTE, protocols of other 4G and 5G networks will be allowed to be used and tested, since they are IP based protocols like LTE.