Economic impact of QoS differentiation for streaming flows in a realistic 3G networks

To optimize their networks, Telecom operators tend to use the quality of Service (QoS) differentiation in order to ensure fair use and sufficient capacity. In this study, the economic impact of QoS differentiation mechanism implementation in 3G network for streaming flows is assessed according to QoS satisfaction constraint. Two approaches are developed through different scenarios. In the first case, the QoS expectations are met by over dimensioning the network and in the second by both introducing mechanisms of QoS differentiation and adapting the dimensioning. At radio access level, the implementation of static QoS differentiation mechanism shows the most profitable way while the streaming flow remains minority. Moreover, this solution brings an improving of user satisfaction at competitive cost and it allows optimizing the spectral resources. At packet core level, the implementation of static QoS differentiation has no impact on the Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) dimensioning but it could noticeably impact the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) dimensioning. Moreover, its cost should be independent of the ratio of streaming in data traffic. Nevertheless the additional cost remains in the second order compared to the global network expenses.