On the characterization of QoS perceived by end-users of mobile voice services

In this paper we report about a measurement campaign aimed at verifying the correlation between the model of cellular device and the QoS perceived by end-users of mobile voice services. The campaign has been jointly conducted with the two main Italian network operators, Telecom Italia and Vodafone, in order to gather network independent measurements associated with well-known QoS indicators for voice services. The main idea underlying the campaign is to test several phone devices in the same conditions, selected to reflect the end-user behavior. This has been accomplished performing a drive test across the main Italian cities and highways, with cell phones receiving a continuous sequence of mobile-terminated calls. The analysis of collected data highlights how devices have an impact on the end-user perceived QoS.