Addressing un-interoperability issues in QoE models: Is a layered modelling effective?

Un-interoperability issue is herein defined as the unfeasibility (or at least difficulty) of integrating the results of different modelling activities to broaden the range of scenarios where the integrated model can be applied. Given the huge number of parameters to be considered when defining a Quality of Experience (QoE) model, many different QoE models have been proposed in the literature. Each involves different scenarios and parameters, and specifies how such features are combined. In order to solve un-interoperability issues, we propose a layered modelling approach, which follows the well-known model for interoperable systems in the networking field. Each layer of the model is devoted to a specific quality domain and the interfaces with the other domains are well-defined in order to further simplify the combination of models related to different domains. Such model could be the reference for a general-purpose QoE management system. Experimental results for validating the proposed model are provided.