CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Zoftcom

Who are we?

  • +10 yr. in the Telco software development
  • 9 years helping Telco’s with regulatory protocols of Internet Bandwidth
  • Extensive work on Internet Quality of Experience providing tools to reveal hidden issues
  • Mobile Apps to assist technicians in the Internet installation process
  • Wi-Fi Apps and Desktop applications to map best CPE installation location
  • Telecom, Retail & Productive Companies

Key accomplishments

  • QoS for Net Neutrality in Chile and Ecuador
  • QoE in Chile, Puerto Rico, Peru, Mexico, USA & Central America
  • Desktop and Mobile application for installation birth certificate.

Internet User Experience

  • Unique and non-invasive method of Internet Quality of Experience measurement
  • Real-time reports for fast actions
  • Hundreds of metrics to correlate information

The Fragmented View

The Challenge

  • When you consider the full end to end (E2E) path of a service, i.e. from the source content server to the customer’s screen, MSO’s have very limited visibility of critical sections of this path such as:
    • CDN: from content server to edge of CDN
    • Aggregated Path: from edge of the CDN to the edge of the MSO’s network
    • Home Network: WiFi or ethernet after the CPE
  • The only portion of the E2E path under the control of MSO is often monitored using hardware probes or DPI. Both methods are disruptive, costly and can increase the amount of traffic with the core network and degrade the network’s performance.
  • Probes need to be embedded deep into the transport network infrastructure and only monitor the lower layers of the OSI protocol stack.
  • A user experiences the service at the top layer of the OSI protocol stack and traditional probes cannot directly monitor the upper layers of the protocol stack where the customer is actually experiencing the service.

The Solution

The UQOX solution allows those in charge of the Network, NOC Engineers, and Customer Services to directly measure how the end user is experiencing the service.

  • Each Probe is a sophisticated “bot” that emulates the behavior of a human browsing the internet, downloading content, and watching video content from free and paid services.
  • The probes are plug and play and are positioned behind the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) anywhere on the network.
  • The probes use cheap standard off the shelf small form factor PC hardware and are autonomous and only require a mains power socket and a WiFi or ethernet connection to the MSO’s network, the same way as a subscriber.
  • The cross-visualization of the different results can quickly show the origin of the problem and quickly act on issues in the network before they cause problems in the perception of the service.

UQOX – How it works

Examples of tests performed

  • HTTP by Elements
  • FTP, HTTP & Other Transfers
  • Overall and individual data
  • All Times separated by stage List of slower sources
  • Reload and scroll in page
  • Download Speed
  • Download Time
  • Transferred bytes
  • Network interface speed
  • Sniffer & TCP Info
  • Videos Streams
  • DNS
  • Resolution time
  • SpeedTest (OOKLA)
    • Download speed
    • Upload speed
    • Latency
    • Minimum, average and maximum download speed
    • Resolution drops
    • Picture pixelization, freezing, and buffering

UQOX - Benefits

  • Monitor multiple classes or packages of own Services
  • Analysis and comparisons between geographical areas
  • Standardization and homologation of CPE
  • Monitoring of competitor’s Services
  • Impact of the introduction of new network elements (i.e. cache platforms, CDNs)
  • Calibration of network and configuration files for different networks
  • Comparison of multiple access technologies
  • Validation and monitoring of new services, or changes in the DPI or policy restrictions
  • Compliance with SLA, Neutrality Laws in the network and other contractual imposition
  • Monitoring of local caches platforms, CDN or specific services
  • Online real-time information, Customizable reports and graphical dashboards
  • Powerful BI and analytics, export reports and results to Excel & PDF

More and more Businesses offer free WiFi as a marketing tool

But what is the real User Experience, and how does this impact the customer’s perception of the Brand? It might be free, but it doesn't have to be bad...

We developed a version of our solution (HW and SW) for a client that:

  • Fully supported for b, g, n in 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands
  • Small Linux based devices
  • Control of the Wi-Fi spectrum and interference
  • Best Practices and Antenna power gain configurations
  • “Walk Test”, to analyze the Wi-Fi spectrum on the Fly
  • Full assessment of current install.

ABOUT US

Founded on a principle of empowering technology with human expertise, we are focused on the design and execution of high value technology solutions for our customers to solve day to day problems minimizing risk, reducing cost and opening new business channels for them.