SwissQual, the independent Swiss network quality measurement company, has announced the release of a new technology to make drive test data collection processes shorter and more cost effective. This innovation delivers data for analysis through a combination of radically new data compression techniques.
When a drive test car is in operation it can easily generate over 100 Mbytes of data per measurement channel, per hour. If 8 channels are being supported, this means that each car can generate more than a DVD full of data within a working day. Traditionally this has been downloaded by memory stick, DVD, LAN connections or by over-the-air data transmission. The first three methods require manual intervention to physically transfer the data. The third option, whilst allowing for unattended operation and potentially near real time reporting, becomes impracticable with such large data volumes.
Said Pero Juric, SwissQual VP of Product Management; “Customers always want the maximum amount of detail to perform the fullest analysis of their network problem areas. However, operationally, the less data to transfer and manage, the better things are. Each piece of data you decide to transmit and store has an impact in terms of operational time and money. The more data you analyse, the longer it can take to produce reports. Large data volumes also make it very difficult to deliver fully unattended probe operation unless you accept dramatically reduced usefulness of the data returned. Clearly the volume of data generated was an issue that we needed to deal with.”
To combat these problems SwissQual has designed and applied for patents on an innovative way of screening the data that is collected. This works by allowing the survey manager to specify ahead of time exactly what data is of interest in any given circumstance or event.
Says Pero Juric; “Let me try and put this in simple terms. Most of the time, most of the network parameters will show good quality and normal operation. It is not particularly useful to transfer, store and manage measurement data if all it really tells us is that “everything was OK”. So our intelligent probes continually analyse the stream of data coming in, compare it against KPIs set by the customer, and look out for particular events such as dropped calls. Based upon what it sees, it intelligently applies a range of “filters” to select the data that is stored. So if, for example, a call is dropped, or audio quality drops below the threshold set, then all the troubleshooting data required from before and after the event is stored. But if the network is performing to standard then only selected averages and higher level data are stored. The result can be a data download size reduction of 75%!”
These new technologies are now being incorporated into SwissQual’s network quality measurement solutions.
Says SwissQual CEO, John May: “Transmitting and storing unnecessary data costs money and can significantly reduce operational flexibility and efficiency. It can also make it harder to “see the wood for the trees”. Our innovation helps to make network quality management as efficient and as flexible as possible. More importantly it can help operators to immediately focus on the important issues and take better informed management decisions.”
