The Broadband Forum has launched a new project – Broadband Quality Experience Delivered (Broadband QED), an effort that Vodafone Predictable Network Solutions (PNSol) will lead.

The project will focus on factors such as latency, consistency, predictability and reliability. Bfroadband QED will use Quality Attenuation to deliver greater insight into experience quality and outcome, looking at the performance aspects of networks and the services that they enable, rather than just the data rate.

The Broadband Forum will initiate the project at the group’s quarterly meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Broadband Quality Experience Delivered

Vodafone has gotten a head start, trialing Quality Attenuation over a range of fixed access technologies in its own network, successfully using it to identify broadband performance characteristics that “traditional” packet layer performance techniques and tools failed to reveal.

The project is expected to provide a comprehensive overview of Broadband QED and its applicability to broadband networks. A written report will cover the theory, measurement technique, use-cases and benefits of the approach. The second phase of the project will consider specific applicability to the various Broadband Forum Work Areas.

“As an industry we’ve increased the speed of broadband to one gigabit and beyond, which is a remarkable achievement, but we now have to look beyond speed,” said Gavin Young, Vodafone head of fixed access centre of excellence, in a prepared statement. “Historically, we have looked at data rate and ping time but now, as new applications place more strain on networks, we need to make the network invisible so users don’t even know it is there – we want to get to a place where everything just works. That means we need to improve other aspects of quality such as latency, consistency, predictability and reliability, ultimately moving from a fast network to an invisible network.”