Measuring the Effect of Packet Corruption Ratio on Quality of Experience (QoE) in Video Streaming

The volume of Internet video traffic which consists of downloaded or streamed video from the Internet is projected to increase from 42,029PB monthly in 2016 to 159,161PB monthly, in 2021, representing a 31% increase in the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). The market for mobile network operators is unpredictable, fast-paced and very competitive. End users now have more options when choosing service providers. With superior network Quality of Experience (QoE), service providers can increase margins by charging more for better quality. Packet corruption occurs when the receiver cannot correctly decode transmitted bits. This study identified the threshold at which the QoE of video streaming services became unacceptable due to the effect of packet corruption. In this paper, several experiments were carried out on video streaming services, creating disturbances to evaluate the user satisfaction level using the mean opinion scores. Network Emulator (NetEm) tool was used to create the packet corruption experienced during the video sessions and the QoE for different packet corruption percentages was established. From the experiments conducted, we found that user QoE decreased as the Packet Corruption Ratio (PCR) increased. With knowledge of the effect of the PCR, service providers can ensure that the PCR is kept within acceptable limits from end-to-end and this will ultimately lead to superior QoE from end users, which will in turn translate to improved subscriber base and profitability.