JP4287338B2 - User experience quality monitoring apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a packet communication technique, and relates to a technique for monitoring a user's quality of experience for a real-time application running on a packet network.

In a service that handles real-time media information such as IP telephone and video distribution, the communication quality is not guaranteed in a relay network itself such as an IP network used for transferring media information. For this reason, a quality control technique for a real-time application used when using such a service is required.
Conventionally, as a technique for managing the quality of such a real-time application, the quality at the user level that actually uses the real-time application, that is, the user instead of the network quality indicating the communication status such as the packet loss rate related to media information Techniques for estimating the quality of experience have been proposed (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1, Patent Documents 1 and 2, etc.).

  In recent years, as a management technology related to the user experience quality of these real-time applications, the amount of data passing through the node and the use of lines in devices such as core nodes and edge nodes in a large-scale network, specifically routers that have a relay function. In addition to managing network quality using statistical information such as rates, technologies that monitor call-by-call for each call (flow) by passive measurement of real-time applications are being studied (for example, (See Non-Patent Document 2, etc.).

The applicant has not yet found prior art documents related to the present invention by the time of filing other than the prior art documents specified by the prior art document information described in this specification.
JP 2004-081118 A JP 2004-023594 A ITU-T Recommendation G.107, "The E-Model, a computation model for use in transmission planning", May.2000 R. Caceres and A. Clark, "RTP Control Protocol Extended Reports (RTCP XR)", IETF RFC3611, May. 2003

  However, such a conventional technique is a technique for transferring quality information including information related to user experience quality between user terminals that are executing a real-time application, and these are recorded as MIB (Management Information Base) on the user terminals. By using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) for this information, the network administrator can monitor the quality. Therefore, there is a problem that the user experience quality of the real-time application cannot be monitored in detail and in real time by call-by-call for each call (flow) on the relay network.

  It should be noted that a probe is provided near each node on the user terminal or the relay network, and RTP (Real time Transport Protocol), RTCP (RTP Control Protocol), RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol), which are protocols for realizing a real-time application. ) And the like, and a technique for monitoring application quality at the packet level is also being studied.

  However, such technology is limited to quality monitoring at the packet level, and is not a technology that can monitor the user experience quality for real-time applications. Therefore, when these monitoring results are fed back to QoS control or equipment change on the network, it has been impossible to point out detailed improvements according to real-time applications. Therefore, detailed quality management information, such as the quality of user experience obtained for each call of a real-time application, the quality degradation factor of the quality of user experience, and the quality degradation ground on the relay network, can be efficiently used for QoS control on the network. There was a problem that feedback was not possible.

  The present invention is intended to solve such problems, and monitors the user experience quality of a real-time application and further quality management information obtained from the user experience quality on a relay network in detail and in real time. An object of the present invention is to provide a user experience quality monitoring apparatus and method.

  In order to achieve such an object, a user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to the present invention is provided for each relay node that constitutes a relay network used in a real-time application, and real-time from a packet of a real-time application passing through the relay node. A user experience quality monitoring device for monitoring a user experience quality experienced by a user using a system application, for estimating a user experience quality from quality information indicating communication quality of a real time system application and quality information of a real time system application A storage unit that stores a user experience quality estimation model of the user, and sequentially captures control packets for a real-time application among passing packets that pass through a relay node provided with the user experience quality monitoring device. For each call of the real-time application based on the control packet capture means that extracts the quality information of the real-time application and stores it in the storage unit in association with the classification information related to the call, and the quality estimation model of the storage unit, User experience quality estimation means for estimating the user experience quality of the call from the quality information of the storage unit related to the call.

In addition to this, the user experience quality monitoring device according to the present invention is a user experience element related to the quality element from the quality information of the quality element for each of a plurality of quality elements constituting the user experience quality of the real-time application in the storage unit. Each quality factor estimation model for estimating quality is stored, and when the user experience quality estimation means estimates the user experience quality for an arbitrary call, for each quality element, based on the quality element estimation model of the quality element in the storage unit Thus, the user experience element quality of the quality element is estimated from the quality information of the quality element in the storage unit related to the call .

In addition, when the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to the present invention obtains a user experience quality that integrates each quality element, the storage section provides a user experience that combines these from the user experience element qualities of the real-time application. An overall quality estimation model for estimating the overall quality is stored, and when the user experience quality estimation means estimates the user experience quality for an arbitrary call, each user experience element related to the call based on the overall quality estimation model of the storage unit The user experience total quality is estimated from the quality .

  In addition, when specifying the quality degradation factor, the storage unit stores the target value for the user experience element quality of each quality element for each quality element, and the quality element and the quality degradation factor network with the quality information as an intermediary Stores a quality deterioration factor identification model indicating an association with quality, and stores a quality deterioration factor identification model of a storage unit for a user experience element quality that does not satisfy the target value of the storage unit among user experience element qualities of an arbitrary call The quality information corresponding to the quality factor is identified based on the network quality associated with the quality information that does not satisfy the predetermined target value among the identified quality information as the quality degradation factor of the user experience factor quality. You may further provide the quality degradation factor specific means to identify.

  In addition, when specifying the quality degradation ground, the user experience quality of each call is classified and classified for each transfer path section between the relay node and the adjacent relay node, and a predetermined user experience quality target is obtained for the statistical result. You may further provide the quality degradation ground identification means which identifies whether the said transfer path area is a quality degradation ground by comparing with a value.

  Alternatively, the user experience quality of each call is classified for each transfer path section between the relay node and its adjacent relay node, statistically processed, and the statistical result is compared with a predetermined user experience quality target value. Whether or not the transfer path section is a quality-degraded ground according to the match / mismatch with the evaluation at the opposite relay node with respect to the transfer path section evaluated as having quality deterioration among the transfer path sections. You may further provide the quality degradation ground identification means which identifies these.

  The user experience quality monitoring method according to the present invention is a user experience quality monitoring apparatus provided for each relay node that constitutes a relay network used in a real time system application. A user experience quality monitoring method for monitoring a user experience quality experienced by a user using an application for estimating a user experience quality from quality information indicating communication quality of a real time application and quality information of a real time application The step of storing the user experience quality estimation model in the storage unit, and sequentially capturing and controlling the control packets of the real time system application among the passing packets passing through the relay node provided with the user experience quality monitoring device. For each call of the real-time application based on the packet capture step for control that extracts the quality information of the real-time application from the packet and stores it in the storage unit in association with the classification information related to the call, And a user experience quality estimation step for estimating the user experience quality of the call from the quality information of the storage unit related to the call.

In addition, the user experience quality monitoring device according to the invention of the present application is configured to store, for each of a plurality of quality elements constituting the user experience quality of the real-time application, a user experience element related to the quality element from the quality information of the quality element. The quality factor estimation model for estimating the quality is stored in the storage unit, and when the user experience quality is estimated for an arbitrary call in the user experience quality estimation step, the quality element estimation of the quality element in the storage unit is performed for each quality element. Based on the model, the user experience element quality of the quality element is estimated from the quality information of the quality element of the storage unit related to the call .

In addition, the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to the present invention stores , in the storage step, an overall quality estimation model for estimating a user experience overall quality obtained by integrating these from each user experience element quality of the real-time application in the storage unit. In the user experience quality estimation step, when the user experience quality is estimated for an arbitrary call, based on the overall quality estimation model of the storage unit, the user experience total quality is estimated from each user experience element quality related to the call .

  In addition, when specifying the quality degradation factor, in the storage step, the target value for the user experience element quality of the quality element is stored in the storage unit for each quality element, and the quality element and its quality degradation factor are interpolated with the quality information. A storage unit stores a quality degradation factor specific model indicating an association with network quality, and stores a user experience element quality that does not satisfy the target value of the storage unit among user experience element qualities of an arbitrary call. Based on the quality degradation factor identification model, the quality information corresponding to the quality element is identified, and the network quality associated with the quality information that does not satisfy the predetermined target value among the identified quality information is determined as the user experience element. You may further provide the quality degradation factor specific step specified as a quality degradation factor of quality.

  In addition, when specifying the quality degradation ground, the user experience quality of each call is classified and classified for each transfer path section between the relay node and the adjacent relay node, and a predetermined user experience quality target is obtained for the statistical result. You may further provide the quality degradation ground specific step which identifies whether the said transfer path area is a quality degradation ground by comparing with a value.

  Alternatively, the user experience quality of each call is classified for each transfer path section between the relay node and its adjacent relay node, statistically processed, and the statistical result is compared with a predetermined user experience quality target value. Whether or not the transfer path section is a quality-degraded ground according to the match / mismatch with the evaluation at the opposite relay node with respect to the transfer path section evaluated as having quality deterioration among the transfer path sections. You may further provide the quality degradation ground identification step which identifies these.

According to the present invention, in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus provided for each relay node, the control packet capture unit captures the control packet for the real-time application among the passing packets passing through the relay node, and for the control Quality information used for estimating the user experience quality is extracted from the packet, stored in the storage unit in association with the classification information related to the call, and the user experience quality estimation unit determines each call based on the user experience quality estimation model of the storage unit. A desired user experience quality is estimated from the quality information .
More specifically, in the storage unit, for each of a plurality of quality elements constituting the user experience quality of the real-time application, a quality element estimation model for estimating the user experience element quality related to the quality element from the quality information of the quality element Stores a total quality estimation model that estimates the total user experience quality from each user experience element quality of the real-time application, and estimates the user experience quality for any call using the user experience quality estimation means In this case, for each quality factor, based on the quality factor estimation model of the quality factor in the storage unit, the user experience factor quality of the quality factor is estimated from the quality information of the quality factor in the storage unit regarding the call, and any When estimating the user experience quality for a call, it is based on the overall quality estimation model of the storage unit Te, and it estimates the user experience overall quality from each user experience element quality for the call.
Therefore, the user experience quality of the real-time application can be monitored in detail and in real time for each call on the relay network.

Therefore, the user experience quality obtained for each call of the real-time application, as well as the quality degradation factors related to the user experience quality, and the quality degradation ground on the relay network related to the user experience quality, extremely detailed quality control related to the real-time application. Information can be efficiently fed back to QoS control on the network, and network quality management corresponding to real-time applications can be realized.
Also, based on such detailed quality management information, it is possible to take a very specific action as soon as possible when quality degradation is confirmed, and to provide a more appropriate and advanced quality management service for the relay network. Can provide.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[First Embodiment]
First, a user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a relay network to which the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention is applied.
The relay network 40 includes a packet communication network, and includes relay nodes 20 (20A to 20E) that relay and transfer various packets, and links 40A to 40D that connect the relay nodes 20.

Among the relay nodes 20, the relay nodes 20 </ b> A to 20 </ b> D are edge nodes that accommodate user terminals 30 that can use real-time applications. The relay node 20E is a core node that is connected to the relay nodes 20A to 20D via the links 40A to 40D and relays and forwards packets exchanged between the relay nodes 20A to 20D.
The user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 (10A to 10E) is an apparatus that is provided for each of the relay nodes 20 (20A to 20E) and monitors the user experience quality of a real-time application that is executed via the relay node 20. is there.

  In this embodiment, the user experience quality monitoring device 10 sequentially captures control packets passing through the relay node 20 during execution of a real-time application, and stores the quality in the control packets for each call (flow). Based on the information, the user experience quality actually experienced by the user using the real-time application is estimated by call-by-call for each call, and the user experience quality of the real-time application is monitored in detail and in real time. It is a thing.

[User experience quality monitoring device]
Next, the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
The user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 is composed of an information processing apparatus having a communication function as a whole, and includes a communication interface unit (hereinafter referred to as a communication I / F unit) 11, a storage unit 12, and an arithmetic processing unit 13. .

The communication I / F unit 11 is a circuit unit that transmits and receives various packets to and from the relay node 20 and the relay network 40.
The storage unit 12 includes a hard disk and a memory, and is a storage device that stores various types of information used for processing operations in the arithmetic processing unit 13 and a program 12P. These information and program are fetched in advance from an external device or recording medium via the communication I / F unit 11 and stored in the storage unit 12.

  Various information stored in the storage unit 12 includes a control packet management database (hereinafter referred to as control packet management DB) 12A, a quality information management database (hereinafter referred to as quality information management DB) 12B, a quality element estimation model 12C, a comprehensive There is a quality estimation model 12D and a user experience quality management database (hereinafter referred to as user experience quality management DB) 12E.

The control packet management DB 12A is information for accumulating and managing control packets for real-time applications that are captured from the relay node 20 provided with the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 and that pass through the relay node 20.
The quality information management DB 12B is information that manages the quality information extracted from the control packet managed by the control packet management DB 12A in association with the classification information related to the call (flow) of the real-time application.

The quality element estimation model 12C is an estimation model composed of mathematical formulas and parameters for estimating the user experience quality from the quality information managed by the quality information management DB 12B. Here, for each of a plurality of quality factors constituting the user experience quality of the real-time application such as listening quality, delay, video, etc., there are a plurality of models for estimating the individual user experience quality related to these quality elements, that is, the user experience element quality respectively. It is managed.
The overall quality estimation model 12D is based on mathematical expressions and parameters for estimating the user experience quality that comprehensively evaluates each quality element, that is, the user experience overall quality, from the quality information managed by each user experience element quality and the quality information management DB 12B. This is an estimation model.

  The user experience quality management DB 12E is a real-time system through which the user experience element quality estimated using the quality element estimation model 12C and the user experience overall quality estimated using the overall quality estimation model 12D are transmitted via the relay node 20. Information managed for each call of the application.

The arithmetic processing unit 13 includes a microprocessor such as a CPU and its peripheral circuits, and reads and executes the program 12P from the storage unit 12 to configure various functional units by causing the hardware and the program to cooperate with each other. To do.
As this functional means, there is a control packet capture means 13A and a user experience quality estimation means 13B.

  The control packet capture means 13A captures various packets passing through the relay node 20 provided with the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 by the communication I / F unit 11, and among these packets, a desired call of a real-time application is obtained. The control packet used in the above is selected and stored in the control packet management DB 12A of the storage unit 12 and the quality information is extracted from each control packet managed by the control packet management DB 12A, and the control packet And a function of storing in the quality information management DB 12B of the storage unit 12 in association with the classification information related to the call such as ground information including the transmission source address and destination address of the packet.

  The user experience quality estimation means 13B is a function for estimating each user experience element quality for each call from the quality information managed by the quality information management DB 12B of the storage unit 12 based on the quality element estimation model 12C of the storage unit 12. And based on the total quality estimation model 12D of the storage unit 12, a function for estimating the user experience total quality for each call from the estimated user experience element qualities.

[Operation of First Embodiment]
Next, the user experience quality estimation operation of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic flow of the user experience quality estimation operation in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing packet capture processing in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a user experience quality estimation process in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In order to monitor the user experience quality of the real-time system application for each call, the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 always executes the operation flow of the user experience quality estimation operation shown in FIG. The user experience quality of each call is monitored based on the user experience quality target value 12F in the storage unit 12. The arithmetic processing unit 13 notifies the predetermined management system of the obtained user experience quality and the evaluation result to the predetermined management system periodically or according to the comparison result, or the user The experience quality monitoring device 10 notifies the operator.

When estimating the user experience quality based on the operation flow of FIG. 3, the arithmetic processing unit 13 of the user experience quality monitoring device 10 first executes the packet capture process of FIG. Collect quality information necessary for estimating user experience quality.
In the packet capture process of FIG. 4, the control packet capture means 13A first captures all the passing packets 15 that pass through the relay node 20 provided with the user experience quality monitoring device 10 (step 100).

Then, referring to the protocol information and port information described in the header part of the passing packet 15, it is confirmed whether or not the packet corresponds to a desired real-time application packet (step 101). 101: NO), the process returns to step 100 to process the next passing packet 15.
On the other hand, when the passing packet 15 corresponds to a packet for a desired real-time application (step 101: YES), it is confirmed whether the passing packet 15 corresponds to a control packet by referring to the protocol information and the port information. If not applicable (step 102: NO), the process returns to step 100 to process the next passing packet 15.

If the passing packet 15 corresponds to a control packet (step 102: YES), the control packet is temporarily stored in the control packet management DB 12A of the storage unit 12 (step 103).
Next, the control packet capture means 13A extracts quality information used for estimation of the user experience quality from each control packet stored in the control packet management DB 12A (step 104), and the extracted quality information is The information is stored in the quality information management DB 12B of the storage unit 12 in association with the classification information related to the call such as the ground information of the control packet (step 105), and the process returns to step 100 to process the next passing packet 15.

  An example of the control packet is an RTCP (RTP Control Protocol) control packet defined in Non-Patent Document 2 described above. RTCP is a protocol for reporting quality information used for transfer control of real-time media information, and is combined with RTP (Real time Transport Protocol: RFC 1889), which is also a protocol for transferring real-time media information. used. In particular, RTCP is used to control data flow (transmission / reception) and to describe information about a sender and a receiver.

  RTP is a protocol that adds temporal information to a packet carrying media information such as video and audio in real time and transfers it, but it has only a function to transfer data and does not have a mechanism to convey the communication status. . RTCP is used in combination with such RTP, and complements the functions that RTP does not have. Specifically, the media information receiving side periodically returns RTCP control packets to adjust the transmission rate on the transmitting side. The quality information notified by the RTCP control packet includes lost packet information, buffer overflow information, deterioration concealment information, buffering delay information, buffer size information, delay information, and the like.

  In addition, although FIG. 4 demonstrated as an example the case where the process of steps 100-103 and the process of step 104,105 were performed continuously, you may perform these two processes in parallel. Thereby, even when the packet transfer rate is high, the passing packets 15 can be smoothly accumulated without being lost.

Next, the arithmetic processing unit 13 executes the user experience quality estimation process in FIG. 5 by the user experience quality estimation unit 13B, thereby obtaining a desired user experience for each call from the quality information collected in the packet capture process in FIG. Estimate quality.
In the user experience quality estimation process of FIG. 5, first, the user experience quality estimation unit 13 </ b> B performs a desired operation based on classification information such as ground information associated with each quality information from the quality information management DB 12 </ b> B of the storage unit 12. Quality information of an arbitrary quality factor related to the call is acquired (step 110), and the quality factor estimation model 12C of the quality factor is acquired from the storage unit 12 (step 111). Based on the quality element estimation model 12C, the user experience element quality is estimated from the quality information (step 112).

  In this embodiment, the estimation model used for the estimation of the user experience quality is equivalent to, for example, the known estimation model disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 described above. The relationship between the network quality and the user experience quality actually experienced by the user using the real-time application is modeled by mathematical formulas and parameters.

At this time, in the conventional estimation model, a model for estimating the user experience quality of one quality factor such as listening quality for speech is applied by one type of quality parameter, specifically, the invalid packet rate.
On the other hand, in this embodiment, in order to monitor the user experience quality of the real-time application in more detail, a separate estimation model, that is, a quality factor estimation model, is prepared for each of the plurality of quality factors in advance. The desired user experience element quality is estimated from the quality information regarding the quality element using the corresponding quality element estimation model.

  For example, when voice communication is performed in a real-time application, not only the listening quality but also the delay when voice is transmitted is one of the quality factors, and individual quality factor estimation models for these reception quality and delay are used. Prepared to estimate each user experience element quality. In addition, when audio-video communication is performed using a real-time application, a quality factor related to video is further added, and the user experience factor quality related to video is estimated by the quality factor estimation model.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing an example of a quality factor estimation model used for estimating user experience factor quality related to listening quality. FIG. 7 is a graph showing an example of a quality factor estimation model used for estimation of user experience factor quality related to delay.
In these graphs, the horizontal axis represents the value of quality information related to the quality element, and the vertical axis represents the value of the user experience quality of the quality element.

Therefore, a quality factor estimation model can be obtained by plotting the relationship between the two obtained by actual measurement on a graph and deriving a function representative of the characteristic. In FIG. 6, the function f (QIcap _a ) for calculating the quality factor A (SQEcmpA) indicating the listening quality from the quality information a (QIcap _a ) regarding the listening quality is derived as the quality factor estimation model. In FIG. 7, a function g (QIcap _b ) for calculating a quality factor B (SQEcmpB) indicating a delay from quality information b (QIcap _b ) relating to the delay is derived as a quality factor estimation model.

In this way, Steps 110 to 112 are repeatedly executed, and the user experience element quality is estimated for each quality element for a desired call to be subjected to quality estimation.
Then, the obtained user experience element quality is associated with classification information such as ground information of each call and stored in the user experience quality management DB 12E of the storage unit 12 (step 113).

Next, the user experience quality estimation means 13B acquires the overall quality estimation model 12D from the storage unit 12 (step 114), and based on the overall quality estimation model 12D, each quality element obtained in the above steps 110 to 113 is obtained. The total user experience quality is estimated from the user experience element quality (step 115).
The user experience total quality in the present embodiment is for integrating each user experience element quality and comprehensively evaluating the user experience quality related to the real-time application. Estimation is performed using the generated estimation model.

For example, when voice communication is performed in a real-time application, a function for obtaining a desired overall quality SQE using the quality factor A, that is, the listening quality SQEcmpA and the quality factor B, that is, the delay SQEcmpB shown in FIGS. h (SQEcmpA, SQEcmpB) may be derived and used as the total quality estimation model 12D.
Regarding the overall quality estimation model 12D, for example, in the case of speech quality estimation, the ITU-T recommendation G.A. 107 E-model or the like may be applied.

The function h can also be expressed as h {f (QIcapa), g (QIcapb)} using the individual quality factor estimation models 12C, that is, the function f (QIcapa) and the function g (QIcapb).
Therefore, in step 115 described above, the user experience total quality may be obtained from the original quality information using the quality element estimation model 12C and the overall quality estimation model 12D instead of the user experience element quality of each quality element, In this case, the quality element estimation model 12C and the overall quality estimation model 12D synthesized in advance may be used as the overall quality estimation model 12D.

The user experience total quality thus obtained is stored in the user experience quality management DB 12E of the storage unit 12 in association with classification information such as ground information (step 116).
As a result, the user experience element quality and the user experience total quality related to the desired call are estimated, and the above-described steps 110 to 116 are repeatedly executed, and the user experience element quality and the user experience total quality are obtained for each call to be estimated. Is stored in the user experience quality management DB 12E of the storage unit 12.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the user experience quality monitoring device 10 provided for each relay node 20 constituting the relay network 40 uses the control packet capture unit 13A to determine the number of passing packets that pass through the relay node 20. Capture the control packet of the real-time application, extract the quality information used for estimating the user experience quality from the control packet, associate it with the classification information related to the call, and store it in the quality information management DB 12B of the storage unit 12, Since the user experience quality estimation means 13B estimates the desired user experience quality from the quality information of each call based on the quality estimation model, the user experience of the real-time application is based on the estimated user experience quality of each call. Quality is monitored in detail and in real time for each call on the transit network. Can.

In addition, for each quality factor constituting the user experience quality of each real-time application, the user experience element quality is estimated as the user experience quality from the quality information related to the quality element using the quality element estimation model. Therefore, by setting an individual target value for each quality factor with the user experience quality target value 12F, the user experience quality for each call of the real-time application can be monitored in detail for each quality factor.
In addition, since the user experience overall quality of the real-time application is estimated using the overall quality estimation model, by setting the target value of the overall quality with the user experience quality target value 12F, Based on comprehensive evaluation, user experience quality of real-time applications can be monitored.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention, in which the same or equivalent parts as in FIG.
In the present embodiment, the quality degradation factor is specified at the network quality level from the user experience element qualities obtained in the first embodiment described above.

  The user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment has the configuration of the first embodiment (see FIG. 2) described above, and further includes a quality deterioration factor specifying unit 13C added to the arithmetic processing unit 13. In addition, a quality deterioration factor specifying model 12G is added to the storage unit 12. Note that a description of the same parts as those of the first embodiment described above is omitted.

The quality degradation factor specifying model 12G in the storage unit 12 is a model that is provided for each real-time application and associates the quality element with the network quality that is the degradation factor by using quality information as an intermediary. FIG. 9 is an example of a quality degradation factor specifying model in a real-time application used for voice communication.
In the quality degradation factor identification model 12G of FIG. 9, “listening quality” which is one of the types of quality elements is “loss packet information”, “buffer overflow information” among various quality information extracted from the control packet, Associated with the types of “degradation concealment information” and “buffer size information”, and “delay” that is another quality element is “buffering delay information”, “buffer size information”, And “Delay” type.

Next, “lost packet information” among the types of quality information is associated with a deterioration factor “packet loss” among the types of network quality. Among the types of quality information, “buffer overflow information”, “deterioration concealment information”, “buffering delay information”, “buffer size information”, and “delay” are “delay fluctuation” among types of network quality. Associated with deterioration factors. Among these, “delay” is associated with a deterioration factor of “delay” among types of network quality.
The rules regarding these associations are individually determined for each real-time application based on, for example, the contents of the provided service and the administrator's policy.

  The quality deterioration factor specifying unit 13C of the arithmetic processing unit 13 uses the quality deterioration factor specifying model 12G of the storage unit 12 for each user experience element quality of each call estimated by the user experience quality estimation unit 13B. It has a function of specifying a factor, and the result of the specification is stored in the user experience quality management DB 12E of the storage unit 12 in association with the user experience element quality.

[Operation of Second Embodiment]
Next, the quality deterioration factor specifying operation of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic flow of the quality deterioration factor specifying operation in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing quality degradation factor specifying processing in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The arithmetic processing unit 13 of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 estimates the user experience element quality for each call of the real-time application according to the first embodiment described above, and then the quality deterioration factor specifying unit 13C performs the process shown in FIG. By executing the quality deterioration factor specifying process, the quality deterioration factor related to the deteriorated user experience element quality is specified.
In the quality deterioration factor specifying process of FIG. 11, the quality deterioration factor specifying unit 13C first acquires any of the user experience element qualities of the call to be processed from the user experience quality management DB 12E of the storage unit 12 (step 120). ), Referring to the user experience quality target value 12F in the storage unit 12 and comparing it with the target value of the corresponding quality factor (step 121).

Here, when the user experience element quality does not satisfy the target value (step 122: YES), the quality deterioration factor specifying model 12G is acquired from the storage unit 12 (step 123), and the quality deterioration factor specifying model 12G is obtained. Based on this, the quality information associated with the quality element is identified (step 124).
Next, the quality deterioration factor specifying unit 13C specifies one of the network qualities associated with the quality information as a quality deterioration factor of the user experience element quality based on a predetermined factor distribution algorithm.

  In this factor distribution algorithm, first, the quality information specified in step 124 is acquired from the quality information management DB 12B of the storage unit 12 (step 125), and each quality information is compared with each quality information target value, Degraded quality information is selected (step 126). At this time, the quality information target value used for the comparison may be stored in the storage unit 12 in advance, or a value calculated backward from the user experience quality target value 12F may be used. FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the quality element target value and the quality information target value related to listening quality. FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the quality factor target value and the quality information target value related to delay. The quality information target value can be obtained as the target value in the quality information by tracing the estimated model in reverse from the quality element target value for evaluating the user experience element quality.

  In this way, after selecting quality information that does not satisfy the quality information target value, the network quality associated with the selected quality information is converted into the quality of the user experience element quality based on the quality degradation factor specifying model 12G. The degradation factor is specified (step 127), and the identification result, that is, the quality degradation factor is associated with the user experience element quality and stored in the user experience quality management DB 12E (step 128).

In step 122, if the user experience element quality satisfies the quality target value (step 122: YES), it is specified that there is no quality degradation factor (step 129), and the identification result is set as the user experience element quality. The user experience quality management DB 12E is stored in association with each other (step 128).
As a result, the process of identifying the quality deterioration factor related to the desired user experience element quality of the desired call is completed, and the process returns to step 120, and the above-described steps 120 to 129 are repeatedly executed for each user experience element quality of each call. .

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the user experience quality monitoring device 10 uses the quality deterioration factor specifying unit 13C to determine each of the user experience element qualities of each call estimated in the first embodiment. For those that do not satisfy the quality factor target value, the quality information associated with the quality deterioration factor specifying model 12G in the storage unit 12 is specified, and among the quality information, the quality information target value is not satisfied Since the network quality associated with the quality information is specified as the quality degradation factor of the user experience factor quality, not only the quality of each user experience quality but also the quality degradation factor is determined as the network quality level. Can be specified. Therefore, as a countermeasure when quality degradation is confirmed, a concrete countermeasure can be promptly performed based on this quality degradation factor, and a more appropriate and advanced quality management service can be provided to the relay network.

[Third Embodiment]
Next, a user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention, in which the same or equivalent parts as in FIG.
In the present embodiment, the quality degradation ground in the relay network 40 is specified from the user experience quality for each call obtained in the first embodiment.

  The user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment has the configuration of the first embodiment (see FIG. 2) described above, and further includes a quality degradation ground identification unit 13D added to the arithmetic processing unit 13. In addition, a quality degradation ground evaluation result 12H is added to the storage unit 12. Note that a description of the same parts as those of the first embodiment described above is omitted.

  The quality degradation ground identification unit 13D of the arithmetic processing unit 13 classifies the user experience quality of each call estimated by the user experience quality estimation unit 13B for each transfer path section (directed link) of the real-time application and performs statistical processing. The statistical result is evaluated with the user experience quality target value 12F of the storage unit 12, the evaluation result is stored in the quality degradation ground evaluation result 12H of the storage unit 12, and the evaluation result of each transfer route section is the quality. It has a function of specifying whether or not the transfer path section is against quality deterioration according to the match / mismatch with the evaluation at the opposite relay node for the transfer path section indicating that there is deterioration.

[Operation of Third Embodiment]
Next, with reference to FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, the quality deterioration ground identification operation | movement of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 3rd Embodiment of this invention is demonstrated. FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic flow of the quality deterioration ground identification operation in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 according to the third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 16: is a flowchart which shows the quality degradation ground identification process in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 3rd Embodiment of this invention.

The arithmetic processing unit 13 of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 estimates the user experience element quality for each call of the real-time application according to the first embodiment described above, and then the quality degradation ground identification unit 13D performs the process shown in FIG. By executing the quality degradation ground identification process, the quality degradation ground relating to the deteriorated user experience element quality is identified.
In the quality deterioration ground identification process of FIG. 16, the quality degradation ground identification means 13D first acquires the user experience quality of each call from the user experience quality management DB 12E of the storage unit 12 (step 130), and each user experience Based on the quality route information, classification is performed for each transfer route section (directed link) between the relay node 20 and the adjacent relay node 20 on the relay network 40 (step 131).

  At this time, the user experience quality of each call corresponds to the transfer route passing through the relay node 20, and when viewed from the relay node, the call experience quality goes out of the transfer route section toward the relay node and the relay node. It will go through the transfer path section to go. Therefore, one user experience quality is classified into the two transfer path sections.

  Next, statistical processing such as an average value, variance, standard deviation, maximum / minimum value is performed for each value of user experience quality classified for each transfer path section (step 132), and the obtained statistical result is stored. The presence or absence of quality degradation is evaluated by comparing with the user experience quality target value 12F of the unit 12 (step 133). Then, the evaluation result of each transfer route section is stored in the quality degradation ground evaluation result 12H of the storage unit 12 (step 134).

FIG. 17 shows an example of the quality degradation ground evaluation result 12H obtained by the relay node 20E. Here, the directed transfer path sections “A → E”, “B → E”, “C → E”, “D → E”, “E” corresponding to the links 40A to 40D connected to the relay node 20E. → For each of “A”, “E → B”, “E → C”, and “E → D”, the evaluation results for “total quality”, “quality element A”, and “quality element B” indicate whether there is quality degradation. “×: Quality degradation” and “O: Quality degradation” are stored.
As a result, it is possible to obtain the presence or absence of quality deterioration for each transfer path section from the user experience quality of each call.

The quality degradation ground identification means 13D stores the evaluation result of each transfer path section in the quality degradation ground assessment result 12H in this way, and then is evaluated as having the quality degradation and becomes a bottleneck in executing the real-time application. It is confirmed whether or not there is a transfer path, that is, “x” (step 135). If it does not exist (step 135: NO), a series of quality deterioration ground identification processing ends.
On the other hand, when there is a transfer path section “x” that becomes a bottleneck, such as the transfer path section “B → E” in “total quality” and “quality element A” in FIG. 17 (step 135: YES), An inquiry is made by notifying the opposite node of the evaluation result for the transfer path section as bottleneck information 16 (step 136).

As a result, for example, for the transfer route section “B → E”, an inquiry is made from the relay node 20E to the relay node 20B that is the opposite node of the relay node 20E, and the relay node 20B responds accordingly in the same manner as described above. The evaluation result evaluated for the transfer path section is compared with the evaluation result at the relay node 20E, and the match / mismatch is returned.
When the evaluation match is returned from the opposite node (step 137: YES), the quality degradation ground identification unit 13D confirms that the quality degradation of the transfer path section is confirmed at the relay nodes at both ends of the transfer path section. The transfer path section is identified as a quality degradation ground (step 138), the evaluation of the quality degradation ground evaluation result 12H for the transfer path section is confirmed (step 139), and the series of quality degradation ground identification processing ends.

  In addition, when an evaluation mismatch is returned from the opposite node in Step 137 (Step 137: NO), the quality degradation of the transfer path section has not been confirmed at the relay nodes at both ends of the transfer path section. It is determined that the transfer path section is not the quality degradation ground, the evaluation of the quality degradation ground evaluation result 12H for the transfer path is confirmed (step 139), and the series of quality degradation ground identification processing is terminated.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 transfers the user experience quality of each call estimated in the first embodiment described above to the real-time application transfer by the quality deterioration ground identification unit 13D. Since the statistical processing is performed by classifying each route section, and the statistical results are evaluated by the user experience quality target value 12F, not only the quality of the user experience quality for each call but also the quality degradation ground is relayed. It can be specified at the upper transfer path section level. Therefore, as a response when quality degradation is confirmed, a concrete response can be quickly performed based on the ground against the quality degradation, and a more appropriate and advanced quality management service can be provided to the relay network.

At this time, not only the user experience quality obtained by one call but also the user experience quality obtained by a plurality of calls is subjected to statistical processing, so that the quality evaluation is performed for each transfer route section. Can suppress the impact of calls and real-time application bias, and achieve more reliable quality evaluation.
In addition, since the transfer path section indicating that there is quality degradation in each transfer path section, it is determined whether or not the transfer path section is a quality degradation ground according to the match / mismatch with the evaluation at the opposite relay node. In addition, for each transfer path section, it is possible to integrate evaluations not only at the relay node at one end but also at the relay nodes at both ends thereof, thereby realizing a more reliable quality evaluation.

  Further, in the present embodiment, when the quality degradation ground is specified, since the user experience element quality and further the user experience overall quality are individually evaluated as the user experience quality, the presence or absence of the quality deterioration is individually evaluated. Thus, it is possible to identify the quality degradation ground, and it is possible to easily grasp more detailed quality degradation characteristics for each identified quality degradation ground. Note that it is not always necessary to specify the user experience element quality or the user experience total quality for the specification of the quality deterioration ground, and the quality deterioration ground may be specified using any one of the quality elements. .

  Also, in steps 136 and 137 in FIG. 16, when specifying an evaluation result regarding an arbitrary transfer path section, the evaluation result is notified to the opposite relay node by the bottleneck information 16, and both evaluation results are obtained at the opposite relay node. And the evaluation result match / disagree is returned, so that the presence or absence of quality degradation related to the transfer path section can be shared between the relay nodes at both ends with little exchange, and relaying by quality control processing The impact on network traffic can be minimized. If there is enough traffic, the evaluation result regarding the transfer route section is obtained from the opposite relay node according to a predetermined request instruction, and compared with its own evaluation result. While determining the presence or absence of deterioration, the determination result may be notified to the opposite relay node.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the above-described first embodiment has been described as an example. However, the present embodiment may be applied to the above-described second embodiment. In this case, since the quality degradation factor related to the user experience factor quality of each call is specified, the quality degradation factor of the call passing through the transfer path section is mutually notified to the opposite relay node by the bottleneck information described above. As a result, not only can the quality degradation ground be specified at the transfer path section level on the relay network, but also the quality degradation factor can be identified. Therefore, as a response when quality degradation is confirmed, it is possible to immediately take a very specific response based on the quality degradation ground and quality degradation factors, and to provide a more appropriate and advanced quality management service for the relay network. Can be provided.

  In each of the above embodiments, the case where the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 is implemented as an apparatus separate from the relay node 20 in the relay network 40 has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, each functional means realized by the arithmetic processing unit 11 of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 described above is realized by the arithmetic processing unit in the relay node 20, and various information stored in the storage unit 12 is stored in the relay node 20. By storing in the storage unit, various functions of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 may be mounted inside the relay node 20, and the same effects as described above can be obtained.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the relay network with which the user experience quality monitoring apparatus concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the schematic flow of the user experience quality estimation operation | movement in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the packet capture process in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the user experience quality estimation process in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph which shows an example of the quality element estimation model used for estimation of the user experience element quality regarding listening quality. It is a graph which shows an example of the quality element estimation model used for estimation of the user experience element quality regarding a delay. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the quality degradation factor specific model in the real-time system application used for voice communication. It is explanatory drawing which shows the schematic flow of the quality degradation factor specific operation | movement in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the quality degradation factor specific process in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between the quality element target value regarding listening quality, and a quality information target value. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between the quality element target value regarding a delay, and a quality information target value. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the user experience quality monitoring apparatus concerning the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the general | schematic flow of quality degradation ground identification operation | movement in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the quality degradation ground identification process in the user experience quality monitoring apparatus 10 concerning the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of a quality degradation ground evaluation result.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10, 10A, 10B, 10C, 10D, 10E ... User experience quality monitoring apparatus, 11 ... Communication I / F part, 12 ... Storage part, 12A ... Control packet management DB, 12B ... Quality information management DB, 12C ... Quality element estimation Model, 12D ... Comprehensive quality estimation model, 12E ... User experience quality management DB, 12F ... User experience quality target value, 12G ... Quality degradation factor identification model, 12H ... Quality degradation ground evaluation result, 13 ... Operation processing unit, 13A ... Control Packet capture means, 13B ... user experience quality estimation means, 13C ... quality degradation factor identification means, 13D ... quality degradation ground identification means, 15 ... passing packets, 16 ... bottleneck information, 20, 20A, 20B, 20C, 20D, 20E ... relay node, 30 ... user terminal, 40 ... relay network, 40A, 40B, 40C, 40D ... link.

Claims (8)

A user experience quality that is provided for each relay node constituting a relay network used in a real time application and monitors a user experience quality experienced by a user using the real time application from a packet of the real time application that passes through the relay node. A monitoring device,
A storage unit for storing the communication quality and indicate to Quality information of the real-time application, a QoE estimation model for estimating the QoE from the quality information of the real-time application,
Of the passing packets passing through the relay node provided with the user experience quality monitoring device, sequentially capture the control packet of the real-time application, extract quality information of the real-time application from the control packet, Control packet capture means for storing in the storage unit in association with classification information relating to the call;
Based on the quality estimation model of the storage unit, for each call of the real-time application, the user experience quality estimation means for estimating the user experience quality of the call from the quality information of the storage unit related to the call, respectively ,
The storage unit stores, for each of a plurality of quality elements constituting the user experience quality of the real-time application, a quality element estimation model for estimating the user experience element quality related to the quality element from the quality information of the quality element. , Storing a total quality estimation model that estimates the total user experience total quality from each user experience element quality of the real-time application,
When estimating the user experience quality for an arbitrary call, the user experience quality estimation means, for each quality element, based on a quality factor estimation model of the quality element of the storage unit, When estimating the user experience element quality of the quality element from the quality information of the quality element and estimating the user experience quality for an arbitrary call, each user experience related to the call based on the overall quality estimation model of the storage unit A user experience quality monitoring apparatus characterized by estimating a total user experience quality from element quality . In the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 ,
The storage unit stores, for each quality element, a target value for the user experience element quality of the quality element, and indicates an association between the quality element and a network quality that is a factor of quality deterioration with the quality information as an intermediary Store the quality degradation factor identification model,
For the user experience element quality that does not satisfy the target value of the storage unit among the user experience element qualities of an arbitrary call, the quality information corresponding to the quality element is specified based on the quality deterioration factor specification model of the storage unit And a quality deterioration factor specifying means for specifying the network quality associated with the quality information that does not satisfy the predetermined target value among the specified quality information as a quality deterioration factor of the user experience element quality. A user experience quality monitoring device. In the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to claim 1,
By classifying the user experience quality of each call for each transfer route section between the relay node and the adjacent relay node, and statistically processing the statistical result, and comparing the statistical result with a predetermined user experience quality target value, A user experience quality monitoring apparatus, further comprising a quality degradation ground identification means for identifying whether or not the transfer path section is a quality degradation ground. In the user experience quality monitoring apparatus according to claim 1,
The user experience quality of each call is classified for each transfer path section between the relay node and its adjacent relay node, statistically processed, and the statistical result is compared with a predetermined user experience quality target value to degrade the quality. Whether or not the transfer path section is a quality-degraded ground according to the match / mismatch with the evaluation at the opposite relay node with respect to the transfer path section evaluated as having quality deterioration among the transfer path sections. A user experience quality monitoring apparatus further comprising a quality deterioration ground identification means for identifying the above. A user experience experienced by a user using the real-time application from a packet of the real-time application passing through the relay node in a user experience quality monitoring device provided for each relay node constituting the relay network used in the real-time application A user experience quality monitoring method for monitoring quality,
And storing the communication quality and indicate to Quality information of the real-time application, a QoE estimation model for estimating the QoE from the quality information of the real-time application in the storage unit,
Of the passing packets passing through the relay node provided with the user experience quality monitoring device, sequentially capture the control packet of the real-time application, extract quality information of the real-time application from the control packet, A packet capture step for control stored in the storage unit in association with classification information about a call;
Based on the quality estimation model of the storage unit, for each call of the real-time application, the user experience quality estimation step of estimating the user experience quality of the call from the quality information of the storage unit related to the call, respectively ,
For each of a plurality of quality elements constituting the user experience quality of the real-time application, the storage step stores a quality element estimation model for estimating a user experience element quality related to the quality element from quality information of the quality element. And storing the overall quality estimation model for estimating the total user experience total quality from each user experience element quality of the real-time application in the storage unit,
In the user experience quality estimation step, when estimating the user experience quality for an arbitrary call, for each quality element, based on a quality factor estimation model of the quality element in the storage unit, the storage unit related to the call When estimating the user experience element quality of the quality element from the quality information of the quality element and estimating the user experience quality for an arbitrary call, each user experience related to the call based on the overall quality estimation model of the storage unit A user experience quality monitoring method characterized by estimating a total user experience quality from element quality . In the user experience quality monitoring method according to claim 5 ,
The storage step stores, for each quality element, a target value for the user experience element quality of the quality element in the storage unit, and the quality information and network quality that is a factor of quality degradation with the quality information as an intermediary. A quality degradation factor identification model indicating the association of
For the user experience element quality that does not satisfy the target value of the storage unit among the user experience element qualities of an arbitrary call, the quality information corresponding to the quality element is specified based on the quality deterioration factor specification model of the storage unit And further comprising a quality deterioration factor specifying step for specifying the network quality associated with the quality information that does not satisfy the predetermined target value among the specified quality information as a quality deterioration factor of the user experience element quality. The user experience quality monitoring method. In the user experience quality monitoring method according to claim 5 ,
By classifying the user experience quality of each call for each transfer route section between the relay node and the adjacent relay node, and statistically processing the statistical result, and comparing the statistical result with a predetermined user experience quality target value, A user experience quality monitoring method, further comprising a quality degradation ground identification step for identifying whether or not the transfer path section is quality degradation ground. In the user experience quality monitoring method according to claim 5 ,
The user experience quality of each call is classified for each transfer path section between the relay node and its adjacent relay node, statistically processed, and the statistical result is compared with a predetermined user experience quality target value to degrade the quality. Whether or not the transfer path section is a quality-degraded ground according to the match / mismatch with the evaluation at the opposite relay node with respect to the transfer path section evaluated as having quality deterioration among the transfer path sections. A user experience quality monitoring method, further comprising a quality deterioration ground identification step for identifying the above.

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