JP2009272800A - Quality measurement system, reception device, quality measuring method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a quality measurement system, a reception device, a quality measuring method, and a program that achieve communication quality measurement of high precision on a network including a wireless section. <P>SOLUTION: The quality measurement system, which measures the communication quality of the communication network having a wireless section where packets are divided into wireless frames for transmission, includes: a transmission device 1 having a packet generation unit which generates test packets of different sizes and a transmission unit which mixedly transmits the test packets of different sizes to the reception device 2 to which the packets are transmitted through the wireless section; and the reception device 2 having a reception unit which receives the test packets transmitted from the transmission device 1 and records received data, and a quality measurement unit which measures the communication quality based upon gradients linearly approximated from delay data by test packet size and fluctuations of delay data by test packet size. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a quality measurement system, a receiving device, a quality measurement method, and a program.

Currently, various methods for measuring network communication quality have been proposed. For example, in the technique described in Non-Patent Document 1, probe packets of two types, large and small, are transmitted, an average value of one-way delay for each packet size is obtained, and communication quality is determined from the difference (average transmission delay difference). Is estimated. Non-Patent Document 1 shows that there is a correlation between an average transmission delay difference and communication quality (TCP throughput) at a high rate (for example, 200 kbps) or higher. In the technique described in Non-Patent Document 2, probe packets of a plurality of sizes are transmitted, and the band is estimated from the slope of the regression line between the minimum value of one-way delay for each packet size and the packet size.
Goto, Tagami, Hasegawa, Ano, "A Study on Estimating Communication Quality in Mobile Phone Networks", Shingaku Sodai, B-16-5, Mar.2008 V.Jacobson, "pathchar-a tool to infer characteristics of Internetpaths,", ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/pathchar/, Apr.1997

However, the technique described in Non-Patent Document 1 has a problem in that estimation is performed based only on two types of packet sizes, large and small, so that the estimation result becomes unstable and the estimation error may increase. In addition, it takes time because systems need to be constructed for each environment between systems with different physical bandwidths. On the other hand, in the technique described in Non-Patent Document 2, the physical band and the communication quality are almost the same because the target is a wired network. However, in the wireless network, the physical band frequently fluctuates so that the communication quality is not necessarily reflected. There is a problem that it must not be.
The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to provide a quality measurement system, a receiving apparatus, a quality measurement method, and a program that enable highly accurate communication quality measurement in a network including a wireless section. There is to do.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and one aspect of the present invention is a quality measurement system for measuring communication quality of a communication network having a wireless section in which packets are divided into wireless frames and transmitted. A transmission device comprising: a packet generation unit that generates test packets of different sizes; and a transmission unit that transmits mixed test packets of different sizes to a reception device to which packets are transmitted via the wireless section; A receiver that receives the test packet transmitted from the transmitter and records the delay data; a slope that is linearly approximated from the delay data according to the size of the test packet; and fluctuation of the delay data according to the size of the test packet And a receiving device having a quality measuring unit for measuring communication quality based on It is the measurement system.

  One aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the quality measurement system, the quality measurement unit linearly approximates from a minimum value of delay data.

  One embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that, in the quality measurement system, the fluctuation is calculated based on a difference between a minimum value of delay data and each delay data.

  One embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that, in the quality measurement system, the fluctuation is calculated on the basis of a difference in delay data of test packets received continuously.

  Further, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a test transmitted from a transmission device in a reception device applied to a quality measurement system that measures communication quality of a communication network including a wireless section in which a packet is divided into wireless frames and transmitted. Quality of measuring communication quality based on a receiving unit that receives a packet and records the received data, a slope linearly approximated from the delay data for each test packet size, and fluctuations in the delay data for each test packet size And a measuring unit.

  One embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that, in the above-described receiving apparatus, the quality measurement unit performs linear approximation from a minimum value of delay data.

  One embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that, in the receiving device, the fluctuation is calculated based on a difference between a minimum value of delay data and each delay data.

  One embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that, in the receiving apparatus, the fluctuation is calculated based on a difference in delay data of continuously received test packets.

  Another aspect of the present invention is a quality measurement method for measuring communication quality of a communication network having a wireless section in which a packet is transmitted by being divided into wireless frames, in which a transmission device generates a test packet having a different size. A generating step; a transmitting step in which the transmitting device transmits a test packet having a different size to a receiving device to which a packet is transmitted via the wireless section; and a test in which the receiving device transmits from the transmitting device. A reception step of receiving a packet and recording the received data; and a communication quality based on an inclination linearly approximated from the delay data for each size of the test packet and a fluctuation of the delay data for each size of the test packet. A quality measurement method characterized by comprising a quality measurement step.

  Further, according to one aspect of the present invention, in a program for measuring communication quality of a communication network having a wireless section in which a packet is transmitted by being divided into wireless frames, the test packet transmitted from the transmitting device is received, A reception step for recording received data, and a quality measurement step for measuring communication quality based on a slope that is linearly approximated from the delay data for each test packet size and fluctuations in the delay data for each test packet size. It is a program for making it run.

  According to the present invention, the receiving device receives the test packet having a different size from the transmitting device via the wireless section, and measures the communication quality based on a linear approximation from the delay data for each size of the test packet. Communication quality can be measured with higher accuracy. Further, since the communication quality is measured based on the fluctuation of the delay data for each test packet size, the communication quality can be accurately measured even in a network including a wireless section in which the communication environment frequently changes. In addition, since the physical band can be estimated from the linearly approximated slope, communication quality can be measured without distinction even when systems with different physical bands are mixed.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a quality measurement system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The quality measurement system includes a transmission device 1 and a reception device 2. The transmission device 1 is a server device that controls the quality measurement system. The receiving device 2 is a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone terminal, a notebook personal computer having a wireless communication function, or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Here, there is a wireless section on the communication path between the transmission device 1 and the reception device 2 of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the receiving device 2 performs wireless communication with the wireless base station 3. The wireless base station 3 is a base station of a wireless network such as a wireless LAN or a mobile phone network.

  In the quality measurement system of the present invention, the transmission device 1 transmits a test IP packet addressed to the reception device 2 via an IP (Internet Protocol) network. The IP packet is transmitted to the receiving device 2 via the radio base station 3. Here, the wireless base station 3 divides the IP packet into wireless frames and wirelessly transmits them to the receiving device 2. The radio frame is smaller than the IP packet size. The receiving device 2 measures the communication quality of the network based on the received radio frame.

  In the present embodiment, the server device is the transmission device 1 and the mobile terminal is the reception device 2, but the mobile terminal may be the transmission device 1 and the server device may be the reception device 2.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the transmission device 1 according to the present embodiment.
The transmission device 1 includes a control unit 11 that controls and controls the transmission device 1, a storage unit 12 that stores test packet data, a test packet generation unit 13, a transmission unit 14, a time measurement unit 15, and parameter setting. Part 16.

The parameter setting unit 16 receives an input of a parameter for transmitting a test IP packet, and outputs the input parameter to the test packet generation unit 13. The parameters include a packet size type N (N is an integer equal to or greater than 2), a packet size L _i (i = 1, 2,..., N), a transmission method, and a transmission interval T. The transmission method is set to repeat transmission in a preset order or to transmit randomly. The timekeeping unit 15 has a clock inside and performs timekeeping. The test packet generation unit 13 converts the test packet data stored in the storage unit 12 into an IP packet based on the input parameters, and outputs the IP packet to the transmission unit 14. At this time, the test packet generator 13 obtains the current time from the timer 15 and embeds the time in the IP packet. The transmission unit 14 transmits the input IP packet to the receiving device 2.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the receiving device 2 according to the present embodiment.
The receiving device 2 includes a control unit 21 that controls the receiving device 2 in an integrated manner, a storage unit 22 that stores data of the received test IP packet, a receiving unit 23, a quality measuring unit 24, and a time measuring unit 25. And comprising.

  The time measuring unit 25 has a clock inside and measures time. The receiving unit 23 receives a test IP packet from the transmission device 1. At this time, the receiving unit 23 uses the time measuring unit 25 to calculate a difference (delay data) between the reception time and the transmission time embedded in the received IP packet. Next, the reception unit 23 stores the calculated time difference (hereinafter referred to as a transmission delay calculation value) in the storage unit 22 together with the packet size and reception time of the received IP packet. The quality measuring unit 24 measures the communication quality of the network using data of a plurality of test IP packets stored in the storage unit 22. Details thereof will be described later.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of the division state of the IP packet in the wireless section in the present embodiment.
The IP packet transmitted from the transmitter 1 is divided into a plurality of radio frames by the radio base station 3 and transmitted to the radio section. Since the size of the radio frame is smaller than the size of the IP packet, one IP packet is divided into a plurality of radio frames. For this reason, an IP packet with a large packet size is divided into more radio frames than an IP packet with a small packet size.

Here, in the radio section, transmission / reception schedules and error correction processing are performed in units of radio frames, but an IP packet with a large packet size is divided into more radio frames than an IP packet with a small packet size. Therefore, it is more affected by the deterioration of communication quality in the wireless section. For example, even if a radio frame is lost with the same probability, an IP packet having a larger packet size is divided into more radio frames, and the packet loss rate becomes higher. Even if the transmission delay fluctuation per radio frame is the same, an IP packet having a larger packet size is divided into more radio frames, so that the transmission delay fluctuation per IP packet becomes larger. Similarly, even if the transmission delay time per radio frame is the same, an IP packet having a larger packet size is divided into more radio frames, so that the transmission delay time per IP packet becomes larger. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 4, the transmission delay time t _l of the large packet of the packet size is larger than the transmission delay time t _s of the small packets of packet sizes.

  Therefore, the transmission apparatus 1 of the present invention transmits N types of test IP packets having different packet sizes at a transmission interval T set by a parameter. At this time, the transmission device 1 transmits an IP packet based on the set transmission method. The receiving device 2 measures the communication quality of the network based on the received N types of test IP packets. Here, it is assumed that the packet sizes of the N types of test IP packets are sufficiently different.

  Hereinafter, a communication quality calculation method in the quality measurement unit 24 of the reception device 2 will be described. The TCP throughput Th, which is the communication quality in the present embodiment, is calculated by the following equation (1). Expression (1) is an expression based on the physical band B and the fluctuation F. The TCP throughput Th is determined to be better as the value is larger.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing an outline of a physical bandwidth calculation method in the present embodiment.
In this figure, the vertical axis represents the one-way delay time OWD (that is, the transmission delay calculation value), and the horizontal axis represents the packet size of the IP packet. The quality measuring unit 24 calculates a delay representative value delay _i (i = 1, 2,..., N) for each packet size from the test IP packet data stored in the storage unit 22. In the present embodiment, the delay representative value delay _i is the minimum value of the transmission delay calculation value. Next, the quality measurement unit 24 performs regression analysis using a least square method or a maximum likelihood method, and linearly approximates L _i and delay _i to Equation (2). The quality measurement unit 24 sets the reciprocal (1 / a) of a calculated by the equation (2) as the physical band B.

  Next, a method of calculating the band fluctuation F unique to the wireless section will be described. The quality measuring unit 24 calculates the fluctuation F from the equation (3). Expression (3) is an expression based on the fluctuation Fm from the minimum value and the fluctuation Ft in the time direction. A method for calculating Fm and Ft will be described later. α1, α2, and β are calculated by multivariate analysis as “F = Th ′ / B”. Th ′ is an actual measurement value of the TCP throughput, and is a value measured in advance.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of fluctuation from the minimum value in the present embodiment.
In this figure, the vertical axis represents the one-way delay time OWD (that is, the calculated transmission delay value), and the horizontal axis represents time. In the example shown in this figure, the storage unit 22 stores M sets of test IP packet data of N types of packet sizes (L ₁ , L ₂ ,..., L _n ) in order of reception time. The fluctuation Fm from the minimum value is calculated from the following equation (4). Expression (4) is an expression based on the difference between the delay representative value delay _i and the transmission delay calculation value d _ij (i = 1, 2,..., N; j = 1, 2,..., M). It has become. d _ij is a transmission delay calculation value of the IP packet of the j-th packet size L _i .

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of fluctuation in the time direction in the present embodiment.
In this figure, the vertical axis represents the one-way delay time OWD (that is, the calculated transmission delay value), and the horizontal axis represents time. The fluctuation Ft in the time direction is calculated from the following equation (5). Expression (5) is an expression based on a difference in transmission delay calculation values of test IP packets received successively.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the communication quality is calculated based on the slope that is linearly approximated from the delay representative values for a plurality of types of packet sizes. Therefore, the communication quality can be measured with higher accuracy. Further, since the communication quality is further measured based on fluctuations, the communication quality can be accurately measured even in a network including a wireless section where the communication environment frequently changes. In addition, since the physical band is estimated from the linearly approximated slope, communication quality can be measured without particular distinction even when systems with different physical bands are mixed. Further, since the delay representative value and fluctuation are calculated independently for each packet size, it is not necessary to transmit the packets in order. For example, the same result can be obtained even if the packets are transmitted randomly.

Also, a program for realizing the functions of the transmission device 1 and the reception device 2 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded on the recording medium is read into a computer system. The quality measurement process may be performed by executing. Here, the “computer system” may include an OS and hardware such as peripheral devices.
Further, the “computer system” includes a homepage providing environment (or display environment) if a WWW system is used.
The “computer-readable recording medium” means a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk, a ROM, a writable nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory, a portable medium such as a CD-ROM, a hard disk built in a computer system, etc. This is a storage device.

Further, the “computer-readable recording medium” refers to a volatile memory (for example, DRAM (Dynamic DRAM)) in a computer system that becomes a server or a client when a program is transmitted via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. Random Access Memory)), etc., which hold programs for a certain period of time.
The program may be transmitted from a computer system storing the program in a storage device or the like to another computer system via a transmission medium or by a transmission wave in the transmission medium. Here, the “transmission medium” for transmitting the program refers to a medium having a function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line.
The program may be for realizing a part of the functions described above. Furthermore, what can implement | achieve the function mentioned above in combination with the program already recorded on the computer system, and what is called a difference file (difference program) may be sufficient.

  As described above, the embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to the above, and various design changes and the like can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. It is possible to

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the quality measurement system by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the transmitter by embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the receiver by this embodiment. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the example of the division | segmentation condition of the IP packet in the radio area in this embodiment. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the outline | summary of the calculation method of the physical band in this embodiment. It is the schematic which showed the outline | summary of the fluctuation | variation from the minimum value in this embodiment. It is the schematic which showed the outline | summary of the fluctuation of the time direction in this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Transmission apparatus 2 ... Reception apparatus 3 ... Radio base station 11 ... Control part 12 ... Memory | storage part 13 ... Test packet generation part 14 ... Transmission part 15 ... Time measuring part 16 ... Parameter setting part 21 ... Control part 22 ... Memory | storage part 23 ... Receiving unit 24 ... Quality measuring unit 25 ... Time measuring unit

Claims (10)

In a quality measurement system for measuring communication quality of a communication network having a wireless section in which packets are divided into wireless frames and transmitted,
A transmission device comprising: a packet generation unit that generates test packets of different sizes; and a transmission unit that transmits a mixture of test packets of different sizes to a reception device to which packets are transmitted via the wireless section;
A receiver that receives the test packet transmitted from the transmitter and records the delay data; and a linear approximation of the delay data for each size of the test packet and fluctuations in the delay data for each size of the test packet A quality measuring unit for measuring communication quality based on the receiver,
A quality measurement system characterized by comprising   The quality measurement system according to claim 1, wherein the quality measurement unit performs linear approximation from a minimum value of delay data.   The quality measurement system according to claim 1, wherein the fluctuation is calculated based on a difference between a minimum value of delay data and each delay data.   The quality measurement system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the fluctuation is calculated based on a difference in delay data of test packets continuously received. In a receiving apparatus applied to a quality measurement system for measuring communication quality of a communication network having a wireless section in which a packet is divided into wireless frames and transmitted,
A receiving unit that receives the test packet transmitted from the transmitting device and records the received data;
A quality measuring unit that measures communication quality based on a linear approximation of the delay data for each test packet size and fluctuations of the delay data for each test packet size;
A receiving apparatus comprising:   The receiving apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the quality measuring unit linearly approximates from a minimum value of delay data.   The receiving apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the fluctuation is calculated based on a difference between a minimum value of delay data and each delay data.   The receiving apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the fluctuation is calculated based on a difference in delay data of test packets received continuously. In a quality measurement method for measuring communication quality of a communication network having a wireless section in which a packet is divided into wireless frames and transmitted,
A packet generation step in which the transmitting device generates test packets of different sizes;
A transmitting step in which the transmitting device transmits the test packets having different sizes to a receiving device to which packets are transmitted via the wireless section; and
A receiving device that receives the test packet transmitted from the transmitting device and records the received data;
A quality measurement step in which the receiving device measures communication quality based on a linear approximation of the delay data for each test packet size and fluctuations in the delay data for each test packet size;
A quality measurement method characterized by comprising: In a program for measuring communication quality of a communication network having a wireless section in which packets are divided into wireless frames and transmitted,
A receiving step of receiving a test packet transmitted from a transmitting device and recording the received data;
A quality measuring step of measuring communication quality based on a linear approximation of the delay data for each test packet size and fluctuations of the delay data for each test packet size;
A program that causes a computer to execute.

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