Using Software Engineering Approach in Mitigating QoS Challenges in Mobile Communication Networks in Nigeria

Abstract

As a result of telecommunication poor Quality of Service (QoS) in Nigeria with respect to voice ,data and video services, several works have been carried out using approaches such as drive test, survey design with statistical computation techniques, modeling simulation, etc. These have been employed to carry out comprehensive evaluation and optimization of Quality of Service (QoS) of Mobile Cellular Networks in Nigeria. In this context, there are five major Key Performance Indices (KPIs) which are usually considered for the evaluation, viz: Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Call Completion Rate (CCR), Call Drop Rate (CDR), Call Handover Success Rate (CHSR) and Standalone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH). In this paper, following data collated from a recently conducted drive test KPIs, we leveraged software engineering SDLC concepts, particularly using JAVA programming language to develop an optimization drive test plant for improving QoS thresholds by service providers. A test dataset for the months of April and March 2012 was used in the drive test plant design. In this regard, the raw data set, the optimized dataset and the normalized data sets were shown in the drive test plant. Relevant flowcharts were developed and discussed in the context of the drive test plant. This work argued that with the drive test plant properly integrated into the vendors Mobile Switching Centers (MSC), the QoS thresholds by NCC will be satisfied. Consequently, this work calls for a mobile community driven responses while future work will focus on integration validations necessary to boost the performance of the KPIs in order to guarantee a better Quality of Service.

Keywords: Quality of Service, Cellular, Networks, Software Engineering, Thresholds, Validations, Optimization.