Measuring quality of experience: the Plume QoE metric
The Plume Quality of Experience metric—QoE—is a way for Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to accurately measure customer experience. Here’s a look at how QoE captures details about the home network that other measurements usually miss.
The rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) has put home networks to the test.
Modern home networks:
more devices, more demand
Worldwide IoT devices
2018
7
billion
2025
75
billion
Worldwide home-based IoT devices
2017
5.2
billion
2020
13
billion
U.S. home-based IoT devices
2019
11
2021
25
Connected devices per home
$53 billion
Market for home-based IoT devices in 2022
Connected devices
Smart TVs, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, smart speakers
Entertainment
Smart watches, fitness trackers
Health & fitness
Smart thermostats, lighting, security cameras, appliances
Utilities
Smartphones, PCs, tablets
Computers
With so many devices in the typical home, many consumers have trouble connecting.
Persistent problems:
causes for poor performance
This is because of:
Inadequate signal strength.
Poor coverage
Connection to non-optimal APs.
Location issues
Overlapping transmissions from neighbors.
Interference
Competing devices within the home.
Congestion
of streaming devices identified as having problems via QoS are actually functioning fine.
43%
CSPs that measure Quality of Service often have no idea these problems exist
of IoT devices with real connection problems are missed using QoS metrics.
77%
measures network speed only, not device performance.
QoS
QoE considers factors including:
QoE: a measure of connection quality that captures the customer’s actual experience
Device type and location
Active applications
WiFi coverage quality
Interference issues
Device congestion
QoE determines what each device requires for optimal performance and compares that to what the device is actually getting.
Calculating QoE: a 4-step process
1
Measure real-time, estimated (potential) throughout
2
Divide potential throughput by optimal (Happy) throughput
3
Determine Happiness Index Value
4
Correlate with QoE Score
High
QoE Score
Happy Customer
Low
QoE Score
CSP can automatically analyze the data for reasons and make corrections as needed.
QoE allows CSPs to optimize connectivity in real-time. The metric makes it easy to understand the customer’s experience and deliver exceptional home-network service all the time.
Read our new whitepaper on the Plume Quality of Experience metric.
Happy connections, happy customers
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