For the last thirty years, the broadband industry has been primarily focused on tackling the challenge of basic connectivity. With networks now advancing beyond raw speed and capacity, the emphasis has shifted towards delivering a seamless and reliable connection from the data center to the end user. Today, Quality of Experience (QoE) is as critical to user satisfaction as high-speed connectivity.
The Rise of QoE in Broadband Services
To remain competitive, Broadband Service Providers (BSPs) need to prioritize and understand QoE expectations across various applications and services. This focus not only helps them differentiate their offerings but also unlocks new revenue streams. Achieving this requires a deep understanding of QoE demands, leading to smarter service delivery and enhanced network intelligence.
Service Differentiation Through QoE
Around the world, BSPs are embracing service-level differentiation powered by application-aware intelligence to deliver tailored QoE experiences. While speed and price remain basic differentiators, the ability to optimize for specific services—like video streaming, online gaming, and remote work—is becoming increasingly important.
Educating end users about latency and QoE is equally crucial. Even though remote work has slightly decreased since the pandemic, 25% of Western households still seek work-from-home services, and 20% are gaming households—both of which are highly sensitive to network performance.
Experts at the Broadband Forum suggest that for most users, speeds beyond a few gigabits per second are unnecessary. Instead, enhancing and promoting QoE will become a stronger differentiator than simply offering higher bandwidth, such as 10G services.
Building a QoE-Focused Ecosystem
The Broadband Forum’s Service Requirements Work Area is setting global standards for QoE definitions and expectations, benefiting both BSPs and subscribers. This initiative aims to help providers measure and improve the broadband experience effectively.
Historically, BSPs bundled features like speed tests, managed Wi-Fi, and smart assistants. However, emerging services such as immersive gaming, e-health, and managed IoT demand more—specifically, low latency and assured QoE.
Delivering end-to-end QoE involves integrating components from data centers and metro edges to customer premises equipment (CPE) and applications. Accurate measurement of QoE is crucial at each stage to ensure consistency and performance.
Innovations in the Connected Home
In connected home environments, BSPs are leveraging containerized tools to measure QoE more effectively. UDP-based speed tests enable continuous latency monitoring and provide precise multi-gigabit metrics. BSPs themselves are spearheading the development of tools, software, and systems to drive this transformation.
The TR-398 Wi-Fi Performance specification and certification program, developed by the Broadband Forum, sets the standard for evaluating Wi-Fi Access Points and Residential Gateways, ensuring exceptional Wi-Fi performance in home networks.
Shifting Focus: From Capacity to Quality
The broadband industry is moving away from simply boosting capacity to prioritizing minimizing quality loss. The Quality of Experience Delivered (QED) initiative introduces intelligent, end-to-end measurement across the access network, middle mile, and edge. By combining packet loss and latency into a unified metric, QED offers a more robust understanding of real-world network performance compared to outdated bandwidth-based models. QED also establishes baseline performance requirements for various applications, allowing providers to assess and improve their networks against these standards.
Pioneering Low-Latency Technologies: L4S and AIM
These innovations are further complemented by software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). The Automated Intelligence Management (AIM) framework, powered by AI and machine learning, allows networks to detect drops in user experience and proactively reroute traffic to avoid congestion.
Additionally, the Low Latency Low Loss Scalable Throughput (L4S) standard, currently being developed by the IETF and implemented by CableLabs, aims to optimize device performance with minimal latency. L4S ensures that devices fairly share bandwidth while enhancing throughput and user experience, all while maintaining network stability.
Looking Ahead: Emphasizing QoE and Latency Education
For the broadband industry to fully leverage the benefits of QoE and low-latency networking, a stronger emphasis on end-to-end intelligence and user education is needed. Continued advancements in latency modelling and a greater understanding of QoE will be crucial to meeting the expectations of modern broadband users.
