Quality of experience (QoE) method and apparatus for wireless communication networks

A system usable in a communication environment, the system comprising:

• means for defining a plurality of quality of experience (QoE) metrics indicative of a characteristic that affects quality in the communication environment, including a client characteristic;
• means for performing a negotiation between a client and a network device to determine at least one of the plurality of QoE metrics to be used during a session between the client and the network device, and for designating said determined at least one QoE metric as at least one accepted QoE metric, wherein said negotiation is performed prior to play of media to start said session, said negotiation performed prior to play of said media to start said session including:
• identification of which of the plurality of QoE metrics is supported by either the network device or the client, or both;
• determination of a manner to deactivate said determined at least one QoE metric during the session;
• modification of a particular QoE metric and re-negotiation of the modified particular QoE metric to determine if said modified particular QoE metric is supported for the session;
• and
• rejection of a proposed QoE metric, including said modified particular QoE metric, if said proposed QoE is not supported by either or both the server or client;
• and
• means for communicating metric data of the at least one accepted QoE metric between the client and the network device during the session.

An article of manufacture usable in a wireless communication environment, the article of manufacture comprising:

• a storage medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processor to:
• define a plurality of quality of experience (QoE) metrics indicative of a characteristic associated with the wireless communication environment, including a client characteristic;
• perform a negotiation between a client and a server to determine at least one of the plurality of QoE metrics to be used during a session between the client and the server, wherein said negotiation is performed prior to play of media to start said session;
• designate said determined at least one QoE metric as at least one accepted QoE metric, said negotiation performed prior to play of said media to start said session including:
• identification of which of the plurality of QoE metrics is supported by either the server or the client, or both;
• determination of a manner to deactivate said determined at least one QoE metric during the session;
• modification of a particular QoE metric and re-negotiating the modified particular QoE metric to determine if said modified particular QoE metric is supported for the session;
• and
• rejection of a proposed QoE metric, including said modified particular QoE metric, if said proposed QoE is not supported by either or both the server or client;
• and
• obtain metric data for said at least one accepted QoE metric during the session.

An apparatus usable in a communication environment, the apparatus comprising:

• a quality of experience (QoE) module adapted to perform a negotiation between a client and a server to determine which at least one QoE metric from among a plurality of QoE metrics is to be used during a session between the client and the server, wherein said negotiation is performed prior to play of media to start said session, said determined at least one QoE metric being designated as at least one accepted QoE metric, the QoE module further being adapted to communicate collected metric data, corresponding to the at least one accepted QoE metric, between the client and the server during the session,
• wherein said negotiation performed by said QoE module prior to play of said media to start said session includes:
• identification of which of the plurality of QoE metrics is supported by either the server or the client, or both;
• determination of a manner to deactivate said determined at least one QoE metric during the session;
• modification of a particular QoE metric and re-negotiating the modified particular QoE metric to determine if said modified particular QoE metric is supported for the session;
• and
• rejection of a proposed QoE metric, including said modified particular QoE metric, if said proposed QoE is not supported by either or both the server or client.