Determining mobile video quality of experience and impact of video transcoding

A system for evaluating user Quality of Experience (QoE) in a wireless network, comprising:

• a plurality of monitoring probes coupled to one or more network interfaces, the monitoring probes adapted to capture data from the network interfaces;
• and
• a processor adapted to analyze the data captured from the network interfaces, the processor operating to:
• identify video data within the data captured from the network interfaces;
• identify one or more video sessions associated with the video data;
• determine an effective throughput for the one or more video sessions;
• and
• determine a QoE score for one or more users associated with the video sessions, the QoE score based upon the effective throughput of the one or more video sessions;
• detect resent or failed video data packets associated with the one or more video sessions;
• and
• determine the effective throughput for the video sessions based at least in part upon the resent or failed video data packets;
• and
• a video transcoding device coupled to the network interfaces and under control of a network policy management entity, the video transcoding device adapted to modify a data rate for the video data, the video transcoding device further adapted to insert summary data into video data packets.

A system for monitoring effects of video transcoding on user Quality of Experience (QoE) in a wireless network, comprising:

• a video transcoding device adapted to modify a data rate for video data packets being sent through the wireless network to wireless network subscribers, the video transcoding device further adapted to insert summary data into video data packets;
• a network policy management entity adapted to enforce policies associated with the wireless network, the network policy management entity coupled to the video transcoding device and providing information regarding transcoding of the video data packets;
• a plurality of monitoring probes coupled to one or more network interfaces, the monitoring probes adapted to capture video data packets from the network interfaces and further comprising a processor adapted to analyze the captured packets, the processor operating to:
• determine a first QoE score for one or more subscribers, the first QoE score associated with video data that has not been transcoded in the video transcoding device;
• determine a second QoE score for the one or more subscribers, the second QoE score associated with video data that has been transcoded in the video transcoding device;
• identify an impact on network QoE due to video transcoding by comparing the first and second QoE scores;
• and
• generate feedback messages to the network policy management entity, the feedback messages comprising information associated with the impact on network QoE due to video transcoding.

A system for evaluating user Quality of Experience (QoE) in a wireless network, comprising:

• a plurality of monitoring probes coupled to one or more network interfaces, the monitoring probes adapted to capture data from the network interfaces;
• and
• a processor adapted to analyze the data captured from the network interfaces, the processor operating to:
• identify one or more video sessions associated with the video data;
• monitor transactional and temporal characteristics of the video sessions;
• determine a QoE score for one or more users associated with the video sessions, the QoE score based upon the transactional and temporal characteristics of the video sessions;
• evaluate an impact of video transcoding on the QoE;
• and
• send updates to a transcoding policy engine, the updates identifying the impact of video transcoding on QoE.