Estimating PQoS of Video Streaming on Wi-Fi Networks Using Machine Learning

Abstract

Video on demand (VoD) services such as YouTube have generated considerable volumes of Internet traffic in homes and buildings in recent years. While Internet service providers deploy fiber and recent wireless technologies such as 802.11ax to support high bandwidth requirement, the best-effort nature of 802.11 networks and variable wireless medium conditions hinder users from experiencing maximum quality during video streaming. Hence, Internet service providers (ISPs) have an interest in monitoring the perceived quality of service (PQoS) in customer premises in order to avoid customer dissatisfaction and churn. Since existing approaches for estimating PQoS or quality of experience (QoE) requires external measurement of generic network performance parameters, this paper presents a novel approach to estimate the PQoS of video streaming using only 802.11 specific network performance parameters collected from wireless access points. This study produced datasets comprising 802.11n/ac/ax specific network performance parameters labelled with PQoS in the form of mean opinion scores (MOS) to train machine learning algorithms. As a result, we achieved as many as 93–99% classification accuracy in estimating PQoS by monitoring only 802.11 parameters on off-the-shelf Wi-Fi access points. Furthermore, the 802.11 parameters used in the machine learning model were analyzed to identify the cause of quality degradation detected on the Wi-Fi networks. Finally, ISPs can utilize the results of this study to provide predictable and measurable wireless quality by implementing non-intrusive monitoring of customers’ perceived quality. In addition, this approach reduces customers’ privacy concerns while reducing the operational cost of analytics for ISPs.