Taxonomy of Tools and Techniques for Network Monitoring and Quality Assurance in 3G Networks

3G cellular networks changed the face of technology completely by bringing to people's doorsteps high speed internet with improved bandwidth and better quality of experience. This accelerated the development of mobile apps harnessing the newly developed trend of near 24X7 connectivity on mobile phones. Today we have numerous applications fitting in the categories of VoIP, chat, social networking and mobile gaming. However, in the hassle of launching another feature rich app which can take the market by storm, its efficacy in terms of resource utilization and impact on the network is one area which often takes the back seat. Developers in majority are ignorant of the intricacies and modus operandi of 3G networks, and shortage of effective tools which can help them visualize the network efficiency of their app further aggravates the problem. The tools and techniques for quantifying an app's behavior in terms of its network efficiency or for the general purposes of network monitoring and benchmarking, are not only limited in number but they often go unnoticed as well. In this work, we target exactly that issue. We provide taxonomy of available tools and techniques for network monitoring and performance measurement in 3G networks. We try to categorize the tools on the basis of their functionality and use-case. Key features of every tool and technique are also highlighted. In the end, we present in tabular form important features used for classification and tools that incorporate them.