Ensuring Quality for Wireless Multimedia Services Through Automated Testing

Multimedia services such as streaming video and downloadable music are driving revenues and handset turnover in the 3G wireless world. The critical factor, as always, is the quality of the end-user experience. Users won't pay for premium services if the quality and functionality fall below their expectations. Extensive testing is the key to delivering high-quality services and devices. But multimedia content adds a complicated new dimension: testing an end-user's perception of video and audio quality. The challenge to automated testing platforms, such as TestQuest CountDown, is to turn a subjective evaluation into objective, quantified, and repeatable measurements. When that happens, handset manufacturers, operators, and content providers have the tools they need to ensure high-quality multimedia services and devices. Many of the new revenue streams emerging in mobile and cellular markets are based on multimedia services and applications. Operators are always looking for ways to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU), and wireless video is being positioned as a primary driver of revenue growth. It's not surprising that video is the mobile application technology most heavily invested in today. Every major operator in the world has either launched, or has plans to launch, 3G services. This effectively provides bigger data pipes across the wireless landscape. Subscribers, however, are more interested in services than access, so video is seen as the primary consumer of the vast amount of newly available bandwidth. Video telephony is the key to 3G services such as video conferencing, video messaging, and streaming video. As carriers move to 3.5G and HSDPA, availability of high-quality movies and mobile TV will become reality. Multimedia services are also a major driver of handset turnover. Subscribers demand the ability to create and send images, download audio and video files, and watch video streams. They also expect flawless delivery of these multimedia services, which is difficult to guarantee when subscribers interact with their handsets in so many different ways. Since they're accustomed to high-quality video on computers and portable media players, subscribers expect video on their handsets to be reliable, responsive , and easy to use — with the same quality as they see on their TVs. Developing a robust mobile network for the delivery of multimedia services and applications brings new challenges to the entire wireless network value chain. Handset OEMs must process multimedia content efficiently while providing excellent quality over relatively unreliable wireless links. Content providers face the challenge of …