Investigation on Quality of Service Provided by Third Tier Internet Service Providers in Nigeria: Akure Cybercafés as case study

This paper presents an investigation into the quality of service (QoS) of cybercafés networks in Nigeria using five different cybercafés in Akure metropolis as a case study. The study was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, Distributed Internet Traffic Generator (D-ITG V. 2.4) was used to measure the QoS metrics such as packet loss, average jitter, bandwidth and delay standard deviation on the five cybercafés networks investigated. The second stage, involves the administering of questionnaires to users of studied cybercafés in order to obtain primary data on some of the users’ QoS metrics such as reliability and efficiency of the networks. The final stage involves visitation to the cybercafés considered to obtain onsite data on specifications of computers using for browsing in the cybercafés. The result of the study shows that all the networks considered were inefficiency, congested and unprotected. It was also found from the study that, there is direct correlation between the bandwidth, number of terminals and the efficiency of the network. The paper was concluded with suggestions on how to improve the QoS of internet cybercafés in Nigeria in order to enhance teaching and research through internet facility in the country. KeywordsCybercafé; Internet service providersg; Tiers of internet service providers; Quality of service metrics