Viewers reported buffering, pixelation, stuttering and other disruptions throughout the boxing match, none of which was 58-year-old Tyson’s or 27-year-old Paul’s fault. Social media, especially X (formerly Twitter), was inundated with sports fans complaining about their poor video Quality of Experience (QoE). In fact, in one ISP’s network, when poor video quality traffic surged by more than 300%, X social media traffic soon followed, rising by 200%.
As viewers struggled to watch one of the most hyped boxing matches in history, Sandvine was successfully capturing what was happening and reporting the highs and lows in near real-time in its Operations Insights solution, powered by AppLogic. Sandvine could see the surge in Netflix traffic and the corresponding drop in Quality of Experience. Put simply…the unhappy fans didn’t need to complain. Sandvine already knew their pain.
Figure 1. Operations Insights measures the drop in Quality of Experience score as Netflix traffic surges during the Tyson-Paul boxing event.
The drop in Quality of Experience was unique to the Netflix app
In addition to being able to understand the user’s experience, Sandvine was also able to quickly localize the source of the issue by comparing Netflix to similar applications. Sandvine’s AI powered AppLogic classifies more than 3000 applications, covering 95% of internet traffic. A quick view of QoE across similar video applications showed all other applications performed seamlessly. In other words, it was not a network issue within the ISP. The issue was specific to Netflix.
Figure 2. Operations Insights visualizes Quality of Experience Score across numerous video streaming applications making it easy to see when an issue is application specific and not an internal network issue.
But the insights do not end there. Numerous other KPIs further substantiated the source of the issue and provided additional information into how suffering viewers were reacting. Some users switched from television sets to mobile devices, where video screens are smaller and less susceptible to video resolution issues. An example KPI that further substantiated the source of the issue was the rapid increase in connection attempts toward Netflix for subscribers experiencing poor quality.
Figure 3. The drop in Netflix Quality of Experience correlated to a rapid increase in connections per subscriber.
If you are a network operator, do you know when your customers are suffering, regardless of whether it is your fault? For the networks Sandvine explored, it was easy to see what caused the traffic surge, whether it created congestion in the network, and whether the poor Quality of Experience was due to internal network issues or an application specific issue. Sandvine could also see how subscribers responded to their poor experience.
Sandvine provides ISPs visibility into what their customers are experiencing. Sandvine does this by providing best-in-class classification; capturing key network KPIs such as throughput, latency, and packet loss at an application content level; and by using our AI driven App QoE engine to score it. By focusing on what matters most to the end customer, and monitoring Quality of Experience, network operators can improve efficiency, reduce churn, and identify new revenue generating opportunities.
Please contact us if you would like to learn more.
Topics: Netflix, Quality of Experience, App QoE, App Quality of Experience
