Subject: [lmap] LMAP regulator use case

From: Sørensen, Frode <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 14:55:02 +0000

Marc, Phil, Trevor, all,

I have prepared a proposed description of a regulator use case for the LMAP use case ID. I noticed the "advertisement" for further input from regulators for the use case a couple of weeks ago. Finally I have managed to find sufficient time to contribute to the ID, supported by a couple of "regulator friends" from the Net Neutrality Working Group of the BEREC organization, representing European national regulators. The proposal consists of two parts; a modification of section 2.2 "Regulators", plus a new chapter after chapter 3 "Details of ISP use case", titled "Details of regulator use case". 

Thanks,
Frode

Proposed update:

2.2 Regulators
-------------------
Regulators in jurisdictions around the world are responding to consumers' adoption of Internet access services for traditional telecommunications and media services by promoting competition among providers of electronic communications, to ensure that users derive maximum benefit in terms of choice, price, and quality.

Some jurisdictions have responded to a need for greater information about Internet access service performance in the development of regulatory policies and approaches for broadband technologies by developing large-scale measurement programs. Programs such as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's Measuring Broadband America, European Commission's Quality of Broadband Services in the EU reports and a growing list of other programs employ a diverse set of operational and technical approaches to gathering data to perform analysis and reporting on diverse aspects of broadband performance.

While each jurisdiction responds to distinct consumer, industry, and regulatory concerns, much commonality exists in the need to produce datasets that are able to compare multiple Internet access service providers, diverse technical solutions, geographic and regional distributions, and marketed and provisioned levels and combinations of broadband Internet access services. In some jurisdictions, the role of measuring is provided by a measurement provider.

Measurement providers measure network performance from users towards multiple content and application providers, included dedicated test measurement servers, to show a performance of the actual Internet access service provided by different ISPs. Users need to know the performance that are achieving from their own ISP. In addition, they need to know the performance of other ISPs of same location as background information for selecting their ISP. Measurement providers will provide measurement results with associated measurement methods and measurement metrics.

>From a consumer perspective, the differentiation between fixed and mobile (cellular) Internet access services is blurring as the applications used are very similar. Hence, similar measurements will take place on both fixed and mobile Internet access services.

Regulators role in the development and enforcement of broadband Internet access service policies also require that the measurement approaches meet a high level of verifiability, accuracy and provider-independence to support valid and meaningful comparisons of Internet access service performance 

LMAP standards could answer regulators shared needs by providing scalable, cost-effective, scientifically robust solutions to the measurement and collection of broadband Internet access service performance information.

Proposed new chapter: 

4 Details of regulator use case
---------------------------------------
4.1 Promoting competition through transparency
---------------------------------------------------------------
Competition plays a vital role in regulation of the electronic communications markets. For competition to successfully discipline operators' behaviour in the interests of their customers, end users must be fully aware of the characteristics of the ISPs' access offers. In some jurisdictions regulators mandate transparent information made available about service offers. 

End users need effective transparency to be able to make informed choices throughout the different stages of their relationship with ISPs, when selecting Internet access service offers, and when considering switching service offer within an ISP or to an alternative ISP. Quality information about service offers can be provided based on performance measurements of the services provided in the market.

A set of measurement parameters and associated measurement methods are used over time, e.g. speed, delay, and jitter. Then the measurement raw data are collected and go through statistical post-processing before the results can be published in an Internet access service quality index to facilitate end users' choice of service provider and offer.

In order to make information on offerings more meaningful and comparable to end users, common frames of reference on Internet access service quality metrics are essential. An example would be that in relation to access speed, the actual download and upload speeds are measured and published, not only the maximum speed. 

A measurement system that monitor Internet access services and collect quality information can typically consist of a number of measurement probes and one or more test servers located at peering points. The system can be operated by a regulator or a measurement provider.  Number and distribution of probes follows specific requirements depending on the scope and the desired statistical reliability of the measurement campaign. 

In many test configurations, the measurement results will only reflect the performance of ISP's own network. However, the quality of an Internet access service is also determined by the connectivity to the rest of the Internet. Therefore test configurations which measure beyond the ISP's own network may also be relevant in some cases.

4.2 Promoting end user empowerment
--------------------------------------------------
In addition to the advantages that end users receive from the competition in the market, through availability of a plethora of ISPs and Internet access service offers, facilitated by transparent quality information about these offers at a general level, end users would further leverage on information about specific services they subscribe to, or which they are considering to subscribe to. 

Performance of Internet access service offers vary based on where the service is provided (geographical and topological aspects), how it is provided (e.g. access technology and ISP's interconnection to the Internet) and when it is provided (variation through the day and over the week). Therefore there is a need to obtain more detailed quality information about specific service offers.

Quality measurement tools can be made available for end users to monitor their Internet access service, giving information about the speed and other quality metrics of the subscribed service. Speed meters and similar tools can be provided by regulators or other third parties, but also directly by the ISP for the benefit of the subscriber.

Such measurement tools assist end users in verifying the performance of the Internet access service provided, comparing the measurement results achieved with the information given in the contract. If the contracted service quality level is not met, end users can use these results when complaining to the ISP to achieve improvement and compensation.

It may also help end users to assess whether they have chosen the package which best suits their specific needs. With their performance results at hand, they can benefit from quality evaluation guides, which offer comparisons based on their specific usage profiles. This may enable them to check whether their current subscription is the most appropriate, and assist them to switch package or provider if it is in their best interest. 

When provided by regulators and other third parties, such quality measurement tools can also be used to compare performance between ISPs. It should, though, be recognised that measurement results can be affected by factors outside the ISP's control, related for instance with local network connection (e.g. Wi-Fi), equipment and software being used.

4.3 Monitoring overall market development
---------------------------------------------------------
Governments sometimes set strategic goals for high-speed Internet access penetration as an important component of the economic, cultural and social development of the society. To evaluate the effect of the stimulated growth over time, broadband Internet access take-up and penetration of high-speed access can be monitored through measurement campaigns.

An example of such an initiative is the "Digital Agenda for Europe" which was adopted in 2010, to achieve universal broadband access. The goal is to achieve by 2020, access for all Europeans to Internet access speeds of 30 Mbps or above, and 50% or more of European households subscribing to Internet connections above 100 Mbps.

To monitor actual broadband Internet access performance in a specific country or a region, extensive measurement campaigns are needed. A panel can be built based on operators and packages in the market, spread over urban, suburban and rural areas. Probes can then be distributed to the participants of the campaign.

Periodic tests running on the probes can for example measure actual speed at peak and off-peak hours, but also other detailed quality metrics like delay and jitter. Collected data goes afterwards through statistical analysis, deriving estimates for the whole population which can then be presented and published regularly. 

Using a harmonized or standardised measurement methodology, or even a common quality measurement platform, measurement results could also be used for benchmarking of providers and/or countries. 

4.4 Detecting degradation of the Internet access
--------------------------------------------------------------
Regulation related to net neutrality and the open Internet has been introduced in some jurisdictions' Internet policy, and monitoring methods for detection of potential net neutrality breaches is needed to follow up such regulations with concrete actions.

Net neutrality is typically related to equal treatment of traffic transmitted over the Internet access service, while other traffic transmitted in parallel over the end user's broadband connection e.g. to provide IPTV in IP networks separated from the Internet (also referred to as "closed IP networks") can be exempted from net neutrality regulation. Services provided in parallel to the Internet access services are referred to as specialised services (ref. BEREC and FCC).

In order for such regulatory service architecture to protect net neutrality and the open Internet, it is essential that the specialised services are not provided at the expense of the Internet access service. Therefore regulators may need to measure performance of the Internet access service over time, and thereby detect whether this service is becoming degraded. 

When regulators monitor this development to ensure net neutrality and the open Internet, they can check e.g. whether Internet access service performance and level of quality reflect advances in technology and that this is not impaired by specialised services. Comparison between ISPs or between different countries may also be relevant for this kind of evaluation.

Based on such Internet access service quality monitoring, regulators will typically report results and findings regularly, e.g. on an annual basis. In some jurisdictions regulators may also eventually impose minimum quality of service requirements on ISPs in order to prevent degradation of Internet access services.

4.5 Detecting degradation of specific applications
---------------------------------------------------------------
In the regulatory context related to net neutrality and the open Internet, in addition to the monitoring to detect potential degradation of the access service as a whole described above, it is essential to perform monitoring to detect potential degradation of individual applications using the Internet access. 

Since net neutrality relates to equal treatment of traffic transmitted over the Internet access service, the treatment of different applications' traffic is in the core of net neutrality. When traffic originating from different applications are treated independent of which application each IP packet belongs to, this is referred to as application agnosticism.

Examples of departure from application agnosticism are blocking or throttling of traffic from specific applications, but also preferential treatment of specific applications. If traffic is forwarded at different priority levels, traffic having higher priority level implies that other traffic has lower priority. Detection of such traffic management practices does not necessarily imply breaches to net neutrality, but these observations can be used as an input to the regulatory evaluation of the practice.

When regulators monitor traffic management practices to ensure net neutrality and the open Internet, they can check compliance with criteria defining what is considered reasonable traffic management. Measurement systems designed to monitor this kind of effects need to send application-specific traffic and then measure in detail the behaviour of the different packets receive when transferred over the Internet access service.

Today there exist measurement tools that can detect differentiated treatment of individual applications. Another method that can be used is to measure performance at application layer, e.g. assisted by content and application providers, but also passive measurements are foreseen as a promising approach for monitoring of application-specific treatment.