TRAI Notified Directions for Quality of Service for LTE Calls

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) notified directions on quality of service (QoS) for Voice Calls for LTE users through Circuit Switched Fall Back (CSFB) option that is proposed to measure and report call set up delays.

The regulations came after TRAI had initiated public consultation on February 26 and an 'Open House Discussion' was held on April 23, said a TRAI statement, adding these were to "measure call set up delay for mobile originating and terminating calls on sample basis in the networks where LTE has been launched but Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is yet to be launched".

Measurements are to be taken by the access providers in every quarter of the year and reported to TRAI, it said, adding that measurements to be made in various locations of the identified cities or districts in the service area.

As per the statement, service providers are required to conduct such tests on at least 20 locations in each identified cities or districts. At least five cities or districts are to be identified for carrying out these tests, it added.

The regulator on Tuesday also released enhanced standards to guage quality of service both wireline and mobile telephone services.

The regulator discussed the issue of silence or voice mute and requirement of new quality of service parameters specific to voice services for LTE users. "From the discussions and deliberations on the issues related to VoLTE, muting of voice or silence during conversation seems to be a major concern," the statement said.

TRAI decided to introduce two new network parameters for quality of service regulations -- "Down Link (DL) Packet Drop Rate or DL-PD"" and "Up Link (UL) Packet Drop Rate or UL-PDR" -- to measure overall packet loss or drop in both downlink and uplink at PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) layer.

The regulator decided to prescribe benchmarks as less than or equal to two per cent for both the parameters, the statement said.