A Standardized Evaluation of QoS/QoE Performance in 5G and Beyond-5G Systems

Since their deployment and commercialization, 5th Generation (5G) mobile systems have been extensively analyzed to quantify the Quality of Service and Experience (QoS/QoE) achievable by heterogeneous services. Real-time interactive services, i.e., applications within the scope of Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and at the intersection of URLLC and enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), are, however, often tested using simplistic methodologies that do not provide accurate assessments. In this paper, we extend our previous work on the empirical characterization of mobile networks by presenting a comprehensive analysis of a methodology standardized by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). This methodology is designed for systematic and reproducible QoS/QoE evaluations of real-time interactive services. We validate it through dedicated measurements (for which we open-source the corresponding dataset along with this paper) in the Karlstad University testbed, i.e., a private network supporting 5G connectivity modes and features beyond those available in current public networks in Sweden. Our results, spanning across services, mobility scenarios, connectivity modes, and servers, provide key insights into the intricate dependencies between QoS/QoE, environmental conditions, and system configurations, ultimately serving as a foundation for designing high-performing beyond-5G mobile systems.