“NeSen” - a tool for measuring link quality and stability of heterogeneous cellular network

Abstract

Assessing the basic parameters like received signal strength, packet delay, jitter, etc., for a network is a first step towards measuring the network performances. However, while selecting a network, one should consider multiple such attributes. In the existing literature, presence of more than one cellular network interface is typically not considered. Besides, the stability of the network is often not judged. Moreover, possible computational capabilities of the user equipments are totally ignored. Using the APP presented here, a holistic picture of network link quality and stability is assessed for both the interfaces. Link quality is assessed from the variation in the signal strength and bit error rate reported by the network. Similarly, stability is assessed using cell dwell time, number of cell transition and radio link changes over any interface. The results here exhibit that it is network instability which poses serious challenge rather than the equipment which is often blamed for underperformance.