INVESTIGATION OF QUALITY OF SERVICE (QoS) OF GSM NETWORK PROVIDERS AT FEDERAL UNIVERSITY, GUSAU, ZAMFARA STATE

Abstract

Poor and unstable cell phone signal is a very common problem faced by GSM Network providers, which is at the expense of the customers. In this work Investigation of GSM Network Providers Quality of Service (QoS), a report on the QoS provided by three (3) GSM network operators within the Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State is presented. The investigation is in terms of the ability to initiate and maintain call connections (accessibility) for a period of time; coveragae; intra and inter network calls for outgoing calls in the University. The campus is divided into three locations; these locations are used as Test points. In each of these locations a series of measurements were made. Three GSM operators designated as operator I (GLO), J (AIRTEL) and K (9MOBILE) were investigated for a period of eight weeks. The accessibility levels and call failure rate are expressed in percentages in order to compare the QoaS provided by these network operators. The result shows that operator J has better QoS compared with operators I and K for the period of investigation. The result is compared to the result obtained in a similar work carried out on the Network Signal Strength as provided by National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) in the same State. Though there are variations in these results, there is need to improve on the QoS for the three networks investigated.