Communications Alliance has published revised industry guidelines to help service providers deliver high quality video and digital services to customers over fibre-based networks such as the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Three updated industry guidelines relevant for service delivery on the NBN were released – two on Quality of Service (QoS) for IP networks and one on wholesale telephony.

The guidelines will help IP network operators and those offering services over fibre to maintain high quality by minimising “packet loss” and to deliver a growing range of IP services to customers in a way that is both consistent and interoperable with the networks of other service providers and NBN Co.

Among the changes is the addition of a new low-loss traffic class, suited to high quality, ‘ultra-low loss’ video services. This will assist in particular the delivery of new video services over high-speed networks.

The QoS guidelines were revised by a Communications Alliance Working Committee of experts from across the telecommunications industry, chaired by Dr Paul Brooks representing the Internet Society of Australia.

The first QoS guideline defines the quality parameters for a set of traffic classes on IP networks, with the other containing test methods for these traffic classes.

Both guidelines were first published in 2007 and have been updated to align with more recent international developments and to work with the current layer 2 traffic classes offered from NBN Co.

Comms Alliance chief executive John Stanton says concerns had been expressed publicly that the quality of end-to-end service delivery to Australian consumers might be put at risk by the transition to a fibre-based delivery platform.

“These revised guidelines are an important part of ensuring that quality for consumers remains paramount,” says Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton.

Dr Brooks says that with services delivered across the NBN needing to cross the networks of at least two service providers and possibly several more, it is essential that each provider uses consistent quality parameters and performance expectations to ensure end-to-end service quality can be delivered to users.

“With the migration of telephone services to the NBN, IP service quality measures and traffic prioritisation will be critical in ensuring the high audio quality expectations of the public are maintained.”

The third guideline has a framework for NBN wholesale telephony services and the content has been updated to add more information on the support of DTMF signalling. This is an important area for the ongoing performance of a range of services on the NBN.

The guidelines are available on the Communications Alliance website at www.commsalliance.com.au

Additional background

The title of the draft guidelines are:

• Quality of Service parameters for networks using the Internet Protocol Guideline (G632:2012).
• Quality of Service for networks using the Internet Protocol – Test Methods Guideline (G633:2012).
• National Broadband Network – Wholesale Service Definition Framework – Telephony Access Service Guideline (G646:2012).