Linking Users' Subjective QoE Evaluation to Signal Strength in an IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Environment

Although the literature on Quality of Experience (QoE) has boomed over the last few years, only a limited number of studies have focused on the relation between objective technical parameters and subjective user-centric indicators of QoE. Building on an overview of the related literature, this paper introduces the use of a software monitoring tool as part of an interdisciplinary approach to QoE measurement. In the presented study, a panel of test users evaluated a mobile web-browsing application (i.e., Wapedia) on a PDA in an IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless LAN environment by rating a number of key QoE dimensions on the device immediately after usage. This subjective evaluation was linked to the signal strength, monitored during PDA usage at four different locations in the test environment. The aim of this study is to assess and model the relation between the subjective evaluation of QoE and the (objective) signal strength in order to achieve future QoE optimization.