Quality of Service Reliability: A Study of Received Signal Quality in GSM Networks

Abstract

Every radio frequency (RF) design, after its implantation, should be regularly evaluated. The kernel of this article is to evaluate the performance of four GSM networks, taking its received signal quality (RxQual) into consideration. A total of 10501, 10140, 10415 and 10690 RxQual measurements were obtained for MTN, 9mobile, Airtel and Globacom network. These generated data were subjected to statistical analysis in the form of bar charts, quality plots and calculations of measures of central tendency and dispersion. Result shows that 78.43%, 92.18%, 90.68% and 86.93% of the drive test route for MTN, 9mobile, Airtel and Globacom network had good signal quality and met with the Nigerian telecommunication regulatory benchmark of at least 4dB for RxQual. It is therefore deduced that in terms of RxQual, 9mobile was the best GSM network, followed by Airtel network, Globacom network and then MTN network. The result provided in this article will help mobile network operators to improve signal quality, ensure improved network coverage and increase network capacity in the future.