MicrosoftQoSmetrics, a leading provider of network performance assurance solutions for triple play networks, announced its V-Factor product has been awarded Frost & Sullivan's annual Award for Product Differentiation Innovation for 2006. The award is presented each year to the company that has best demonstrated the ability to develop and / or advance products with more innovative capabilities than competing vendors and products. This award recognizes QoSmetrics' successful adoption of new or existing technology that has become a part of its well-designed product family. Such innovation is expected to significantly contribute to the industry in terms of product performance and degree / rate of technical change.

In coming to the conclusion, Frost & Sullivan's analyst team tracked competing market participants' product differentiation strategies through ongoing research. This research consists of market participant interviews, end-user surveys, and extensive secondary research. The data compiled through this research is analyzed based upon specific measurement criteria. Using this process QoSmetrics was recognized for their superior performance in the IP video test and measurement industry.

With subscriber's experience and service quality being key differentiators for service providers QoSmetrics' products, with its focus on Quality of Service (QoS) combined with Quality of Experience (QoE), are truly an innovative offering, the Frost & Sullivan analyst research team noted. The team went on to add that QoSmetrics has clearly understood the market transition from laboratories to installation, maintenance and monitoring applications with the emphasis on IPTV performance assurance monitoring and has developed its products accordingly. It is for its commitment to drive its limits and deliver economically-priced innovative products to its customers that QoSmetrics is the deserving recipient of the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Product Differentiation Innovation Leadership Award in the IP video test and measurement market.

The IP video test and measurement market is embryonic in nature and expected to witness strong growth from 2006 to 2010. To be a market leader across all segments in such a hazy market scene, legacy test vendors need to have the right expertise, follow innovative strategies and also have the back up of effective test tools. It is important to launch products by sensing market needs and also understand end-user priorities and requirements to be a successful market leader. Among various participants in the market, a strategic analysis of these factors has aided Frost & Sullivan in identifying companies that have been the leaders in some of these initiatives, with QoSmetrics being singled out as the key innovator of the group.

"One of the major demands in the emerging IP video market was the need for a video scoring metric suitable for the IPTV market," commented Sankara Jambuligam, research analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "With the announcement of V-Factor, which is the first product suitable for large-scale deployment of IPTV, QoSmetrics eliminated one of the major stumbling blocks for successful deployment."

Previous techniques for video scoring relied on the comparison of a compressed image with a reference model, which does not augur well considering that an IPTV operator is to monitor millions of set top boxes (STB) with more than 100 TV channels deployed.

V-Factor Product Background
The V-Factor product involves a combination of a QoSmetrics' developed algorithm and a new methodology for implementing metrics-based measurement of streaming digitized video and audio. Previously, users had to rely on network transport indicators and other methods that inferred video quality. Video Mean Opinion Score (MOS) was often evaluated by simple fidelity metrics such as Mean Square Error (MSE) or Peak-Signal-Noise-Ratio (PSNR). Unfortunately, this class of metrics does not correlate well with the human perception of video quality and doesn't scale well for large IPTV quality assessment. V-Factor not only can actually account for network impairments such as delay variation and packet loss episodes that impact the video buffer used to restitute a video image but also can account for video impairments coming from the source. For that purpose, V-Factor measures image complexity and scene changes that are codec dependant. In addition to a special algorithm, the methodology behind V-Factor is based on an adaptation of the Motion Picture Quality Metrics (MPQM) model. QoSmetrics adapted the model specifically for IP video for end-to-end scoring. This enables the V-Factor product to maximize video and audio quality as perceived by an end-user, through the whole chain, and lets its implementer see how traditional network metrics impact this perceived quality. The video stream is analyzed using V-Factor-based models and algorithms. The audio stream is analyzed using MOS based on ITU G107 model. A data stream is analyzed using the metrics described in the standard ETSI TR101290.

V-Factor provides, as with previous products, IP Service Level Agreement (SLA) metrics such as delay, loss and jitter based on the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard Y1540/1. Metrics for Voice-over-IP (VoIP), such as MOS capabilities based on ITU G107, are included alongside Video-over-IP metrics within V-Factor products. Support for European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) TR101290 metrics, as well as other Key Performance Indicators (KPI), are also included. This integrated solution is easy to deploy and seamlessly integrates at the back end with existing popular Operations Support Systems (OSS).

"We have strong partnerships and strong market traction for our V-Factor products," said Yves Cognet, Chairman, QoSmetrics. "This Frost & Sullivan Award serves as more proof of the excellent value, capabilities and real-world problems we are solving with V-Factor by aiding service providers in assuring levels of quality for IPTV deployments end-to-end."