System and method for quality of experience driven in-transit communications

Abstract

The present invention describes a method for providing a communication service in transit driven by quality of experience (QoE). For example, a communication service in transit is provided to a content consumption device on one or more means of transportation via a network. During a measurement window, the delivery of the communication service in transit can be measured to obtain a network-level delivery (NLD) measurement, and the consumption of the communication service in transit by one or more content consumption devices in the content consumption device can be measured to obtain a customer-level consumption (CLC) measurement. The NLD measurement and the CLC measurement can be used to calculate a QoE score indicating the quality of the delivery service perceived by one or more passengers of one or more means of transportation. The QoE score can be used to update stored service level data. The update can result in the generation of one or more service level triggers, which can trigger automatic remedial actions to resolve QoE-related conditions.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Non-Provisional Application No. 16 / 146,673, filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on September 28, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] Embodiments relate generally to communication systems, and more particularly to providing quality of experience driven communication services to transit vehicles via communication systems. Background Art

[0004] Residential or commercial customers of communication and content services typically form relatively long-term (e.g., monthly, annual, etc.) contractual relationships with providers of those services (such as with Internet service providers, television service providers, cloud-based media service providers, etc.). Those customers typically expect a specific contractual level of service; and when those customers experience an undesirable level of service, they are typically prompted to contact the service provider to report the undesirable level of service. For example, a frustrated customer may contact their Internet service provider whenever there is a service outage, measurable slowdown, configuration problem, etc. In order to help ensure the expected experience for their customers, such service providers typically encourage their customers to report problems and work to resolve those problems in a timely manner.

[0005] It is becoming more and more common for users to consume communication resources (e.g., for streaming media, email, the Internet, etc.) while in transit on a means of transport. For example, a passenger may carry a mobile phone, laptop, tablet computer, integrated media terminal, and / or other in-transit terminal while traveling by car, airplane, bus, train, cruise ship, or other means of transport. In many cases, some or all of the communication services are provided to passengers via a remote network (e.g., the Internet) that communicates with the means of transport. In such cases, there is usually a contractual relationship between the communication provider and the transportation provider that operates the means of transport. In order to help ensure that the communication provider is providing a specific level of service, some such providers tend to periodically check whether their services are available for a certain percentage of time and / or whether a certain contractually specified data rate threshold is met.

[0006] While there is typically a relatively long-term contractual relationship between a communications provider and a transportation provider, there may be only a relatively short-term relationship between a communications provider and a passenger. For example, an airline passenger may use the airline's Internet service for only a portion of the duration of a single flight. During that time, even though the service may be technically available and provide at least a minimum data rate to the aircraft, the passenger may still experience poor service or no service for a variety of reasons. As a result, both the transportation provider and the communications provider may have an incomplete understanding of the end-user's experience, which may tend to hinder the ability of those providers to recognize and properly resolve issues that arise related to those end-users' experience. Summary of the invention

[0007] Among other things, systems and methods for providing a quality of experience (QoE) driven in-transit communication service are described. For example, a communication service in transit is provided to a content consumption device on one or more means of transportation via a network. During a measurement window, the delivery of the communication service in transit may be measured to obtain a network level delivery (NLD) measurement, and the consumption of the communication service in transit by one or more content consumption devices in the content consumption device may be measured to obtain a customer level consumption (CLC) measurement. The NLD measurement and the CLC measurement may be used to calculate a QoE score indicating the quality of the delivery service perceived by one or more passengers of one or more means of transportation. The QoE score may be used to update stored service level data. The update may result in the generation of one or more service level triggers, which may trigger automatic remedial actions to resolve QoE related conditions. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] The present disclosure is described with reference to the accompanying drawings:

[0009] Figure 1 A simplified diagram of a satellite communication system is shown, which provides context for various embodiments;

[0010] Figure 2 An exemplary communication system for delivering in-transit communication services according to various embodiments is shown, wherein the measurement component and the scoring component are mainly arranged in the provider-side network node;

[0011] Figure 3 An exemplary communication system for delivering in-transit communication services according to various embodiments is shown, wherein the measurement component and the scoring component are primarily disposed in a transportation vehicle;

[0012] Figure 4 An exemplary communication system for delivering in-transit communication services according to various embodiments is shown, wherein the measurement component is primarily disposed in the transportation vehicle and the scoring component is primarily disposed in the provider-side network node; and

[0013] Figure 5 A flow chart of an exemplary method for delivering media services in transit is shown according to various embodiments.

[0014] In the accompanying drawings, similar components and / or features may have the same reference label. In addition, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label with a second label that may distinguish the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in this specification, the description applies to any of the similar components having the same first reference label, regardless of the second reference label. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] In the following description, many specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the present invention can be practiced without these specific details. In some cases, circuits, structures, and techniques are not shown in detail to avoid obscuring the present invention.

[0016] Figure 1 A simplified diagram of a satellite communication system 100 is shown, which provides context for various embodiments. The satellite communication system 100 generally facilitates the delivery of onboard content from one or more content sources to multiple transportation vehicles 110 according to prioritization based on release time, as described herein. For example, a passenger aircraft may have an onboard system to provide passengers with en-route communication services (e.g., in-flight entertainment, in-flight Internet connectivity, etc.) via in-seat devices, personal mobile devices, or other devices. When the passenger aircraft is in flight, its onboard system may communicate with one or more carriers of the satellite communication system 100, through which the en-route communication services may be delivered to the passengers.

[0017] The transportation means 110 and transportation-related services may be provided to passengers by a transportation provider (such as an airline); and the transportation provider may desire to provide its passengers with a positive experience regarding the en route communication service. In order to produce a positive passenger experience, the transportation provider may attempt to ensure that at least the desired level of availability (e.g., almost no network downtime or other experienced service loss), with a desired data rate (e.g., sufficiently high throughput, bandwidth, etc. to support passenger use) and with a desired level of accessibility (e.g., appropriate pricing, support for different applications and / or device types, etc.) will be delivered to the passenger. The en route communication service may be provided by a communication provider such as a satellite communication company, which may provide and operate some or all of the components of the provider network through which the en route communication service is provided. In some cases, the communication provider is wholly or partially affiliated with the transportation provider. In other cases, the communication provider is separated from the transportation provider. In such cases, the transportation provider may ensure the desired passenger experience through a contractual relationship with the communication provider.

[0018] Conventionally, ensuring the expected passenger experience tends to involve making the communication provider obliged to only periodically check whether its service is available for at least some contractually specified percentage of time and / or whether some contractually specified data rate threshold is met. However, such periodic checks tend to fail to accurately reflect whether the expected level of service is being provided to the end user (e.g., passenger). For example, even if objective measurements may indicate that the network on a particular aircraft flight is available at a particular time and provides at least a minimum level of data rate, some other problems may cause some or all passengers in the flight to have difficulty connecting to the network, using certain applications, or otherwise having an undesirable passenger experience. Typically, in such cases, the crew members in transit may have little opportunity or ability to resolve the problem, the passengers may have little motivation to report the problem, and / or when reporting the problem, it may be difficult to determine any cause or remedy for the problem (e.g., because the individual reporting the problem has an incomplete understanding of the problem, because it may be impractical for a technician to debug the problem after the fact, etc.).

[0019] Embodiments described herein provide novel methods for maintaining the desired quality of experience (QoE) of communication services on the way to delivery. For example, components of a provider network are used to obtain network-level delivery (NLD) measurements and customer-level consumption (CLC) measurements within a measurement time window when providing communication services on the way. The QoE score can be calculated as a function (e.g., weighted average, etc.) of the NLD measurements and the CLC measurements, and these measurements can be based on both objective and subjective metrics. The calculated QoE score can indicate the delivery service quality (QoS) perceived by one or more passengers of one or more means of transport in real time. In some embodiments, the QoE score can be automatically used to generate one or more service-level triggers, which can cause the execution of one or more automated trigger response actions to at least partially resolve the detected QoE changes as needed.

[0020] Embodiments may use many different types of metrics in many different ways.NLD measurements typically include objective measurements indicating the effectiveness of the network in delivering communication services en route (e.g., whether those delivery services are consumed by one or more passengers or how they are consumed by one or more passengers).NLD measurements can be obtained at various levels, for example, through the entire network, through a subnetwork, through one or more links of the network, etc.CLC measurements typically include subjective measurements indicating the effectiveness of communication services en route (and may also include objective measurements).CLC measurements may also be obtained at various levels, for example, for each individual passenger or for large or small passenger groups, for one or more simulated content consumption devices, etc.These two types of measurements can be reflected in the calculated QoE in different ways.For example, although communication services en route are objectively made available to specific passengers (e.g., according to NLD measurements), CLC measurements may indicate that one or more passenger content consumption devices are experiencing difficulties due to poor wireless reception (or poor wired interface) at the passenger seat, technical limitations of the device, and / or other reasons. Additionally, while certain CLC measurements may be measured objectively (e.g., by passenger content consumption devices or simulated content consumption devices), the objective measurements may be combined with or may contribute to the subjective portion of the QoE score calculation. For example, the CLC measurements may include an objective measurement of a number of video buffering events within a measurement time window, which may be compared to a threshold number of video buffering events as part of calculating a QoE score and / or as part of an output service level trigger (discussed below); and the threshold number of video buffering events may have been determined by subjectively measuring what number of video buffering events tends to have a negative impact on the delivery QoS perceived by the passenger.

[0021] Depending on the specific metric used, one or more types of QoE scores may be calculated and / or used to generate service-level triggers. In some implementations, an overall QoE score is calculated to indicate an overall perception of the delivery QoS. In other implementations, a web browsing QoE score is calculated to indicate a perception of the delivery QoS for normal web browsing behavior using a communication service en route. In some implementations, a video stream QoE score is calculated to indicate a perception of the delivery QoS for video streaming behavior using a communication service en route. Other implementations may calculate other types of QoE scores to indicate a perception of the delivery QoS for other types of behavior using a communication service en route. Any of these types of QoE scores may be calculated relative to one or more passengers, one or more means of transport, one or more measurement time windows, and / or other suitable parameters.

[0022] These and other features can be provided using components of a provider network. As used herein, a provider network may include some or all of a provider side component, a tool side component, and a provider network to communicatively couple the provider side component with the tool side component. The provider component may include one or more gateway terminals 150 and a provider side network node 245. In some cases, the provider side component may also include one or more content networks 160, one or more content servers 180, and / or any other suitable component disposed away from the vehicle 110. The tool side component may include an onboard communication system 112, which may have a terminal 230 en route, which has any other suitable communication-related component disposed on the vehicle 110. The provider network may include a communication link (e.g., a satellite communication link 135), a repeater (e.g., a satellite 105), and / or any other suitable component disposed between the vehicle and the provider side component.

[0023] The illustrated embodiment shows a vehicle 110 communicating with one or more content servers 180 via a satellite 105, one or more provider-side network nodes 245 (e.g., gateways, core nodes, etc.), and a content network 160. Although the communication system 100 is illustrated with the vehicle 110 as a single aircraft communicating with the satellite 105 via a spot beam 135, such illustration is not intended to be limiting, and the embodiment may operate in many different contexts. For example, the communication system 100 may include one or more vehicles 110 (e.g., airplanes, trains, buses, blimps, cruise ships, etc.) communicating via any one or more suitable communication architectures, including any suitable communication links, such as a satellite communication system, an air-to-ground communication system, a hybrid satellite and air-to-ground communication system, a cellular communication system, etc.

[0024] Typically, due to the mobile nature of the vehicle 110, the communication architecture will likely involve at least one wireless communication link. In some embodiments, the vehicle 110 may communicate with a communication system having multiple carriers. The term "carrier" is generally used to include wireless communication links through which one or more vehicles 110 and / or content consumption devices 120 can be served, such as a spot beam 135 of a satellite communication system (e.g., serving a specific spot beam coverage area), a specific carrier frequency band and / or polarization within a spot beam of a satellite communication system (e.g., serving some or all terminals in a specific spot beam coverage area), a cellular carrier frequency band (e.g., serving cellular terminals in a specific cell coverage area), etc. For example, communication through a specific carrier may involve communication through corresponding wireless links using specific frequencies, polarizations, etc. The communication system architecture may use multiple carriers to provide various features, including serving a large service area consisting of multiple carrier coverage areas (e.g., spot beam coverage areas, cell coverage areas, etc.). The carrier coverage areas may overlap partially or completely, so that certain geographic areas are served by multiple carriers (e.g., simultaneously). As the vehicle 110 moves through the communication network, it may move through multiple carrier coverage areas, such that communication services may be provided to the vehicle 110 via different carriers over time. For example, during a transatlantic or international airplane flight, the airplane and the content-consuming devices 120 of the passengers on the airplane may move through multiple carrier coverage areas; and different carriers serving those coverage areas may be used over time to maintain communications with the vehicle 110 over a large geographic area covered during transit (e.g., an area traversed is larger than a single carrier coverage area), and / or to provide other features, such as facilitating load balancing across multiple carriers, grouping of terminals by carrier, etc. Moving the vehicle 110 from one carrier to another during transit may involve "handoffs" of communication services between those carriers, which in some cases may involve handoffs pending multicast communications and / or other services.

[0025] The use of en route communication services by passengers of the transport 110 may involve the communication of various types of content through the provider network. For example, the content may include media content streaming (e.g., cloud TV, movies, or radio programs); live TV or broadcast viewing; Internet browsing, social media, or online game interaction; emailing, texting, or other message sending interactions; etc. Such content may originate from and / or go to the content server 180 via the content network 160 and the gateway 150 (and / or other provider-side network nodes 245). The content network 160 may include any suitable type of network, such as the Internet, an IP network, an intranet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a virtual private network (VPN), a virtual LAN (VLAN), a fiber optic network, a cable network, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a public switched data network (PSDN), a public land mobile network, and / or any other type of network that supports communication as described herein. The network 160 may include both wired and wireless connections and optical links.

[0026] The content server 180 may be accessed via the satellite 105 in any suitable architecture. For example, the content may be generated by the content server 180, stored at the content server 180, and / or received by the content server 180 via the network 160; and the content server 180 may be located at the gateway 150, the core node, or any other suitable location of the communication infrastructure. In flight, the content may be transmitted from the content server 180 to the content consumption device 120 via the satellite 105 and the onboard communication system 112 (e.g., in response to a request for such media from the content consumption device 120). Although only one content server 180 is shown to avoid over-complication of the drawing, the content received by the content consumption device 120 may come from one or more content servers 180 in one or more locations. In some cases, the provision of en-route communication services involves providing content in response to a request (e.g., an explicit or implicit request) for such content from the content consumption device 120. In other cases, the provision of en-route communication services involves pushing content to the transportation vehicle 110 and / or a specific content consumption device 120 without responding to a client request. For example, content may be pushed to content-consuming devices 120 based on a schedule or for pre-positioned purposes, content may be broadcast or multicast to vehicles 110 using any suitable communication protocol and / or mode, and the like.

[0027] Provisioning en-route communication services to the vehicle 110 may involve interaction between provider-side components of the network and the onboard communication system 112 (e.g., via one or more satellite communication links 135 and satellites 105). An embodiment of the onboard communication system 112 includes an en-route terminal 230, and the en-route terminal 230 may include an antenna system 170, a transceiver 172, a modem 174, a network access unit (NAU) 176, and a wireless access point (WAP) 178. In some implementations, the onboard communication system 112 may provide for receiving forward downlink signals from the satellite 105 and transmitting return uplink signals to the satellite 105 to support two-way data communication between the content consumption device 120 in the vehicle 110 and the provider-side components of the provider network. The content consumption device 120 may include a mobile device (e.g., a smart phone, a laptop, a tablet, a netbook, etc.), such as a personal electronic device (PED) brought by a passenger to the vehicle 110. As another example, the content consumption device 120 may include a passenger seat back system or other device on the vehicle 110. The content-consuming device 120 may communicate with the network access unit 176 via a communication link, which may be wired and / or wireless. The communication link may be, for example, part of a local area network, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN) supported by a WAP 178. One or more WAPs 178 may be distributed around the vehicle 110 and may provide traffic switching and routing functionality in conjunction with the network access unit 176; for example, as part of a WLAN extended service set (ESS), etc.

[0028] In operation, the network access unit 176 may provide uplink data received from the content consumption device 120 to the modem 174 to generate modulated uplink data (e.g., a transmit intermediate frequency (IF) signal) for delivery to the transceiver 172. The transceiver 172 may upconvert and then amplify the modulated uplink data to generate a return uplink signal for transmission to the satellite 105 via the antenna system 170. Similarly, the transceiver 172 may receive a forward downlink signal from the satellite 105 via the antenna system 170. The transceiver 172 may amplify and downconvert the forward downlink signal to generate modulated downlink data (e.g., a receive IF signal) for demodulation by the modem 174. The demodulated downlink data from the modem 174 may be provided to the network access unit 176 for routing to the content consumption device 120. The modem 174 may be integrated with the network access unit 176, or in some examples may be a separate component.

[0029] As the vehicles 110 move through the carrier of the communication system 100, passengers on board those vehicles 110 may consume en-route communication services using their content consumption devices 120. Some embodiments described herein attempt to ensure at least a desired level of QoE for those passengers consuming or attempting to consume en-route communication services. This may involve obtaining and utilizing objective and subjective QoE-related information for the passengers of the vehicles 110 using various components across the provider network.

[0030] Figure 2 An exemplary communication system 200 for delivering in-transit communication services in a manner that supports a desired passenger QoE is shown in accordance with various embodiments. The communication system 200 may be a reference Figure 1 The communication system 100 is described in detail. Figure 1 middle, Figure 2 The communication system 200 includes one or more vehicles 110 communicating with one or more provider-side network nodes 245 via a provider network 240. The provider network 240 may include Figure 1 The satellite communications network shown or any other suitable network or networks.

[0031] The vehicle 110 may have an en-route terminal 230 disposed thereon that communicates with a plurality of content consumption devices 120 via an onboard network 225. Embodiments of the en-route terminal 230 may include a provider network interface 232 to communicatively couple with a provider network 240 through which en-route communication services are provided to the vehicle 110. Embodiments of the en-route terminal 230 may also include an onboard network interface 234 to communicatively couple with the content consumption devices 120 via the onboard network 225.

[0032] In the illustrated embodiment, the provider-side network node 245 includes a measurement subsystem 250, a QoE scoring subsystem 270, and a service profile storage device 260 (described below) on which service-level data is stored. An embodiment of the measurement subsystem 250 includes a network-level delivery (NLD) subsystem 252 to measure the delivery of the en route communication service during a measurement time window in order to obtain a set of NLD measurements. In some embodiments, the set of NLD measurements includes a measurement of the availability of the en route communication service in the measurement time window. In one specific implementation, the NLD subsystem 252 repeatedly (e.g., periodically) checks the communication network to determine whether the connection is real-time, and records the results of the check within the measurement time window to obtain a measurement of availability. In another specific implementation, the NLD subsystem 252 periodically or continuously measures the data rate of one or more links of the communication network to determine whether there is any request or response data traversing on the link. Any period of time when no data is traversing the link can be recorded as a period of no availability, and the NLD subsystem 252 can obtain a measurement of availability accordingly. In other embodiments, the set of NLD measurements includes measurements of data rates of en route communication services in a measurement time window. In other embodiments, the set of NLD measurements includes link metric measurements of at least one communication link between a provider-side node of a communication network and a transport. For example, the link metric may indicate link delay, bandwidth, switching status, and / or any other suitable link metric. Any of these and / or other types of NLD measurements may include measurements of forward link performance (NLD measurements associated with forward link traffic traversing a link of the communication network) and / or measurements of return link performance (NLD measurements associated with return link traffic traversing a link of the communication network). As used herein, forward link communications generally refer to communications sent to a transport 110, while return link communications generally refer to communications sent from the transport 110. For example, forward link communications may be sent from a provider-side node 245 to a transport 110 (or, with reference to Figure 1 , sent from the gateway 150 to one or more vehicles 110 via one or more satellite communication links 135); and the return link communication may be sent from the vehicle 110 to the provider side node 245 (or, reference Figure 1 , sent from the vehicle 110 to the gateway 150 via one or more satellite communication links 135).

[0033] The NLD subsystem 252 may obtain NLD measurements in any suitable manner. For example, the measurement subsystem 250 may run speed tests and / or other network tests to check whether the network is available and provides a specific data rate. Positioning the NLD subsystem 252 at the provider-side network node 245 may facilitate obtaining and / or aggregating measurements across multiple transports 110. For example, NLD measurements may be aggregated by transport, by carrier and / or beam, by fleet, by type of transport, by transport route, by type of passenger, by type of content consuming device, by type of content consuming application, by class of service, by geographic location, by time (e.g., time of day, time of year), by transport capacity, etc. In some implementations, aggregation may be multi-dimensional. For example, NLD measurements may be aggregated by carrier, by type of transport.

[0034] Embodiments of the measurement subsystem 250 also include a customer-level consumption (CLC) subsystem 254 to measure the consumption of the en-route communication service by at least one of the content consumption devices 120 in the measurement time window in order to obtain a set of CLC measurements. In some embodiments, some or all of the NLD measurements are objective measurements, and some or all of the CLC measurements are subjective measurements. In some embodiments, one or more of the subjective CLC measurements are obtained by transmitting a prompt to one or more passengers via one or more of the passenger's content consumption devices 120 to request subjective feedback data from the passenger about the consumption of the en-route communication service in the measurement time window. For example, the prompt may be transmitted at a time when or after the passenger is using the content consumption device 120 to consume the en-route communication service. In one such embodiment, the consumption of the en-route media service is via a dedicated application (e.g., provided by a transportation provider, by a communication provider, etc.) or via a standard application (e.g., a standard Internet browser); and the application includes a graphical user interface element, a pop-up window, etc., through which prompts can be displayed during logging into the service, interacting with the service, responding to detecting certain conditions during the consumption of the service, etc. Subjective feedback data may be received from at least one of the one or more passengers via the at least one content consumption device in response to the prompt, and at least a portion of the CLC measure may be generated based on the subjective feedback data.

[0035] In addition or alternatively, the CLC subsystem 254 may obtain one or more objective CLC measurements in any suitable manner. For example, the CLC subsystem 254 may include or communicate with a provider-side deep packet inspection engine, a traffic shaper, etc. (e.g., and / or one or more simulated content consumption devices (SCCDs) 222, as described below). Such components may monitor traffic transmitted to and from the transport 110 and / or individual content consumption devices 120 to determine what types of content are being consumed, how much of each type of content is being consumed, which applications or application types are being used to consume content, etc. As with the NLD subsystem 252, locating the CLC subsystem 254 at the provider-side network node 245 may facilitate obtaining and / or aggregating measurements across multiple transports 110. CLC measurements may be aggregated in the same or different manner as the aggregation of NLD measurements (e.g., at a higher or lower resolution, across the same or different variables, etc.). For example, some specific implementations may aggregate CLC measurements by communication protocol type, application type, browser type, etc.

[0036] In one specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates the amount of data of the en-route communication service used (e.g., including upload and / or download use) by one or more content consumption devices 120 in the measurement time window. In another specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates the amount of time that the one or more content consumption devices 120 use the en-route communication service in the measurement time window. In another specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates at least one device type (e.g., device format, such as smart phone, laptop, tablet, etc.; device installation, such as personal mobile device, seat back terminal, shared cabin display, etc.; device characteristics, such as screen size, operating system, etc.) used by the one or more content consumption devices 120 in the measurement time window to consume the en-route communication service. In another specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates at least one content consumption application (e.g., cloud media streaming, Internet chat, Internet browsing, email, etc.) used by the one or more content consumption devices 120 in the measurement time window to consume the en-route communication service. In another specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates the type of traffic involved in consuming the en-route communication service by the one or more content consumption devices 120 in the measurement time window. In another specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates whether at least one of the passengers associated with the one or more content-consuming devices 120 successfully purchased consumption of the en-route communication service associated with the measurement time window. In another specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates whether the one or more content-consuming devices 120 successfully communicatively couple with the en-route terminal 230 to consume the en-route communication service associated with the measurement time window.

[0037] In some embodiments, some of the CLC measurements may be affected by the use of one or more simulated content consumption devices (SCCDs) 222. Each SCCD 222 may be implemented as an executable program running on the en-route server 230 that simulates the behavior of one or more actual content consumption devices 120. Alternatively, one or more SCCDs 222 may be implemented as an actual or virtual machine running the simulation program. For example, the SCCDs 222 may be used to simulate normal consumer behavior, atypical consumer behavior, specific failure modes of content consumption devices, specific characteristics of a specific type of content consumption device (e.g., brand, browser, operating system, software update, etc.), specific characteristics of a specific use case (e.g., type of application, type of content, etc.), and / or other conditions.

[0038] In some implementations, the SCCD 222 is used to generate metrics related to web browsing (e.g., web page load time, etc.), thereby facilitating the calculation of a web browsing QoE score. For example, the SCCD 222 executable program may include a set of predefined one or more web pages to be requested by the SCCD 222. Repeated execution of the program (e.g., at different times) may cause the SCCD 222 to request the same set of predefined one or more web pages each time, thereby obtaining multiple measurement samples of web page load time over time. The measurement samples can be used to (e.g., automatically) define an acceptable web page load time (or an acceptable web page load time range) and detect samples that do not meet the requirements (indicating an unacceptable web page load time). In one such implementation, the SCCD 222 records web page load times during multiple iterations and / or over time, automatically characterizes the recorded web page load times to define acceptable web page load times, and uses the defined acceptable web page load times to detect anomalies in the recorded web page load times and / or subsequently recorded web page load times. In another such implementation, the SCCD 222 records web page load times during multiple iterations and / or over time, and sends the recorded web page load times to the CLC subsystem 254. The CLC subsystem 254 may automatically characterize the recorded web page load times to define acceptable web page load times, and use the defined acceptable web page load times to detect anomalies in the recorded web page load times and / or subsequently recorded web page load times.

[0039] In some implementations, the SCCD 222 is used to generate metrics related to video streams (e.g., video start delay, video rebuffering, etc.), thereby facilitating the calculation of a video stream QoE score. For example, the SCCD 222 executable program may include a set of predefined one or more video files to be requested by the SCCD 222. Repeated execution of the program (e.g., at different times) may cause the SCCD 222 to request the same set of predefined one or more video files each time (e.g., from the provider-side node 245), thereby obtaining multiple measurement samples for video start delay. The measurement samples may be used to (e.g., automatically) define an acceptable video start delay, and detect samples that do not meet the requirements (indicating an unacceptable video start delay). Similarly, when the SCCD 222 is used to stream video files, the number of rebuffering events may be counted within a specific time period (e.g., 5 minutes), and the number may be used to establish an acceptable threshold number, and / or the number may be compared to an existing threshold number to indicate an unacceptable number of rebuffering events.

[0040] Other embodiments may use the SCCD 222 to generate any other suitable metrics to assist in calculating a general QoE score and / or various QoE scores associated with a particular type of activity. In some of these and / or other specific implementations, the CLC measurements obtained using the SCCD 222 may be combined with NLD measurements (e.g., availability of en route communication services, forward link data rates of en route communication services, etc.) to further assist in calculating one or more QoE scores. For example, while the measurement subsystem 250 is obtaining NLD measurements and CLC measurements, one or more SCCDs 222 may be run on the en route terminal 230 to simulate the generation and / or consumption of various types of traffic (e.g., thereby affecting and / or further assisting in the measurement of CLC measurements). This may be performed while the vehicle 110 is in normal transit (e.g., during a measurement time window when transporting passengers), while the vehicle 110 is in simulated transit (e.g., while the vehicle 110 is parked, etc. and being tested), or at any other suitable time.

[0041] During some or all of the transit time of the transport 110, the en-route communication service is provided to the passenger via the passenger's content consumption device 120 (and / or SCCD 222). Similarly, the measurement time window within which the NLD and / or CLC measurements are obtained may be some or all of the transit time of the transport 110. For example, airplane passengers may not be allowed to access the en-route communication service during takeoff or landing or during other parts of the flight; while bus passengers may be allowed to access the en-route communication service during the entire time the passenger is on the bus. Therefore, some specific implementations set the measurement time window according to the portion of the transit time of the transport 110 during which the passenger is allowed to access the en-route communication service. In addition, there may be certain times during the transit of the transport 110, at which more or fewer passengers may be using the en-route communication service, at which the en-route communication service may be more or less reliably delivered to the transport 110, etc. Therefore, some specific implementations set the measurement time window to correspond to such times when certain failure modes or other conditions may occur. In other specific implementations, the measurement time window is set to record activity samples within a predetermined amount of time. For example, the measurement time window may be set to a ten minute window at approximately half of the transit time of the transport. In other specific implementations, the measurement time window may be set in response to a triggering event. For example, in response to an explicit measurement request (e.g., issued contractually based on a schedule, issued by a service technician, etc.), in response to a detected network event that may affect QoE (e.g., a network outage, a detected surge in network use, etc.), in response to an indication of a detected reduced QoE (e.g., a reduction in the detected QoE of one or more passengers of the transport 110 may trigger the measurement of the QoE of other passengers of the transport 110, other transports 110 served by the same carrier, etc.), and / or in response to any other suitable triggering event, a specific implementation may be automatically triggered to measure the amount of time relative to one or more transports 110.

[0042] An embodiment of the QoE scoring subsystem 270 communicates with the measurement subsystem 250 to calculate a QoE score associated with a particular measurement time window based on the NLD measurements and the CLC measurements. The QoE score may indicate the quality of service (QoS) of delivery as perceived by one or more passengers of one or more transportation vehicles 110 in relation to the consumption (or lack of consumption) of en-route communication services by those passengers via their content-consuming devices 120. After calculating the QoE score, an embodiment of the QoE scoring subsystem 270 may update the service level data stored in the service profile storage 260 accordingly. In some embodiments, updating the service profile storage 260 involves storing new data and / or overwriting data in the service profile storage 260. In other embodiments, the update may involve calculating updated statistics, metrics, trends, and / or other data based on the updated service level data, and storing these updates in the service profile storage 260.

[0043] If updating the service profile storage 260 causes some portion of the service level data to cross a predefined trigger threshold (e.g., exceed a maximum threshold level, or fall below a minimum threshold level), the QoE scoring subsystem 270 may output a service level trigger 275. In some embodiments, the service level trigger 275 may indicate one or more predetermined undesirable conditions with respect to the QoE of one or more passengers of the transport 110. In other embodiments, the service level trigger 275 may indicate one or more abnormally desirable conditions with respect to the QoE of one or more passengers of the transport (e.g., exceeding a contractually specified or guaranteed QoE level).

[0044] The QoE scoring subsystem 270 may calculate the QoE score according to the NLD measurement value and the CLC measurement value in any suitable manner. In some embodiments, the calculation is based on the number of predetermined factors each having a corresponding weight. The weight and / or function used in the calculation may depend on the type of the service level trigger 275 output by the QoE scoring subsystem 270. The calculation can be performed at any suitable one or more resolutions so that the calculation may involve aggregation, interpolation, extrapolation, association, etc. For example, the calculation may generate one or more QoE scores associated with a specific transport, a specific customer or customer group, a specific device type, a specific application or data type, a specific service category, a specific transport route, etc. In some embodiments, according to a group of contract QoE conditions indicating at least one target NLD level of the group NLD measurement value and at least one target CLC level of the group CLC measurement value, the communication service en route is delivered to the transport. In such embodiments, the QoE scoring subsystem 270 may further calculate the QoE score according to at least one of the group of contract QoE conditions. For example, the provision of en route media services may be governed by a contract between a communications provider and a transportation services provider, or between a communications provider and a passenger (e.g., pursuant to an end user license agreement, a terms of use agreement, a loyalty program agreement, etc.); and the contract may provide agreed, guaranteed, or other levels of service related to QoE.

[0045] In some embodiments, the QoE scoring subsystem 270 calculates a QoE score based on previously or dynamically generated expected QoE conditions. For example, an embodiment may generate a set of expected QoE conditions for one or more transport vehicles 110, transport vehicle types, transport routes, carriers, etc. In some specific implementations, for example, some or all of the expected QoE conditions are manually generated based on contractual obligations, normal operating expectations, etc. In other specific implementations, some or all of the expected QoE conditions are automatically generated by the QoE scoring subsystem 270 based on the service level data stored in the service profile storage device 260. For example, a machine learning model, a statistical model, a trend analysis, etc. can be used to generate a value band that is considered to be within the normal operating range of a specific transport vehicle 110, a time of day, a passenger capacity, etc. The generated expected QoE condition may indicate at least one of an expected NLD level for at least one of the NLD measurements in the group or an expected CLC level for at least one of the CLC measurements in the group. The QoE scoring subsystem 270 may then calculate a QoE score in such a manner that the QoE score indicates the delivered QoS as perceived by the one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle as compared to the expected QoS.

[0046] In some embodiments, the service level trigger 275 generated by the QoE scoring subsystem 270 may be pre-associated with one or more automated trigger response actions. In such embodiments, the provider side network node 245 may also include an automated response subsystem 280. The automated response subsystem 280 may detect the service level trigger 275, and may guide the execution of the automated trigger response action in response to the detection. The automated trigger response action may include the automated execution of the guided task to solve the problem of the communication service on the way indicated by the service level trigger 275. In a specific implementation, the task includes transmitting a service call. For example, an automated service call may be issued to a technician on the tool (e.g., a flight attendant) to see if it is possible to improve the passenger's experience in some way (e.g., by resetting one or more components of the terminal on the way, by guiding customers to use it, etc.), to a ground staff (e.g., to a ground crew at the destination airport to notify them of possible useful problems with the terminal in transit), or to a communication provider (e.g., so that they can record the problem, take remedial actions, dispatch services, etc.). In another specific implementation, the task includes executing a repair script. For example, the automated repair script may be automatically used to restart one or more parts of the en route terminal, reestablish network connections, update software, check for viruses or other software errors, suggest remedial actions (e.g., prompt passengers to try different browsers or download specific software), etc. In another specific implementation, the task includes adjusting the subsequent supply of network resources. For example, bandwidth allocation, traffic shaping and / or other supplies may be adjusted in real time for the affected means of transport; the scheduled supply may be adjusted for the future time when the affected means of transport will be in transit, the future time when the same or another means of transport is scheduled to traverse the affected route, etc. In another specific implementation, the task includes issuing compensation to at least one of the one or more passengers affected by the problem, or adjusting the pricing of consuming en route communication services. For example, one or more affected passengers may be automatically given access to a higher level of service at no cost or at a reduced cost, rebates or discounts on communications or other services may be automatically issued to passengers (e.g., Internet access in future flights, food or drink coupons in future flights, loyalty program credits, etc.), and passengers may be automatically refunded for the communication services used, etc. In another specific implementation, the task includes generating a report to be transmitted to a contract partner associated with the delivery of en route communication services. For example, a transport service provider may contract with a communications provider to deliver in-transit communications services; and the contract may require the communications provider to notify the transport service provider of QoE-related metrics.

[0047] As described herein, QoE scores may be calculated across various dimensions and at various resolutions. For example, QoE scores may be calculated across any suitable combination of one or more passengers, one or more aircraft, one or more behavior types (e.g., web browsing, video streaming, etc.), one or more application types, and / or other dimensions. Depending on the type of QoE score calculated and / or the type of service level trigger 275 to be output, service level data may be updated in the service profile storage device 260 in various ways, and the functions for updating service level data may vary from implementation to implementation. In some implementations, service level data is updated in a manner that directly corresponds to a specific QoE score (e.g., each data in a set of service level data in the service profile storage device 260 is a corresponding previously calculated QoE score). For example, a QoE score calculated across passengers of a specific aircraft within a measurement time window indicates that although the en route communication service appears to be available at the expected data rate (e.g., according to certain NLD measurements), the passenger has a poor experience (e.g., according to certain CLC measurements). In such examples, the service level data may be updated to reflect the calculated QoE score, and may result in the output of a specific service level trigger 275 that causes the en-route terminal 230 to automatically reset.

[0048] In other cases, the service-level data is updated in a manner that aggregates multiple QoE scores calculated within the same or different measurement time windows. For example, over time, a corresponding QoE score is calculated for each of a plurality of passengers on each of a plurality of aircraft within each of a plurality of measurement time windows. Updating the service-level data may involve aggregating some or all of the corresponding QoE scores across one or more dimensions (e.g., by aggregating the QoE scores of all passengers of a particular aircraft in a particular measurement time window, the QoE scores of a passenger in multiple measurement time windows, etc.) and / or aggregating at one or more resolutions (e.g., for all passengers in a particular cabin of a particular aircraft, for all passengers of the entire aircraft, for all passengers across a fleet of aircraft, etc.). In addition, each QoE score may be part of one or more aggregations (e.g., one aggregation includes all passengers of a particular aircraft in a particular measurement time window, and another aggregation includes some of the same passengers on a plurality of aircraft in a plurality of time windows). In some cases, the aggregation involves further processing and / or calculation, such as by calculating interpolation, extrapolation, or statistical trends; by filtering and / or sorting; by processing through a machine learning algorithm; etc. The aggregation reflected by the updated service-level data can then be used to inform when to output many types of service-level triggers 275. For example, the respective QoE scores of aggregated individual passengers may be used in a manner similar to the calculation of a single QoE score for multiple passengers (e.g., in the example above where the service-level trigger 275 caused the en-route terminal 230 to automatically reset). The aggregated service-level data can be used to detect and address long-term and / or macro QoE trends. For example, the service-level data may indicate that passengers tend to experience poor QoE when sitting in the business class cabin of each of a particular model of aircraft in a large fleet, and such service-level data may result in the output of a service-level trigger 275 that initiates a systematic review of the delivery of en-route communication services to the business class cabin of the particular model of aircraft.

[0049] In reference Figure 2 In various embodiments described, components of the measurement subsystem 250 and the QoE scoring subsystem 270 are located in the provider-side network node 245. Thus, these embodiments obtain NLD measurements and CLC measurements and calculate QoE scores in a provider-side portion of the network that is remote from the vehicle 110. In other embodiments, various portions of the measurement and / or calculation components may be located in other portions of the network, such as in the vehicle 110. Figure 3 and Figure 4 Some of these other embodiments are shown in .

[0050] Figure 3An exemplary communication system 300 for delivering in-transit communication services in a manner that supports a desired passenger QoE is shown, wherein components of the system 300 are primarily disposed in a single vehicle 110, according to various embodiments. The communication system 300 may be a reference Figure 1 Specific implementations of portions of the communication system 100 are described. For example, the illustrated vehicle 110 may represent one of a plurality of vehicles 110 that communicate via a provider network 240 with one or more provider-side network nodes 245 (not shown).

[0051] like Figure 2 In the embodiment, the vehicle 110 includes an en-route terminal 230 that communicates with a plurality of content consuming devices 120 via an onboard network 225. Some embodiments may also include one or more SCCDs 222 that may be implemented by the en-route terminal 230. The en-route terminal 230 may include: a provider network interface 232 for communicatively coupling with a provider network 240 through which en-route communication services are provided to the vehicle 110; and an onboard network interface 234 for communicatively coupling with the content consuming devices 120 via the onboard network 225. Figure 2 different, Figure 3 The en route terminal 230 includes a measurement subsystem 250, a QoE scoring subsystem 270, and a service profile storage device 260 (i.e., each en route terminal 230 set on each transportation vehicle 110 or on a part of the transportation vehicle 110 may include corresponding instances of the measurement subsystem 250, the QoE scoring subsystem 270, and the service profile storage device 260).

[0052] The measurement subsystem 250 onboard the vehicle 110 includes an NLD subsystem 252 and a CLC subsystem 254. The NLD subsystem 252 can monitor the provider network interface 232 to obtain NLD measurements of one or more network connections between the provider network 240 and the en-route terminal 230. For example, the NLD measurements may include network availability, data rate, bandwidth, switching status, communication protocol, modulation and / or coding scheme, and / or any other suitable NLD measurements. The CLC subsystem 254 may include an onboard traffic shaper, an onboard deep packet inspection engine, and / or other components for monitoring the onboard network interface 234 to obtain CLC measurements of one or more network connections between the en-route terminal 230 and the content consumption device 120. For example, the CLC measurements may include how many content consuming devices 120 are consuming the en-route communication service, which types of content consuming devices 120 are being used to consume the en-route communication service (e.g., device categories, such as by screen size; and / or specific device types), which applications are being used to consume the en-route communication service (e.g., application categories, such as messaging, media streaming on the cloud, etc.; and / or specific applications), which types of traffic are traversing the onboard network 225 (e.g., data protocols, etc.), and / or any other suitable CLC measurements.

[0053] In the illustrated embodiment, the onboard QoE scoring subsystem 270 may then use the obtained NLD measurements and CLC measurements to calculate a QoE score. For example, the QoE scoring subsystem 270 may update the service profile storage 260 to determine whether to generate a service level trigger 275. In the event that the QoE scoring subsystem 270 generates a service level trigger 275, some embodiments may record the service level trigger 275. For example, the recorded service level trigger 275 may be used for subsequent maintenance or subsequent remedial action. In other embodiments, the QoE scoring subsystem 270 may include components or may communicate with an onboard automated response subsystem 280 (not shown) to automatically take remedial action (e.g., by restarting a connection, running a diagnostic script, etc.).

[0054] Figure 4 An exemplary communication system 400 is shown, which is similar to Figure 3 The system 300 is different in that the QoE scoring subsystem 270 and the service profile storage device 260 are arranged in the provider-side network node 245. For example, Figure 3As shown, the vehicle 110 may represent one or more vehicles 110, each of which includes an en-route terminal 230 that communicates with a provider network 240 (via a provider network interface 232) and communicates with a plurality of content consumption devices 120 via an onboard network 225 (via an onboard network interface 234). Each en-route terminal 230 may include an onboard measurement subsystem 250, which may include an NLD subsystem 252 and a CLC subsystem 254. Some embodiments may also include one or more SCCDs 222 that may be implemented by the en-route terminal 230.

[0055] The NDL measurements and CLC measurements obtained by the onboard measurement subsystems 250 of the plurality of transports 110 may be transmitted to the QoE scoring subsystem 270 (e.g., or a plurality of QoE scoring subsystems 270) via the provider network 240. In the illustrated embodiment, the QoE scoring subsystem 270 may use the obtained NLD measurements and CLC measurements to calculate one or more QoE scores. For example, the QoE score may be generated using measurements from a single transport 110 within a single measurement time window, aggregated from a single transport 110 within multiple measurement time windows, aggregated from a plurality of transports 110 in a single carrier within one or more measurement time windows, aggregated from a plurality of transports 110 in a plurality of carriers within one or more measurement time windows, and the like. The received NLD measurements and CLC measurements may be used to update the service profile storage 260 to determine whether to generate a service level trigger 275. Where the QoE scoring subsystem 270 generates a service level trigger 275 , embodiments may log the service level trigger 275 for taking future action, and / or may include components for automatically taking remedial action (e.g., automated response subsystem 280 , not shown).

[0056] Figure 5 A flow chart of an exemplary method 500 for delivering in-transit media services according to various embodiments is shown. In some embodiments, using Figures 1 to 4The various components of the system described implement method 500. The embodiment of method 500 begins at stage 504 by providing en route communication services to content consumption devices via a provider network via an en route terminal set on a transportation vehicle within a measurement time window. En route communication services may include cloud or other streaming services (e.g., movies, television, music, etc.); Internet browsing services (e.g., interaction with website content); personal communication services (e.g., email, text messaging, etc.); and / or any other suitable communication services delivered via a provider network. The provider network may include any suitable satellite or other wireless communication link for communicating between one or more provider-side network nodes and an en route terminal on a transportation vehicle. The en route terminal may include any suitable communication hardware (e.g., transceiver, modem, server, etc.) set on any suitable transportation vehicle (e.g., airplane, cruise ship, train, bus, etc.). Content consumption devices may include consumption devices installed on tools (e.g., seat back display terminals, shared display screens on transportation vehicles, etc.), personal consumption devices (e.g., passenger smartphones, tablets, or laptops, etc.), or any other suitable content consumption devices.

[0057] The measurement time window may include some or all of the time during which in-transit communications are provided to passengers on the transport. In one implementation, the measurement time window includes the entire transit time of the transport. In another implementation, the measurement time window includes only the portion of the transit time of the transport that allows for consumption of in-transit communications services (e.g., the time when a particular aircraft is flying at an altitude of more than 10,000 feet). In another implementation, the measurement time window is a sample time (e.g., ten minutes) during the transit time of the transport.

[0058] At stage 508, the embodiment can measure the delivery of the communication service on the way during the measurement time window to obtain a group of network level delivery (NLD) measurements. In some embodiments, the group of NLD measurements includes the measurement of the availability of the communication service on the way in the measurement time window. In other embodiments, the group of NLD measurements includes the measurement of the data rate of the communication service on the way in the measurement time window. In other embodiments, the group of NLD measurements includes the link metric measurement of at least one communication link between the provider side node of the communication network and the means of transport. For example, the link metric can indicate link delay, bandwidth, switching state and / or any other suitable link metric. Any of these and / or other types of NLD measurements may include the measurement of the forward link performance (the NLD measurement associated with the forward link traffic of the link traversing the communication network) and / or the measurement of the return link performance (the NLD measurement associated with the return link traffic of the link traversing the communication network). In some specific implementations, some or all of the measurements at stage 508 can be performed by the terminal on the way. For example, the terminal on the way can run a speed test and / or other network tests to check whether the network is available and provide a specific data rate. In some specific implementations, the measurements at stage 508 may include aggregating NLD data from multiple content consumption devices. For example, the NLD data may be aggregated by transport, by carrier and / or beam, by fleet, by transport type, by transport route, by passenger type, by device type, by application type, by service class, by geographic location, by time (e.g., time of day, time of year), by transport capacity, etc. In some embodiments, the provision at stage 504 includes transmitting the en route communication service from the provider side network node to the transport through the provider network, and at least some of the measurements at stage 508 are performed by the provider side network node. For example, the gateway terminal may detect link status, check the en route terminal of the transport, etc.

[0059] At stage 512, an embodiment may measure consumption of en-route communication services by at least one of the content consumption devices during a measurement time window to obtain a set of customer-level consumption (CLC) measurements. In some embodiments, the measurements at stage 512 may include transmitting a prompt to at least one of the one or more passengers on a transportation vehicle using the at least one content consumption device via the at least one content consumption device, the prompt requesting subjective feedback data from the at least one of the one or more passengers regarding consumption of the en-route communication service by the at least one content consumption device during the measurement time window. For example, consumption of the en-route media service may be via a dedicated application (e.g., provided by a transportation vehicle provider, by a communication provider, etc.) or via a standard application (e.g., a standard Internet browser); and the application includes graphical user interface elements, pop-up windows, etc., through which prompts may be displayed during logging into the service, interacting with the service, in response to detecting certain conditions during consumption of the service, etc. Subjective feedback data may be received from at least one of the one or more passengers via the at least one content consumption device in response to the prompt, and at least a portion of the CLC measurements may be generated based on the subjective feedback data. In some implementations, the measurements at stage 512 involve obtaining at least one of the set of CLC measurements by an en route terminal. For example, an en route terminal (e.g., a tool-side deep packet inspection engine, a traffic shaper, etc.) may check connected content consumption devices, aggregate feedback, check link status, etc. In some such implementations, simulated content consumption devices may be used for such measurements, as described herein. In other implementations, the provision at stage 504 includes transmitting the en route communication service from a provider-side network node to a transportation vehicle through a provider network, and at least some of the measurements at stage 512 are performed by a provider-side network node. For example, components of a provider-side gateway node (e.g., a provider-side deep packet inspection engine, a traffic shaper, etc.) may aggregate CLC data from multiple transportation vehicles through an entire carrier or beam, etc.

[0060] In one specific implementation, the group of CLC measurements indicates the amount of data of the en-route communication service used (e.g., including upload and / or download use) by the at least one content consumption device among the multiple content consumption devices in the measurement time window. In another specific implementation, the group of CLC measurements indicates the amount of time that the at least one content consumption device uses the en-route communication service in the measurement time window. In another specific implementation, the group of CLC measurements indicates at least one device type (e.g., device format, such as smart phone, laptop, tablet, etc.; device installation, such as personal mobile device, seat back terminal, shared cabin display, etc.; device characteristics, such as screen size, operating system, etc.) used by the at least one content consumption device in the measurement time window to consume the en-route communication service. In another specific implementation, the group of CLC measurements indicates at least one content consumption application (e.g., cloud media streaming, Internet chat, Internet browsing, email, etc.) used by the at least one content consumption device in the measurement time window to consume the en-route communication service. In another specific implementation, the group of CLC measurements indicates the type of traffic involved in consuming the en-route communication service by the at least one content consumption device in the measurement time window. In another specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates whether at least one of the passengers associated with the at least one content-consuming device successfully purchased consumption of the en-route communication service associated with the measurement time window. In another specific implementation, the set of CLC measurements indicates whether the at least one content-consuming device successfully communicatively couples with the en-route server to consume the en-route communication service associated with the measurement time window.

[0061] In some embodiments, at stage 510, the implementation scheme may execute a simulated content consumption device in a measurement time window by a terminal on the way to consume communication services on the way according to a simulation protocol. In such embodiments, the measurement at stage 512 may include measuring the consumption of communication services on the way by the simulated content consumption device in the measurement time window to obtain at least a portion of the group of CLC measurements. The simulated content consumption device is an executable program running on the server on the way that simulates the behavior of one or more content consumption devices. Such simulated content consumption devices can be used to simulate normal consumer behavior, unstable consumer behavior, specific failure modes of content consumption devices, specific types of content consumption devices (e.g., brand, browser, operating system, software update, etc.), specific use cases (e.g., type of application, type of content, etc.) and / or other conditions.

[0062] At stage 516, the implementation scheme can calculate the quality of experience (QoE) score associated with the measurement time window and the transportation vehicle according to the group of NLD measurements and the group of CLC measurements. As described herein, the QoE score indicates the quality of delivery service (QoS) perceived by one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle. The calculation at stage 516 can be based on the number of predetermined factors with corresponding weights. The weight and / or function used in the calculation can depend on the type of trigger to be output in the following stage 524. The calculation can be performed at any suitable one or more resolutions so that the calculation can involve aggregation, interpolation, extrapolation, association, etc. For example, the calculation can generate one or more QoE scores associated with a specific transportation vehicle, a specific customer or customer group, a specific device type, a specific application or data type, a specific service category, a specific transportation route, etc. In some embodiments, according to a group of contract QoE conditions indicating at least one target NLD level of the group of NLD measurements and at least one target CLC level of the group of CLC measurements, the communication service en route is delivered to the transportation vehicle. In such embodiments, the calculation at stage 516 can also be based on at least one of the group of contract QoE conditions. For example, the provision of en route media services in stage 504 may be governed by a contract between a communications provider and a transportation services provider, or between a communications provider and a passenger (e.g., pursuant to an end user license agreement, a terms of use agreement, a loyalty program agreement, etc.); and the contract may provide an agreed, guaranteed, or other level of service related to QoE.

[0063] At stage 520, an embodiment may update service level data stored in a service profile storage device based on the QoE score. In some embodiments, the update involves storing new data and / or overwriting data in the service profile storage device. In other embodiments, the update may involve calculating updated statistics, metrics, trends, and / or other data based on the updated service level data.

[0064] At stage 530, some embodiments generate expected QoE conditions for the transport such that the calculation is further based on the set of expected QoE conditions. For example, prior to the calculation, an embodiment may generate a set of expected QoE conditions for the transport (e.g., for a specific transport, transport type, transport route, carrier, etc.) based on the service level data stored in the service profile storage device, which indicates at least one of the expected NLD level of at least one of the set of NLD measurements or the expected CLC level of at least one of the set of CLC measurements. In such cases, the calculation at stage 516 is such that the QoE score further indicates the delivery QoS perceived by the one or more passengers of the transport compared to the expected QoS.

[0065] At stage 524, the implementation scheme may output a service level trigger in response to the update causing at least a portion of the service level data to cross a predefined trigger threshold. For example, depending on the type of service level trigger, crossing a predefined trigger threshold may involve reaching a level higher than a predetermined maximum threshold or lower than a predetermined minimum threshold, etc. In some embodiments, a service level trigger may indicate one or more predetermined undesirable conditions relative to the QoE of one or more passengers of a transportation vehicle. In other embodiments, a service level trigger may indicate one or more abnormally desired conditions (e.g., exceeding a contractually specified or guaranteed QoE level) relative to the QoE of one or more passengers of a transportation vehicle. As described above, some implementation schemes collect subjective feedback data from passengers (e.g., via a dedicated application, etc.). In some embodiments, subjective feedback data is used to calibrate one or more trigger thresholds. For example, subjective feedback data collected from multiple passengers over time may indicate that certain types of service level triggers 275 are output too frequently or too infrequently, thereby indicating that the trigger threshold is set to be too high or too low; and the trigger threshold may be raised or lowered accordingly.

[0066] At stage 526, some embodiments may detect the service level trigger output in stage 524. In such embodiments, the service level trigger may be pre-associated with the automated trigger response action. At stage 528, some such embodiments may guide the execution of the automated trigger response action in response to detection. The automated trigger response action may include the automated execution of the guided task to solve the problem of the relevant en route communication service indicated by the service level trigger. In a specific implementation, the task includes transmitting a service call. For example, an automated service call may be issued to a technician on the tool (e.g., a flight attendant) to see if it is possible to improve the passenger's experience in some way (e.g., by resetting one or more components of the en route terminal, by guiding the customer to use, etc.), to ground personnel to issue an automated service call (e.g., to the ground crew of the destination airport to notify them of possible useful problems of the terminal in transit), or to a communication provider to issue an automated service call (e.g., so that they can record the problem, take remedial action, dispatch service, etc.). In another specific implementation, the task includes executing a repair script. For example, the automated repair script may be automatically used to restart one or more parts of the en route terminal, reestablish network connections, update software, check for viruses or other software errors, suggest remedial actions (e.g., prompt passengers to try different browsers or download specific software), etc. In another specific implementation, the task includes adjusting the subsequent supply of network resources. For example, bandwidth allocation, traffic shaping and / or other supplies may be adjusted in real time for the affected means of transport; the scheduled supply may be adjusted for the future time when the affected means of transport will be in transit, the future time when the same or another means of transport is scheduled to traverse the affected route, etc. In another specific implementation, the task includes issuing compensation to at least one of the one or more passengers affected by the problem, or adjusting the pricing of consuming en route communication services. For example, one or more affected passengers may be automatically given access to a higher level of service at no cost or at a reduced cost, rebates or discounts on communications or other services may be automatically issued to passengers (e.g., Internet access in future flights, food or drink coupons in future flights, loyalty program credits, etc.), and passengers may be automatically refunded for the communication services used, etc. In another specific implementation, the task includes generating a report to be transmitted to a contract partner associated with the delivery of en route communication services. For example, a transport service provider may contract with a communications provider to deliver in-transit communications services; and the contract may require the communications provider to notify the transport service provider of QoE-related metrics.

[0067] The method disclosed herein includes one or more actions for implementing the method. Without departing from the scope of the claims, the method and / or actions may be interchangeable with each other. In other words, unless a specific sequence of actions is specified, the sequence and / or use of specific actions may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.

[0068] The functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or more instructions on a tangible computer-readable medium. A storage medium may be any available tangible medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other tangible medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. As used herein, disk and optical disk include compact disk (CD), laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk (DVD), floppy disk, and Optical disks, where magnetic disks usually reproduce data magnetically, optical disks reproduce data optically via lasers.

[0069] A computer program product can perform some of the operations presented herein. For example, such a computer program product can be a computer-readable tangible medium having instructions tangibly stored (and / or encoded) thereon, which can be executed by one or more processors to perform the operations described herein. The computer program product can include packaging materials. The software or instructions can also be transmitted via a transmission medium. For example, a transmission medium such as a coaxial cable, a fiber optic cable, a twisted pair, a digital subscriber line (DSL), or a wireless technology (such as infrared, radio, or microwave) can be used to transmit the software from a website, a server, or other remote source.

[0070] In addition, the modules and / or other appropriate devices for performing the methods and techniques described herein may be downloaded by a suitable terminal and / or otherwise obtained and / or coupled to a server, etc., so as to facilitate the transmission of the device for performing the methods described herein. Alternatively, the various methods described herein may be provided via a storage device (e.g., RAM, ROM, physical storage media such as a CD or floppy disk, etc.) so that the user terminal and / or base station may obtain the various methods when the storage device is coupled or provided to the device. In addition, any other suitable technology for providing the methods and techniques described herein to the device may be utilized. The features that implement the functions may also be physically located in various locations, including distribution, so that the functional parts are implemented in different physical locations.

[0071] In describing the present invention, the following terms will be used: the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" include plural references unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Thus, for example, a reference to an item includes a reference to one or more items. The term "some" refers to one, two or more, and is generally applicable to the selection of some or all quantities. The term "plurality" refers to two or more of the items. The term "about" means that the amount, size, size, formula, parameter, shape and other characteristics do not have to be exact, but may be approximated and / or larger or smaller as needed, thereby reflecting acceptable tolerances, conversion factors, rounding, measurement errors, etc. and other factors known to those skilled in the art. The term "substantially" means that the listed characteristics, parameters or values ​​do not need to be precisely achieved, but deviations or variations (including, for example, tolerances, measurement errors, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors known to those skilled in the art) may occur in an amount that does not exclude the effect that the characteristic is intended to provide. Numerical data may be expressed or presented in a range format herein. It should be understood that such range formats are used only for convenience and simplicity, and therefore should be flexibly interpreted as not only including the values ​​explicitly listed as range limits, but also being interpreted as including all single values ​​or sub-ranges included in the range, as if each value and sub-range were explicitly listed. As an example, the numerical range of "about 1 to 5" should be interpreted as not only including the values ​​of about 1 to about 5 explicitly listed, but also including single values ​​and sub-ranges within the indicated range. Therefore, included in the numerical range are single values ​​such as 2, 3 and 4, and sub-ranges such as 1-3, 2-4 and 3-5, etc. This same principle applies to the range of only listing one numerical value (e.g., "greater than about 1") and should be applicable regardless of the width or characteristics of the described range. For convenience, multiple items can be presented in a public list. However, these lists should be understood as if each member of the list is individually identified as a unique and unique member. Therefore, any individual member of such a list should not be understood as a factual equivalent of any other member of the same list based solely on its presentation in a common group, without an indication to the contrary. In addition, where the terms "and" and "or" are used with a list of items, they are to be interpreted broadly, as any one or more of the listed items may be used alone or in combination with the other listed items. The term "alternatively" refers to the selection of one of two or more alternatives, and is not intended to limit the selection to only those listed alternatives or to only one of the listed alternatives at a time, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, the term "coupled" does not require that components be directly connected to each other. Instead, the term is intended to also include configurations with indirect connections, in which one or more other components may be included between the coupled components. For example, such other components may include amplifiers, attenuators, isolators, directional couplers, redundant switches, etc.Additionally, as used herein, including in the claims, "or" used in a list of items prefixed with "at least one of" indicates a disjunctive list, so that, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C" means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C). Moreover, the term "exemplary" does not mean that the example is superior or superior to other examples. As used herein, a "group" of elements is intended to mean "one or more" of those elements, unless the group is explicitly required to have more than one element or zero groups are explicitly allowed.

[0072] Various changes, substitutions, and modifications may be made to the techniques described herein without departing from the teachings defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, the scope of the present disclosure and claims is not limited to the particular aspects of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, devices, methods, and operations described above. Processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, devices, methods, or operations now or hereafter developed that function substantially the same as the corresponding aspects described herein or obtain substantially the same results may be utilized. Accordingly, the appended claims include within their scope such processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, devices, methods, or operations.

Claims

1. A method for in-transit communication services, the method include: receiving en route communication services at an en route terminal disposed on a transportation vehicle through a provider network within a measurement time window; firstly measuring the en-route communication service received at the en-route terminal during the measurement time window to obtain a set of network-level delivery NLD measurement values ​​about the en-route communication service received at the en-route terminal disposed on a transportation vehicle through the provider network; providing the en-route communication service to a plurality of content consumption devices on the transportation vehicle via an onboard network within the measurement time window; secondly measuring the en-route communication service provided to at least one of the plurality of content consuming devices on the transportation vehicle via the onboard network during the measurement time window to obtain a set of customer level consumption (CLC) measurements; calculating a quality of experience (QoE) score associated with the measurement time window and the transportation vehicle based on the set of NLD measurements and the set of CLC measurements, the QoE score indicating a delivery service quality of the en-route communication service as perceived by one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle; comparing the QoE score to a predefined trigger threshold; as well as A service level trigger is output in response to the QoE score crossing the predefined trigger threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: include: detecting the service-level trigger, the service-level trigger being pre-associated with an automated trigger response action; as well as In response to the detecting, performance of the automated trigger response action is directed.

3. The method according to claim 2, in, The automated trigger response action includes directing automated execution of at least one of the following to resolve a problem with the en-route communication service indicated by the service-level trigger: Send a service call, Execute the repair script. Adjust the subsequent supply of network resources, issuing compensation to at least one of the one or more passengers affected by the problem, adjusting pricing for consumption of said en-route communication services, or A report associated with the delivery of the en-route communication service is generated for transmission to a contracting partner.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: include: updating service level data stored in a service profile storage device according to the QoE score; Prior to said calculating, generating a set of expected conditions for said transportation vehicle based on said service level data stored in said service profile storage device, said set of expected conditions indicating at least one of an expected NLD level for at least one of said set of NLD measurements or an expected CLC level for at least one of said set of CLC measurements; wherein the calculating is further based on the set of expected conditions such that the QoE score further indicates the delivery service quality of the en-route communication service as perceived by the one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle compared to expected performance; The updating includes calculating updated service level data based on an aggregation of the QoE score and a plurality of previously calculated QoE scores.

5. The method according to claim 1, in, The set of CLC measurements indicates at least one of: an amount of data of the en-route communication service used by the at least one content consuming device of the plurality of content consuming devices in the measurement time window, an amount of time that at least one of the plurality of content consuming devices uses the en-route communication service within the measurement time window, at least one device type used by the at least one content consuming device of the plurality of content consuming devices to consume the en-route communication service during the measurement time window, at least one content consumption application used by the at least one content consumption device of the plurality of content consumption devices to consume the en-route communication service during the measurement time window, a type of traffic involved in consumption of the en-route communication service by the at least one content consuming device of the plurality of content consuming devices in the measurement time window, whether at least one of the one or more passengers associated with the at least one content consumption device of the plurality of content consumption devices successfully purchased consumption of the en-route communication service associated with the measurement time window, or Whether the at least one content consumption device of the plurality of content consumption devices is successfully communicatively coupled with the onboard network to consume the en-route communication service in association with the measurement time window.

6. The method according to claim 1, in, The set of NLD measurements includes a measurement of an availability of the en route communication service in the measurement time window and a measurement of a data rate of the en route communication service in the measurement time window.

7. The method according to claim 1, in, The set of NLD measurements includes link metric measurements of at least one communication link between a provider-side node of the provider network and the transportation vehicle.

8. The method according to claim 1, in, The service level trigger indicates one or more of a plurality of predetermined undesirable conditions relative to a quality of experience of one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle.

9. The method according to claim 1, in: delivering the en-route communication service to the transportation vehicle according to a set of contractual QoE conditions indicating at least one target NLD level for the set of NLD measurements and at least one target CLC level for the set of CLC measurements; and The calculating is further based on at least one of the set of contractual QoE conditions.

10. The method according to claim 1, in, The secondary measuring includes aggregating CLC data from a plurality of devices among the plurality of content consuming devices.

11. A system for delivering in-transit communication services, the system include: An en route terminal, the en route terminal being arranged on a means of transport and comprising: a provider network interface for communicatively coupling with a provider network to provide en-route communication services to the transportation vehicle via the provider network; an onboard network interface, the onboard network interface being configured to be communicatively coupled to a plurality of content consuming devices disposed on the transportation vehicle, so as to provide the en-route communication service to the plurality of content consuming devices on the transportation vehicle through an onboard network; A measurement subsystem, the measurement subsystem comprising: a network-level delivery NLD subsystem for measuring the en-route communication service received at the en-route terminal during a measurement time window to obtain a set of network-level delivery NLD measurement values ​​for the en-route communication service received at the en-route terminal disposed on a transportation vehicle through the provider network; and a customer level consumption (CLC) subsystem for measuring the en-route communication service provided to at least one of a plurality of content consumption devices on the transportation vehicle via the onboard network during the measurement time window to obtain a set of customer level consumption (CLC) measurement values; and A quality of experience (QoE) scoring subsystem, the quality of experience scoring subsystem communicating with the measurement subsystem to: calculating a QoE score associated with the measurement time window based on the set of NLD measurements and the set of CLC measurements, the QoE score indicating a delivery service quality of the en-route communication service as perceived by one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle; comparing the QoE score to a predefined trigger threshold; and A service level trigger is output in response to the QoE score crossing the predefined trigger threshold.

12. The system according to claim 11, in, The QoE scoring subsystem is further operable to: detecting the service-level trigger, the service-level trigger being pre-associated with an automated trigger response action; and In response to the detecting, performance of the automated trigger response action is directed.

13. The system of claim 12, in, The automated trigger response action includes directing automated execution of at least one of the following to resolve a problem with the en-route communication service indicated by the service-level trigger: Send a service call, Execute the repair script. Adjust the subsequent supply of network resources, issuing compensation to at least one of the one or more passengers affected by the problem, adjusting pricing for consumption of said en-route communication services, or A report associated with the delivery of the en-route communication service is generated for transmission to a contracting partner.

14. The system of claim 11, in, The QoE scoring subsystem is further operable to: updating service level data stored in a service profile storage device according to the QoE score; Prior to said calculating, generating a set of expected conditions for said transportation vehicle based on said service level data stored in said service profile storage device, said set of expected conditions indicating at least one of an expected NLD level for at least one of said set of NLD measurements or an expected CLC level for at least one of said set of CLC measurements; wherein the QoE scoring subsystem calculates the QoE score based on the set of expected conditions such that the QoE score further indicates the delivery service quality of the en-route communication service as perceived by the one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle compared to expected performance; The QoE scoring subsystem calculates updated service level data based on an aggregation of the QoE score and a plurality of previously calculated QoE scores.

15. The system of claim 11, in, The set of CLC measurements indicates at least one of: an amount of data of the en-route communication service used by the at least one content consuming device of the plurality of content consuming devices in the measurement time window, an amount of time that at least one of the plurality of content consuming devices uses the en-route communication service within the measurement time window, at least one device type used by the at least one content consuming device of the plurality of content consuming devices to consume the en-route communication service during the measurement time window, at least one content consumption application used by the at least one content consumption device of the plurality of content consumption devices to consume the en-route communication service during the measurement time window, a type of traffic involved in consumption of the en-route communication service by the at least one content consuming device of the plurality of content consuming devices in the measurement time window, whether at least one of the one or more passengers associated with the at least one content consuming device of the plurality of content consuming devices successfully purchased consumption of the en-route communication service associated with the measurement time window, or Whether the at least one content consumption device of the plurality of content consumption devices is successfully communicatively coupled with the onboard network to consume the en-route communication service in association with the measurement time window.

16. The system of claim 11, in, The set of NLD measurements includes a measurement of an availability of the en route communication service in the measurement time window and a measurement of a data rate of the en route communication service in the measurement time window.

17. The system of claim 11, in, The set of NLD measurements includes link metric measurements of at least one communication link between a provider-side node of the provider network and the transportation vehicle.

18. The system of claim 11, in, The service level trigger indicates one or more of a plurality of predetermined undesirable conditions relative to a quality of experience of one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle.

19. The system of claim 11, in: delivering the en-route communication service to the transportation vehicle in accordance with a set of contractual QoE conditions indicating at least one target NLD level for the set of NLD measurements and at least one target CLC level for the set of CLC measurements; and The QoE scoring subsystem calculates the QoE score based on at least one of the set of contractual QoE conditions.

20. The system of claim 11, in, The measurement subsystem aggregates CLC data from a plurality of devices among the plurality of content consuming devices to obtain the CLC measurement value.

21. A system for delivering in-transit communication services, the system include: one or more processors; as well as a non-transitory data storage device having stored thereon service-level data and processor-readable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform steps comprising: firstly measuring an en-route communication service received at an en-route terminal during a measurement time window to obtain a set of network-level delivery NLD measurement values ​​for the en-route communication service received at the en-route terminal disposed on a transportation vehicle through a provider network; providing the en-route communication service to a plurality of content consumption devices on the transportation vehicle via an onboard network within the measurement time window; secondly measuring the en-route communication service provided to the plurality of content consuming devices on the transportation vehicle via the onboard network during the measurement time window to obtain a set of customer level consumption (CLC) measurements; calculating a quality of experience (QoE) score associated with the measurement time window and the transportation vehicle based on the set of NLD measurements and the set of CLC measurements, the QoE score indicating a delivery service quality of the en-route communication service as perceived by one or more passengers of the transportation vehicle; comparing the QoE score to a predefined trigger threshold; as well as A service level trigger is output in response to the QoE score crossing the predefined trigger threshold.

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