Web Session QoE Evaluation from Encrypted Flow Statistics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) face challenges in accurately assessing web quality of experience (QoE) due to pervasive encryption, as existing in-browser metrics are opaque and computationally intensive when inferred from network traffic.
Innovation Solution
A device and method for approximating in-browser metrics, such as Byte Index (BI), by computing quality metrics at the flow level using flow start time, flow size, and absement statistics, reducing computational complexity and enabling generalized metric approximation across multiple flows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If in-browser metrics are inferred from network traffic using traditional methods, then web quality assessment can be performed, but computational complexity and processing cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the web session into multiple flows, where each flow represents a distinct sequence of packets. By computing quality metrics at the flow level rather than processing all packets individually, the system divides the complex computation into manageable segments, significantly reducing overall computational complexity while maintaining assessment accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces flow-level statistics as an intermediary representation between raw network packets and final quality metrics. These statistics serve as a compressed intermediate form that captures essential flow characteristics without requiring full packet-level processing, thereby reducing computational burden while preserving the information needed for accurate quality assessment.
2Loss of information
If packet-level analysis is performed to compute quality metrics, then detailed web quality information can be obtained, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential statistics needed for quality assessment at the flow level, rather than analyzing every packet in detail. By taking out and computing only the necessary flow-level statistics, the system obtains sufficient quality information without the time cost of exhaustive packet-level inspection.
3Reliability
If encryption is applied to protect user privacy, then security is improved, but web quality assessment becomes opaque and difficult for ISPs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses flow-level statistics as an intermediary that can be derived from encrypted traffic without requiring decryption. These statistics serve as a bridge that allows ISPs to assess web quality while user privacy remains protected through encryption, as the statistics can be computed from observable flow characteristics without accessing encrypted payload content.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a device and method for approximating an in-browser metric from network traffic. Specifically, the disclosure proposes a device for quality evaluation of a web session. The device is configured to receive the web session, wherein the web session comprises a plurality of flows. Further, the device is configured to compute a set of statistics for a flow of the plurality of flows, and compute a per-flow quality metric value based on the set of statistics computed for the flow. The device is further configured to determine a quality metric value of the web session based on the computed per-flow quality metric value. In this way, a solution to compute quality metrics of a web session at the flow level is provided. This disclosure can be implemented in a router.