QoS Measurement: A Comparative Study of Speeds and Latency for 5G Network Using Different Speed Test Applications for Mobile Phones

Abstract

This paper presents a study using three popular speed test applications for mobile phones, including Speedtest, OpenSignal and nPerf. The study was designed to test the Quality of Service (QoS) parameters at the concourse level of 60 Skytrain stations in Bangkok, Thailand. By conducting the stationary tests with one major 5G network operator in the Thai market using these three applications, 180 records of data per application were collected. The results of download and upload speeds and latency were focused. The results from different applications reveal that the average values of speed and latency from each application are not the same. The download speeds obtained from Speedtest, OpenSignal and nPerf are 403.5 Mbpas, 326.4 Mbps and 291.6 Mbps respectively, while the upload speeds obtained from those applications are 97.2 Mbps, 83.4 Mbps and 183.9 Mbps respectively. Analysis using ANOVA and t-test was also conducted. This analysis shows significant differences among the download and upload speeds and latencies from these three applications, with p-values of less than 0.05. It can be concluded that QoS parameters measured by different applications tend to be different. Therefore, the average QoS results should be the average results from at least three applications for fairness and reliability.