AuthorsM. Rajiullah, A. S. Khatouni, C. Midoglu, Ö. Alay, A. Brunstrom and C. Griwodz
TitleMobile Network Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak from a Testbed Perspective
AfilliationCommunication Systems
Project(s)Department of Mobile Systems and Analytics, MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe
StatusPublished
Publication TypeProceedings, refereed
Year of Publication2020
Conference NameProceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation & Characterization
Pagination110–117
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Place PublishedNew York, NY, USA
ISBN Number9781450380829
KeywordsCOVID-19, mobile network performance, RTT, signal coverage, Throughput, web QoE
Abstract

COVID-19 has changed our lives and continues to have a drastic impact. It forces us to impose restrictive social distancing measures and leads us to rely more on the Internet. Mobile networks become one of the major means to access the Internet for most of us. We investigate the performance of 9 mobile networks in Europe around the time when restrictions were imposed, considering web QoE, throughput, RTT, and signal coverage. Our results show countries' mobile networks are impacted by COVID-19 (as high as 46 % increase in page load time) at different times based on the outbreak timelines in these countries. Moreover, we find that operators responded properly and the network performance is back to the pre-COVID-19 times.

URLhttps://doi.org/10.1145/3411276.3412194
DOI10.1145/3411276.3412194
Citation Key10.1145/3411276.3412194