As part of the SIGMA360 project activities, the project team has prepared a curriculum proposal for a new graduate-level elective course titled Quality of Service Analysis. The course is designed for students of the Information and Communication Traffic programme and focuses on the analysis of service quality, user experience, multimedia services, and modern communication networks.
A New Educational Outcome of the SIGMA360 Project
As part of the SIGMA360 project, the project team has successfully prepared a curriculum proposal for a new graduate-level course titled Quality of Service Analysis. The course is proposed for students of the Information and Communication Traffic programme at the graduate level of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences study programme.
The development of this course represents one of the planned educational outcomes of the SIGMA360 project. In addition to research activities, dataset development, subjective quality assessment, and predictive modelling, the project also aims to strengthen teaching capacities in the field of multimedia services, communication networks, and user-centred quality evaluation.
The proposed course carries 6 ECTS credits and is structured through lectures, laboratory practice, and seminars. Its teaching format combines theoretical foundations with practical analysis and student project work, allowing students to connect technical network performance indicators with the quality perceived by end users.
Understanding Quality in Modern Communication Services
The course introduces students to fundamental and advanced concepts of quality of service in packet-switched communication networks. It covers network performance, transmission protocols, system architectures, and their impact on different types of services, including multimedia streaming, interactive applications, online gaming, web services, and data services.
A key focus of the course is the relationship between Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE). Students will learn how technical parameters such as delay, delay variation, packet loss, bitrate, resolution, and network conditions influence the user’s perception of service quality. This is particularly relevant in today’s digital environment, where users expect reliable, responsive, and high-quality multimedia and communication services.
The proposed curriculum also includes objective and subjective methods for assessing service quality. Students will become familiar with relevant international recommendations, standard and advanced quality metrics, and methods used to evaluate both technical service performance and user experience. This approach directly reflects the research orientation of the SIGMA360 project, which combines engineering analysis with human-centred evaluation.
From Analysis to Modelling
An important part of the course is dedicated to laboratory practice and seminar work. Through practical exercises, students will analyse network and application services, interpret quality parameters, examine the impact of changing network conditions, and apply quality assessment methods to multimedia, interactive, web, and data services.
Within the seminar assignment, students will develop a simple model for assessing or predicting the quality of a selected network or application service. This includes defining a quality-related problem, selecting relevant indicators, developing and testing a model, interpreting results, and proposing possible quality improvement measures. In this way, students will gain experience not only in analysis, but also in applied modelling and evidence-based decision-making.
The course is designed to support the development of competences that are increasingly important in communication networks, multimedia systems, streaming platforms, and digital service environments. Students will be trained to understand how network and application-level mechanisms affect service delivery, how quality can be measured and interpreted, and how technical results can be translated into conclusions about user experience.
By proposing the Quality of Service Analysis course, the SIGMA360 project contributes to the modernization of graduate education in the field of information and communication traffic. The course connects current research challenges with teaching practice and supports the development of future experts capable of analysing, evaluating, and improving the quality of modern digital services.
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