preseem

Preseem offers a QoE (Quality of Experience) monitoring and optimization platform for wireless internet service providers (WISPs) to improve customer satisfaction, reduce churn, and lower support costs. Preseem provides an alternative solution to traditional NMS (network management systems) tools, which are based on monitoring network elements, such as routers and switches, and infer the quality that the subscriber receives.

Preseem's subscriber QoE-based monitoring focuses directly on QoE metrics instead of network elements. This enables WISPs to understand the QoE the network delivers down to a tower, sector, and subscriber level. This information can be utilized by WISPs to plan their network upgrades and identify disruptive areas of the network.

Preseem’s subscriber summary gives L1 support insight into a subscriber's Quality of Experience. The goal of this solution is to make troubleshooting efforts easier and reduce support costs. Preseem's Wireless Summary offering can help the client identify a variety of issues:

• Congestion due to overloading
• Reduced capacity due to interference
• Poor signal strength to end user, causing lower throughput for the entire sector
• Backhaul/transit congestion affecting APs (Access Points)
• Reduced capacity due to bad weather conditions
• MicroPOPs overloading an AP
• Plan enforcement shapers contributing to high latency
• Subscribers with connectivity issues resulting in high latency

Preseem uses AQM (Active Queue Management) techniques to enforce subscriber bandwidth limits and to manage streaming video and other high-bandwidth applications. Preseem’s subscriber QoE optimization enables interactive flows like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), gaming, and DNS without being affected by heavy network traffic such as video streaming and large downloads.

Preseem applies its understanding of each particular wireless network topology to implement advanced AQM-based QoE optimization at the access point level, striving for service stability in the event that demand on an access point exceeds its capacity.

Preseem’s pricing starts at USD$0.50 per active subscriber to be monitored and optimized per month. The subscription is offered with no contracts or terms and can be cancelled at any time. The minimum monthly subscription is $100. Preseem offers custom pricing for networks larger than 50,000 subscribers. Access points, routers, switches, servers, CPEs, and SMs are non-billable. All of Preseem's monthly plans include dedicated support, software upgrades, consultation support, and a thirty-day trial.

According to Preseem's research, the majority of WISP access points have less than ten attached subscribers, and the majority of access points are less than three times oversubscribed. Other results of Preseem's research include the following:

• The average fixed wireless subscriber uses just over 4.8 Mbps when active
• The average fixed wireless subscriber uses 8.2 GB of data per day for a total of 244 GB per month
• Cambium and Ubiquiti access point equipment dominate fixed wireless deployments
• Fixed wireless networks leverage wider channel width to deliver service to a higher number of subscribers instead of delivering higher throughput to the same number of subscribers per access point
• Over 60% of access points are less than 3x oversubscribed

E-vergent is an internet provider based in Wisconsin that uses a combination of Cambium and Ubiquiti equipment along with Billmax as its billing platform. Preseem's API integration with Billmax enables access to subscriber plan speeds for bandwidth enforcement. Preseem identifies parts of the e-vergent's network that requires upgrades and implements its QoE optimized plan enforcement, which has resulted in a 28% drop in churn rate, translating into the retention of $27,000 in revenue and 63 customers (297 service months) in the six subsequent months. It is anticipated that the the lower churn rate signifies the retention of $114,000 in revenue and 126 customers (1259 service months) over a one-year period.

Alamo Broadband had been having difficulties with large, un-managed packet buffers, known as Bufferbloat, that cause high latency when a connection nears its capacity. Preseem's QoE metrics informed Alamo as to what particular APs and backhaul radios were responsible for impairing the service, which allowed Alamo to address the underlying network issues. As a result, Alamo received a reduced number of support calls, and the company's operating costs were lowered.