Communication Quality

The communication quality capabilities allow applications to request guaranteed levels of network performance for specific connections or sessions. Rather than being subject to whatever network conditions happen to exist at a given moment, an application can ask the operator to prioritize a connection and maintain a defined quality floor for its duration.

These capabilities are part of the CAMARA standard and are designed for use cases where degraded network quality causes a materially bad experience or real-world harm.

QoS Profiles

What it does: Defines named quality-of-service (QoS) tiers that represent different combinations of bandwidth, latency, and packet loss guarantees. Service providers select from these predefined profiles when making a Quality on Demand request.

A QoS profile is essentially a named contract with the network. Each profile specifies characteristics like:

  • Minimum guaranteed download and upload speeds
  • Maximum acceptable latency (delay)
  • Priority relative to other traffic on the network

Profiles are defined by the operator and exposed through the API. Different operators may offer different profiles, but they follow a common naming convention defined by CAMARA (for example, QOS_E for enhanced quality, QOS_S for standard quality).

Who benefits:

  • Service providers who want to understand what quality options are available before making a Quality on Demand request
  • Platform teams building abstractions over the Open Gateway API who need to enumerate available tiers

Why it matters:

QoS Profiles separates the concern of “what quality options exist” from “request a specific quality for this session.” By listing profiles separately, service providers can discover operator capabilities dynamically and build their own tier selection logic on top.

Quality on Demand

What it does: Allows an application to request that the operator prioritize a specific network connection and maintain a defined level of quality for the duration of a session.

The service provider specifies:

  • The device or connection to apply the quality boost to (identified by IP address or phone number)
  • The QoS profile to apply (selected from the list returned by QoS Profiles)
  • The duration of the session

The operator then attempts to reserve the necessary network resources and confirms whether the request was accepted. Once the session ends or the requested duration expires, the network returns to normal operation.

Who benefits:

  • Video conferencing platforms: Guaranteeing a minimum bitrate and low latency for a video call, eliminating the choppy video and audio dropouts that occur when network conditions degrade
  • Online gaming: Reducing latency spikes that cause lag in real-time multiplayer games
  • Telemedicine: Ensuring that video consultations between patients and healthcare providers are stable and high quality, which is especially critical for remote diagnostics
  • Live streaming: Maintaining consistent upload quality for broadcasters, preventing dropped frames and stream interruptions
  • Industrial IoT and remote operations: Ensuring reliable, low-latency connectivity for remote machinery control, robotics, or critical sensor data transmission
  • Emergency services: Prioritizing communications for first responders in congested network conditions

Why it matters:

Network conditions are inherently variable. During peak hours or in crowded locations, available bandwidth shrinks and latency increases. For most applications, this is a minor inconvenience. For applications that depend on real-time, high-quality connectivity, it can be a product-breaking problem.

Quality on Demand gives applications a way to step outside the constraints of best-effort networking for specific, time-bounded sessions. The application pays (or charges the operator’s API for) the quality guarantee only when it is needed, rather than requiring the user to be on a dedicated premium network tier at all times.

This is particularly valuable for mobile use cases, where network conditions can change rapidly as a user moves through different coverage areas or environments.

Session lifecycle

A Quality on Demand session follows a defined lifecycle:

  1. Requested: The application submits a request specifying the device, profile, and duration.
  2. Available: The operator confirms that the requested quality can be provided and activates the session.
  3. Active: The network prioritizes the specified connection according to the profile.
  4. Completed or expired: The session ends when the requested duration expires, when the application explicitly closes the session, or when the operator can no longer guarantee the requested quality.

Applications can query the session status at any point during this lifecycle and can extend or terminate sessions programmatically.