What is QCI 1 Used For?
Today, we’re going to dive into the concept of QCI 1, which plays a significant role in LTE networks. If you’ve been following our discussions on Quality of Service (QoS) and network management, you’ll notice that each service in an LTE network is classified based on its QoS requirements. This is where QCI (QoS Class Identifier) comes into the picture, helping the network determine how to prioritize and manage different types of traffic. Let me explain QCI 1 and its use in detail.
QCI 1 is the highest-priority QoS class in LTE and is primarily used for services that require real-time, high-priority traffic. In LTE networks, each traffic flow is assigned a QCI value ranging from 1 to 9. QCI 1, being at the top of the scale, is reserved for services that demand the best possible performance, including voice calls and real-time video services.
The key characteristic of QCI 1 is its low latency and high reliability, which are essential for voice services like Voice over LTE (VoLTE). When you make a VoLTE call, the network treats it with utmost priority to ensure that your voice call experience remains smooth and free of delays or interruptions. In fact, if you’ve ever made a call using VoLTE, QCI 1 is likely what ensures that your call quality stays consistent and high.
Here’s what makes QCI 1 unique:
- Low Latency: QCI 1 ensures the lowest possible delay in the network. For services like voice calls, this low latency is critical to avoid long pauses and delays in conversation.
- High Priority: Traffic assigned with QCI 1 gets the highest priority in the network, ensuring that real-time services are never delayed or blocked, even during network congestion.
- Guaranteed Throughput: QCI 1 guarantees the minimum level of throughput, ensuring that the service delivers enough data to maintain the quality of real-time communications.
- Reliability: The network ensures that QCI 1 traffic, such as voice or video, has the highest reliability, making it perfect for services that cannot tolerate disruptions.
What services use QCI 1? As mentioned earlier, QCI 1 is mostly used for services like VoLTE and real-time video calling. These services need quick, uninterrupted data transfer for optimal performance. In the case of a VoLTE call, for example, low latency and high reliability ensure that there are no noticeable delays or breaks in the call. Additionally, this QoS class is also used for emergency calls to make sure that they are given top priority in case of network congestion.
To give you a bit more context, in the previous articles, we’ve discussed how LTE improves data speeds and network management. QCI plays a crucial role in this, allowing different traffic types to be prioritized based on their requirements. QCI 1, as we’ve seen, is at the top of the list, ensuring that real-time communication services like voice and video calls are always delivered with the best possible experience.
In summary, QCI 1 is essential for delivering high-priority, real-time services. Without it, services like VoLTE or video calling would experience higher delays, packet loss, and interruptions, leading to poor user experience. By using QCI 1, LTE networks can maintain a high-quality, reliable communication experience for time-sensitive applications.