Improving quality of experience for network services [Guest editiorial]

In pursuit of new revenue opportunities and improving market competitiveness, network service providers are offering new value-added services, such as voice over IP (VoIP), video on demand (VoD), IPTV, and so on. With the increased competition, improving the quality of the offered services as perceived by the users, commonly referred to as the quality of experience (QoE), becomes very important as well as a significant challenge to the service providers with a goal to minimize the customer churn yet maintaining their competitive edge.