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Synthetic Vision Systems Terrain Database, Symbology and Display Requirements ........................... 1
Srikanth K P and Dr Abhay A Pashilkar
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Dr Abhay A Pashilkar
Scientist, Flight Mechanics and Control Division
National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru, India
ABSTRACT
Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) are designed to improve pilots situational awareness, thus
lowering his workload. Synthetic Vision provides virtual out-of-window view of terrain and
obstacles irrespective of weather conditions. SVS uses terrain databases and onboard
sensors as inputs to render out-of-window cockpit view to the pilot. The dependability of
synthetic vision is related to the accuracy of terrain elevation database and navigation data
such as Differential Global Positioning System, Radar Altimeter etc. Sensors such as Radar
Altimeter, Weather Radar can be used to monitor the integrity of the terrain databases. This
paper provides an overview of SVS, sensors required to improve the reliability of such a
system. A study of critical technologies such as synthetic database, flight symbology and
display systems have been carried out. Tunnel in the sky symbology used in SVS displays
have been studied. Accordingly, recommendations have been made regarding HUD FOV,
accuracy and resolutions of synthetic database. A survey has been carried out regarding
commercial SVS products that are available with state of art technology.
Keywords
Elevation Database, Head-Up-Display, Integrity Monitoring, Synthetic Vision System
Abbreviations
CFIT Controlled Flight Into Terrain
CRT Cathode Ray Tube
DEM Digital Elevation Model
DGPS Differential Global Positioning System
EVS Enhanced Vision System
FAA Federal Aviation Agency
FOV Field of View
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GPS Global Positioning System
HDD Head Down Display
HFOV Horizontal Field of View
HSI Horizontal Situation Indicator
HUD Head Up Display
IESVS Integrated Enhanced and Synthetic Vision System
ILS Instrument Landing System
ISRO Indian Space Research Organisation
LCD Liquid Crystal Diode
LED Light Emitting Diode
LiDAR Light Detection and Ranging
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Agency, USA
NAV Navigation Mode
ND Navigation Display
NDB Non Directional Beacon
NRSA National Remote Sensing Agency, India
PFD Primary Flight Display
RADAR Radio Detection and Ranging
RTCA Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics
SA Situational Awareness
SRTM Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
SVS Synthetic Vision System
TAWS Terrain Awareness Warning System
VFOV Vertical Field of View
VOR Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Radio Range
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the flight accident reasons is Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT).
Here, a pilot continues to fly into bad weather and poor visibility, which can
lead to casualty due to failure of visual horizon. The pilot can fly into
unknown terrain leading to loss of control. As per statistics, over 30% of
flight accidents occur due to CFIT [1]. To overcome the loss of visibility,
avionics systems such as attitude indicators, radio navigation etc has been
introduced. Still, partial visibility is still a significant factor which affects
flight operations even today.
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Enhanced Vision Systems (EVS) and Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) have
the capability to permit pilots to take advantage of different image sources
available. Data from imaging sensors are fused digitally in an EV system.
This provides a clear view of external world even in impaired visibility
conditions within the cone of visibility of the imaging sensors. SVS renders
the image using a priori database depending on the current pilot view. This
displays terrain and flight path information to the pilot, which is not possible
with EVS. With the technology advancement, it is possible to obtain more
accurate terrain and obstacle data for most part of world. The availability of
low cost 3-D graphics cards facilitates simulation of external world as on a
clear day. The ability of pilot to see in all directions, even in bad weather
conditions provides substantial operational usefulness and safety benefits
[2].
A detailed description of synthetic vision system is presented in Section 2.
The synthetic vision systems that are commercially available are discussed
in Section 3. The requirements for the development of a typical SVS are
presented in Section 4. The recommendations of a typical SVS are provided
in Section 5.
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(TAWS) to be installed on most aircraft. SVS is developed for applications
from being advisory to flight critical systems but TAWS are purely advisory
in nature. The SVS with terrain data integrity monitoring would aid the pilot
in avoiding CFIT which could be flight critical. As SVS is used to support
decision making depending on terrain depiction, it is essential that terrain
database is certified to flight critical levels.
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and proved that airlines can make huge savings on operational costs [7].
These savings are possible, provided other aiding technologies are
developed and the units are to be certified for operational efficiencies
offered by these technologies are to be analyzed further. SVS can provide
operational benefits such as enhanced surface operations, decreased runway
occupancy time during low visibility, reduce inter-arrival separations,
improved path guidance and alerting mechanisms, enhanced flight
management etc. A cost-benefit study conducted by NASA for 10 major US
airports has predicted savings of about $2.25 billion for years 2006 to 2015
for the airliners.
SVS consists of Enhanced intuitive view, Hazard detection and display,
Integrity Check and Alerting and Precision navigation guidance display. As
explained earlier, SVS displays relevant and critical environment features of
out of window visuals using computer generated terrain images even when
weather conditions are inferior. As the pilot will see the display as he sees in
clear day light environment, the display is termed as intuitive. Symbology
can be added to the display to increase pilots awareness.
To maintain pilots SA and provide terrain and hazard separation, terrain,
traffic, obstacles and other hazards are pictorially displayed. SVS provides
pilot detection, identification, geometry awareness and overall SA which is
not possible by standard avionics displays.
As pilots have to trust the SVS is providing accurate information, integrity
monitoring and alerting needs to be implemented. Here, independent sensors
such as GPS, radar altimeter, enhanced vision sensors can be used to
monitor the integrity function. If a mismatch occurs, the display should
degrade to backup modes and alert the pilot the SV is no longer trustworthy.
Such a monitoring prevents pilot from relying on misleading information.
To use terrain elevation databases in flight critical systems, it is important
that misleading terrain information display should be avoided. Thus a SV
system must have a real-time database monitoring mechanism to reduce
inadvertent display of undetected database errors. Such mechanism can use
wither FWL or DWL sensor information [8]. A downward-looking
monitoring concept is shown in Figure 3. Differential GPS and Radar
Altimeter sensors are used in this architecture. These sensors are used to
generate synthesized and terrain database elevation profiles. These two
terrain profiles are compared statistically. Whenever inconsistency is
noticed between the profiles defined above, an integrity alarm is generated
to alert the pilot. Such alarm indicates the pilot that the synthetic vision
display is not reliable.
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Test Statistic
Algorithm
hRA(ti) hSYNT(ti)
Radar
Altimeter
-
hDGPS(ti)
+ + p (ti)
T
Algorithm
DGPS
-
latDGPS(ti) hDEM(ti) -
DEM
lonDGPS(ti) Database
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Following and Terrain Avoidance under Instrument Meteorological
Conditions. Highly accurate SRTM terrain database is suitable for aviation
use. The SRTM terrain database with 3-arc sec resolution is available in
public domain. National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) has released
CartoDEM data with accuracy of 3-arc second for Indian sub-continent
region in public domain [9]. LiDAR system can be used to generate terrain
databases. A LiDAR system has a scanning laser ranger, an Inertial
Measurement Unit and a GPS receiver. The principle of LiDAR is similar to
that of RADAR. Information from above sensors can be used to create
synthesized terrain profiles. The precision of measurements can be as high
as up to 20 centimeters. [10].
RTCA / DO-272 defines the accuracy and resolution specifications of a
airport for a SV system [11]. The data requirements for an airport and
obstacle data is indicated in Table 1. The accuracy is categorized as Fine,
Medium or Coarse. The data accuracy of aerodrome shall meet the
confidence level of 95% for Fine and 90% for Medium or Coarse quality
categories.
The accuracy and resolution requirements of terrain data for world, terminal
area and airport are defined in Table 2. The mapping of different areas such
as World, Terminal Space and Aerodrome Mapping Area is shown in Figure
4. Different types of synthetic vision displays are described in next section.
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2.3 Synthetic Vision Displays
The different types of Synthetic Vision Displays [7] are,
- Head-Up / Helmet Mounted Display
- Primary Flight Display / Head Down Display
- Navigation Display
Vertical 30 m 3m 1m 0.5 m
Accuracy (90%) (90%) (95%)
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Area 3
Area 2
(Terminal Airspace)
Area 1
(World)
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A generic SVS HUD symbology is shown in Figure 6. The HUD should
have haloing effect so that the symbology is highlighted with scene imagery
as background. The physical characteristics of the required dynamic range
and the grey level resolution required must be considered during design of a
HUD system [15]. Field trials were conducted by Advanced 3D Primary
Flight Display System on Honeywell Citation V aircraft to identify the field
of view (FOV) required for the HUD. For terminal operations, the preferred
HFOV is about 45 degrees and 60 degree HFOV for en-route operations for
generic HUD [16].
For SVS operations, NASA has recommended Head-Up Display FOV of 32
x 24 degrees in raster format is preferred [15]. As mentioned earlier, to
highlight the symbology against scene imagery, haloing effect is
necessary. Overall HUD brightness and controls are to be provided for the
pilot. The pilot can be provided with a de-clutter control switch.
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significant differences among SVS concepts. The study recommended a
variable FOV depending on the phase of flight [4].
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2.3.3 Additional SVS Head Down Display Symbologies
To aid the pilot, more symbologies have been evolved by research. Some of
the symbologies researched were Flight Path Marker, Flight Director
Guidance Markers, Pathway/Highway/Tunnel Marker and Pitch Ladder.
The Flight Director Guidance and Tunnel markers are discussed in this
section.
The guidance markers explored were the integrated cue circle (ball) used
in several HUDs, a follow me aircraft concept (ghost), and a tadpole
guidance symbol [4]. The tadpole symbology has been implemented in F-16
military aircraft HUD. It was found there were no statistically detectable
differences between the symbols, although pilots favored tadpole symbol
and the ghost airplane symbol over the ball guidance symbol. The ghost
airplane symbol was preferred over the tadpole symbol due to the
anticipatory information provided by the symbol. Each of these symbols is
shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7. Guidance symbols: Integrated cue Ball (left), Tadpole (center) and
Ghost aircraft
Tunnel-in-the-Sky, also known as Pathway-in-the-Sky or Highway-in-the-
Sky which displays the predicted aircraft position is another important area
of research [20]. As per definition of FAA Advisory Circular 23-26 [20],
The pathway symbology provides a pictorial representation of the
navigation path to pilots using a perspective view in the airspace. This
symbology provides a three dimensional navigation path to the pilots. This
enhances the visual information of the pilot by providing status and
command information about current and flight situation in future. This
symbology displays a rectangular tube geometry depicting vertical and
lateral flight path trajectory in wire frame as shown in Figure 8 [22]. The
Crows foot symbology was evolved from this rectangle tunnel to minimize
clutter by using truncated short segments at corners of rectangles, creating a
crows foot. A typical crows foot symbol is shown in Figure 9. Instead of
displaying the tunnel as series if rectangles, the corners are displayed using
crows foot symbol.
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Pilots have evaluated four tunnel concepts Box, Minimal, Dynamic
Crows foot and Dynamic Pathway along with no tunnel display [23]. Box
tunnel, as defined before, consists of a series of boxes with the corners
connected, which forms the boundary path likely to be flown by the pilot.
The tunnel displayed can be of length of 10nm with five segments per
nautical mile. Five segments of tunnel per nautical mile are displayed for a
distance of three nautical miles. The symbology fades away to invisibility
gradually. Pilots get a feedback about the aircraft position with respect to
the tunnel. The tunnel walls grow on increase of path error which helps pilot
gauge the deviation. In this concept, when the aircraft flies outside the
tunnel, the tunnel opens up on the side where the aircraft leaves the tunnel
indicating the pilot to fly into the tunnel. The pilots were found to prefer
dynamic crows feet over other symbologies [24]. This symbology is found
to reduce workload of pilot during landing tasks and complex maneuvers in
helicopters too [25].
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2.3.4 Primary Flight Displays
On the flight deck, Attitude Direction Indicator is displayed on a Primary
Flight Display (PFD) [23]. The PFD also contains other critical information
such as calibrated airspeed, altitude, heading, attitude and vertical speed. If a
Horizontal Situational Indicator (HSI) is displayed on the PFD, then this
display is known as Navigation Display. The PFD integrates important
analog instruments which can improve pilots SA during flight. This display
can also alert then pilot during harmful situations such as low airspeed, high
rate of descent etc by generating audio signals.
To improve situational awareness of pilots, more functionality is added to
the normal PFD display and can be denoted as SVS display. In addition to
the existing symbology, this can display synthetic terrain, command
guidance indicating the possible path to fly, horizontal and vertical path
deviations, velocity vector etc. [27].
2.3.5 Navigation Display
A Navigation Display (ND) provides lateral position information of the
aircraft. Depending different modes such as ILS, VOR or NAV, it displays a
compass rose or an arc of the compass rose. Lateral flight plan as well as
additional points like NDBs, VORs, airports are displayed on the ND.
The next section explains some of the commercial SVS products available
in the industry today.
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Garmins SVT displays 3D terrain, obstacles and traffic on G1000 PFD
simulating pilots outside the cockpit view during clear weather
conditions. This unit has implemented Highway-In-The-Sky guidance
symbology also [31]
- Thales Helicopter Flight Vision System (H-SVS)
This system provides enhanced situation awareness to approach, with
confidence, unfamiliar airports in all weather conditions. The display is
intuitive, real-time image is provided during all phases of flight, higher
mission reliability and lower rate of missed approaches. This system
meets the latest FAR 91.175 requirements and has been implemented On
Bombardier Global XRS AND Global 5000 Business Aircraft [32]
- Genesis Aerosystems (Previously known as Chelton Flight System) 3D
Synthetic Vision System
Synthetic vision with three-dimensional Highway-In-The-Sky
navigation (FAR Part 23 Supplemental Type Certificate)
- Rockwell Collins Helisure Helicopter Synthetic Vision System (H-
SVS)
This displays high-resolution terrain and identified obstacle database
with a resolution of 3-arc second [33]
- Elbit Systems Mission Safety Equipment Package (MSEP) for the C-
130 and ORIA Integrated Display System [34]
- Aspen Avionics Evolution Synthetic System which renders 3D
computer generated terrain with obstacles and traffic as viewed from
cockpit by pilot [35]
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way. The challenge in rendering arises as representation of realistic
terrain requires high resolution terrain databases while real-time
rendering requires optimized terrain models. Methods for adaptive
terrain meshing and depiction have been explored [28].
iii. Storage: Avionics quality storage devices are readily available for
SVS database applications. Typical storage requirements for a 1 by
1 cell (approximately 60 square miles at the equator) [4] are of the
order of 5 MB for DTED Level 1 data, 54 MB for DTED Level 2
data, 6.3 GB for DTED Level 4 data. [4]
iv. Texture / Color / Shading: To convey terrain information to pilot,
Terrain coloring and shading techniques have been found to be very
effective. NASA research has demonstrated that colored terrain
portrayal techniques convey more information than constant color
terrain displays. Two of the commonly used texturing methods are:
(i) elevation-based color-coding with generic texturing of the DEM
(ii) ortho-rectified photographic imagery overlays on the DEM
("photo-realistic"). Other enhancements that could be tried include:
(a) coloring bands with each band representing a 100 foot change in
elevation to show the height of the terrain
(b) Shading, texturing and shadowing to avoid the obscuration of
important terrain features by shadows due to the light source
positioning
(c) Hybrid textured format, created by false-color coding
monochromatic imagery (aerial photographs) of the flight test areas
of interest
While creating synthetic vision photo-realistic terrain database, color
balancing of imagery and time of year are important aspects to be
addressed.
v. Data base creation: A typical database model which can be used for
studies can be defined as below:
a. To generate an airport database, the airport surface needs to be
surveyed, especially the runway markings, lightings, buildings on the
runway vicinity. The markings can be accurate up to one foot to
carry out low visibility operations
b. DEMs around the runway need to be leveled / flattened as this can
make the pilot view a bumpy terrain creating peculiar artifacts. Once
a level field is created, polygon models of runway and airport
buildings to provide proper 3-D perspective cues can be inserted. By
doing this, the cues do not blur during close proximity display.
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c. Varying multi-resolution imagery with appropriate color balancing
can be overlaid on DEM to depict SV photo realistic terrain database
d. Cultural and obstacle features needs to be included for more realistic
rendering
vi. HUD considerations:
a. Use of a grid pattern for a SV-HUD terrain representation alone
or in addition to generic-textured, photo-realistic textured or
hybrid-textured databases in the SV-HUD
b. Available HUD luminance and resultant contrast ratios for
imagery content characteristics
vii. Other Graphics Issues:
a. Use of a compressed version of DEM to avoid Terrain popping
which can be due to rounding off errors
b. Eliminate coordinate transformation issues by storing databases by
latitude and longitude position coordinates, instead of storing in
other traditional coordinate systems
c. Rendering differences while using a flat-earth or spherical earth
approximations
5. RECOMMENDATIONS
Head-Up-Display (HUD) symbologies improves the pilots situation
awareness especially during landing tasks under bad weather conditions.
The typical FOV is 32 x 24 degrees.
The synthetic vision database is created using a 0.3 arc-sec Digital Elevation
Model (DEM) with a area of about 53 square nautical miles area with
airport as center. Generic Imagery is added to the elevation model. Relevant
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3D models of airport area such as runway and terminal buildings are derived
from aerial photographs of about one feet accuracy.
Figure 10. Recommended HUD symbology as per FAA Part 91.175 requirements
NRSC, ISRO through its portal BHUVAN [9] has made available Cartosat-
1 data with DEM of 1-arc second in public domain for Indian region. This
data has an accuracy of 10m and resolution of 30m. CartoSat-2 series
provides stereographic imagery with a resolution up to 0.8m. Cartosat-2C to
be launched in near future is expected to provide 0.64m DEMs. The
stereoscopic images have to be processed to generate DEM. In future,
Cartosat-3 is expected to provide DEM of resolution of 0.25m. For flight
tests, the database specifications should be as per RTCA / DO- 276
document. Cartosat data can be used for generating terrain database for
Indian airports.
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Figure 11. Synthetic Terrain with recommended HUD symbology for SVS operations
6. CONCLUSION
A literature survey for Synthetic Vision Systems has been carried out. The
importance of SVS, its safety and operational benefits and various
components were studied. Different types of SV displays were deliberated.
A baseline SVS HUD and HDD display symbology has been developed
using FAA recommendations. Field tests of different field of views of HUD
have been elaborated. A study of tunnel-in-the-sky symbology and its
different implementations has been carried out. Certified SV Systems
available with state of art technology have been identified and listed.
Finally, the requirement specifications for implementation of a typical
synthetic system such as database resolution, rendering, storage space etc.
are elaborated.
REFERENCES
[1] M Uijt De Haag, J Sayre, J Campbell, S D Young, R A Gray, Terrain database
Integrity Monitoring for Synthetic Vision Systems, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace
and Electronics Vol 41 No. 2, April 2005, pp 386-406
[2] Peter Hecker, Hans-Ullrich Doehler, Reiner Suikat, Enhanced Vision meets Pilot
Assistance, Proceedings of SPIE -- Volume 3691 Enhanced and Synthetic Vision 1999,
Jacques G. Verly, Editor, July 1999, pp. 125-136
[3] Advisory Circular 20-267, Airworthiness Approval of Enhanced Vision System,
Synthetic Vision System, Combined Vision System and Enhanced Flight dated 6/22/10
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[4] Russell V Parish et al. Aspects of Synthetic Vision Display Systems and the Best
Practices of the NASAs SVS Project. NASA/TP-2008-215130, May 2008
[5] Arthur et al, Flight Test Comparison between Enhanced Vision and SVS, NASA LaRC,
Proceedings of SPIE Vol 5802 (ESV 2005)
[6] Maarten Haag, Steve Young, DTED Integrity Monitoring Using DGPS and Radar
Altimeter, ION Annual Meeting, San Diego, California 2000
[7] Prinzel and Kramer, Synthetic Vision Systems, Research and Technology Directorate,
Crew Systems and Operations Branch (D-318), Mail Stop 152, NASA Langley
Research Center, 2009
[8] Jacob Campbell, Characteristics Of A Real-Time Digital Terrain Database Integrity
Monitor For A Synthetic Vision System, November, 2001
[9] Bhuvan, Indian Geo-Portal of ISRO, www.bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in. Accessed on 7 Sept
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[10] Campbell, J. L., M. U. de Haag, A. Vadlamani, and S. Young, 2003. The Application
of LiDAR to Synthetic Vision System Integrity,
[11] User requirements for Aerodrome Mapping Information RTC / DO-272, 2001
[12] Head Up Displays, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heads_up_display, accessed on 7 Sept
2015
[13] Huiying Li, Visual Cueing for Collision Avoidance System, MSc Thesis, Cranfield
University, United Kingdom, 2012
[14] Kramer, Williams, Bailey, NLRC, Simulation evaluation of synthetic vision as an
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[15] Wisely, BAE Systems, A digital head-up display system as part of an integrated
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[19] HUD2020 Document, Honeywell Systems, http://www.cas.honeywell.com/bcas
[20] G Sachs and Sperl, Speed Control Issues For Tunnel In The Sky display with Predictor,
ESVS Proceedings of SPIE 2001
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[22] Russel Parrish, Steven Williams et al, A description of the Crows Foot Tunnel
Concept June 2006, NASA/TM-2006-214311
[23] Lawrence J. Prinzel III, Jarvis J. Arthur III, Lynda J. Kramer, Randall E. Bailey,
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Electronic_flight_instrument_system. Accessed on : 4th Sept 2015
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[25] Gursky, Olsman, Pienecke, Development of Tunnel-in-the-sky display for noise
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ABSTRACT
In Pakistan, the VoIP service is gaining popularity. By the end of 2014, the total number of
broadband subscribers exceeded 3.35 million and the total number of mobile 3G
subscribers were approximately 4 million. The service providers in Pakistan continue to
invest in infrastructure and supporting regulatory policies fueling the development of
infrastructure. It is expected that such an environment would be able to provide good
quality Voice over IP (VoIP) service. In this context, this study analyzed Pakistani
consumer preferences for VoIP service. The findings have significant implications for
service providers looking to develop effective marketing strategies and design VoIP service
that meets consumers demand.
Keywords
Last mile access; Pakistani telecom market; Discrete choice model; Market share; Mobile
phone; Stated preference, Number portability, Mobile telecommunication services;
Willingness to pay.
1. INTRODUCTION
The technology of number probability (NP) has made it very convenient
to switch from traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) to
Voice-over-IP (VOIP) with no need of changing your phone number [1].
The NP provides several benefits for VOIP service. The NP can reduce
switching costs [3] and promotes competition among service provides by
reducing switching barriers [23] [11]. The NP can also increase VOIP
service attractiveness for mobile customers [8]. Around the globe,
customers of traditional PSTN are switching to VOIP. In Korea alone, there
was 100% increase in customers moving to VOIP in year 2008 and the
expected number of VOIP users were 5.2 million by end of 2008 [13] [7].
The global VOIP market estimated at US$ 70.9 billion in 2013. It was
expected that the market would grow to US$136.8 billion by 2020 [19]. The
modern internet infrastructures are capable of providing good quality VOIP
services. For the future success of VOIP, it is important that service
provides maintain the quality of VOIP service and adopt effective marketing
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strategies. In this context, it is important to understand consumer
preferences for VOIP Service. The purpose of this study is to explore
important VOIP service attributes desired by the consumer in Pakistan.
This paper proceeds as follows. In the next section, the literature review is
presented. Section 3 describes research methodology. Section 4 presents
results and discussion. Conclusion is presented in Section 5.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
VOIP refers to voice communication that takes place over the internet
[21]. VOIP uses data packets containing compressed digital signals of voice.
These data packets are transmitted using internet protocol (IP) [23]. The
concept of VOIP was developed in the 1970s [18]. However, the
commercial development of VOIP was started in the 1990s [23]. The VOIP
service is available in a variety of combinations of devices such as phone-to-
phone, computer-to-phone and computer-to-computer. The most widely
used combination is computer-to-computer [4]. In this combination a
software and headset is required for communication. In the phone-to-phone
combination, an exclusive consumer device is used that connects to the
internet for voice communication.
From a technical standpoint, VOIP provides many advantages over PSTN
including reduced call charges and many additional value-add services
(VAS) [12] [15] [17] [23] [18] [9] [27]. The cost of using VOIP can be as
low as half the cost of traditional PSTN. Since VOIP provides simultaneous
data and voice communication over the Internet, many VAS can be provided
(Such as SMS, video telephony, caller ID, Call forwarding etc.) [17].
Despite all such advantages, quality-of-service (QoS) is still a major
concern of consumers. Services providers have been making continuous
efforts to improve QoS by upgrading their network infrastructures using
modern network technologies [21] [16].
2.2 VoIP in Pakistan
In Pakistan, the VOIP market has grown after Pakistan telecomm Authority
(PTA) deregulated the telecom sector. Due to reduced entry barriers, many
small-scale companies entered into the VOIP market and started providing
the service. These service providers however failed to achieve a broader
diffusion due to QoS-related problems such as jitter, latency, and packet
loss. As such, these companies were unable to provide reliable service [5].
Many companies also entered into the market to reap the benefits of VOIP
by providing grey traffic. In such arrangements, companies used VoIP to
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bypass international gateway exchanges and make cheap international calls
[2]. The situation resulted in crackdown from PTA against such companies
and more stringent requirements for companies starting to provide VOIP
service. Home consumer market greatly benefited from availability of free
VOIP software such as Skype. Many telecom companies also started to
provide video telephony services after the availability of 3G network in
Pakistan. The household consumers of VOIP service were interested in
service attributes such as reduced call charges, simultaneous voice and data
communication, and VAS [20]. From a demographic point of view,
education level, residence, and purchasing power were significant predictors
of consumer intention to use VOIP (15). With the introduction of number
portability in Pakistan in 2009, the VOIP market is expected to grow. This
number portability is expected to increase competition in fixed-phone
services market, make VOIP service more attractive to consumers, and
activate VOIP service market [20].
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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[24] evaluated the South Korean consumer preferences for 4G technology
by conducting personal interviews. They used 4 attributes of 4G technology
in their study namely rates of data transfer, Quality of Service, number of
broadcasting channels, video-on-demand (VOD) service, and supplementary
services. They found that consumer attached most significant weightage to
VOD service. The conjoint analysis study of [25] used a different approach
to investigate the bundling of mobile telecommunication services such as
talk time (in minutes), text messages, and internet access. The study was
conducted among German consumers and results indicated that consumers
perceived price as the most significant attribute in the service bundle. The
second most important attribute was talk time.
To begin with, conjoint analysis we first need to define attributes and their
levels. The VoIP service attributes included in the research survey of this
study were derived from [15] [18] [14]. The survey instrument included four
attributes of VOIP service: the VOIP consumer device cost, savings of
monthly call charges number portability and VAS. It is observed that
consumers can have difficulties in simultaneously processing the
alternatives provided to them if the number of attributes is greater than six
[14] [26]. Therefore, the number of selected attributes in this study (i.e. 4)
was appropriate. Table 1 shows these attributes and their levels.
TABLE 1: VOIP SERVICE ATTRIBUTES AND LEVELS
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Value- Value-added Provided Not
added service provided
services provided by
VoIP
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Table 3 lists the results of conjoint analysis using the SPSS orthogonal
procedure. We generated nine subsets of preferences. Respondents listed
their preference among these subsets. It can be seen from the results shown
in table 3 that cost of VoIP consumer device is the most important attribute
of VoIP service for consumers. The second most significant factor is
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savings in monthly call charges. Number portability and VAS are the third
and fourth most important attribute respectively.
There results provide significant implication for VoIP service
provides. First, the VoIP service provides need to come up with a strategy to
reduce VoIP consumer device cost. Service providers can reduce VoIP
consumer device cost by either provide the device free in return of a long-
term contract keep the consumer device cost at a satisfied level, or subsidize
the device cost with some conditions. Service provides need to maintain
competitive call charges. In this regard, provably free VoIP calls between
users of the same service provides would be essential. The relatively low
significance attached with VAS indicates that the prime focus of consumer
of VoIP service is the basic call functionality. Therefore, service provides
should focus on improving QoS of their basic VoIP service and refrain from
excessive investment on developing VAS that could reduce saving in
monthly call charges, the second most important attribute of VoIP service.
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TABLE 2: RESULTS OF CONJOINT ANALYSIS
5. CONCLUSION
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