Service Platform for Converged Interactive Broadband Broadcast and Cellular Wireless

A converged broadcast and telecommunication service platform is presented that is able to create, deliver, and manage interactive, multimedia content and services for consumption on three different terminal types. The motivations of service providers for designing converged interactive multimedia services, which are crafted for their individual requirements, are investigated. The overall design of the system is presented with particular emphasis placed on the operational features of each of the sub-systems, the flows of media and metadata through the sub-systems and the formats and protocols required for inter-communication between them. The key features of tools required for creating converged interactive multimedia content for a range of different end-user terminal types are examined. Finally possible enhancements to this system are discussed. This study is of particular interest to those organizations currently conducting trials and commercial launches of DVB-H services because it provides them with an insight of the various additional functions required in the service provisioning platforms to provide fully interactive services to a range of different mobile terminal types

Dynamic service composition for telecommunication services and its challenges

As communication networks have evolved towards IP (Internet Protocol) networks, telecommunication operators has expanded its reach to internet multimedia web content services while operating circuit-switch networks in parallel. With the adoption of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) that enables service capability interfaces to be published and integrated with other service capabilities into new composite service, service composition allows telecommunication providers to accelerate more new services provisioning. From the perspective of telecommunication providers to deliver integrated composite service from different providers and different network protocols, this paper is aimed to present the current service composition based on middleware approaches; discuss the requirements of meeting the challenges; and compare the approaches

Personalized Service Creation and Provision for the Mobile Web

The convergence of telecom networks and the Internet is fostering the emergence of environments where Web services are available to mobile users. The variability in computing resources, display terminal, and communication channel require intelligent support on personalized delivery of relevant data and services to mobile users. Personalized service provisioning presents several research challenges on context information management, service creation, and inherent limitations of mobile devices. In this chapter, we describe a novel framework that supports weaving context information and services for personalized service creation and execution. By leveraging technologies on Web services, agents, and publish/subscribe systems, our framework enables an effective, user-centric access of integrated services over the mobile Web environments. This chapter overviews the design, architecture, and implementation of the framework

NETQOS policy management architecture for flexible QOS provisioning in Future Internet

This paper is focussed on the NETQOS architecture for automated QoS policy provisioning, which can be used in Future Internet scenarios by the different actors (i.e. network operators, service providers, and users) for flexible QoS configuration over combinations of mobile, fixed, sensor and broadcast networks. The NETQOS policy management architecture opens the possibility to specify QoS policies on a "business" level using ontology descriptions and policy management interfaces, which are specific to the actors. The business level policy specifications are translated by the NETQOS system into intermediate and operational QoS policies for automated QoS configuration at the managed heterogeneous network and transport entities. NETQOS allows QoS policy specification and dependency analysis considering Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between the actors, as well as automated policy provisioning and adaptation. The interaction of the NETQOS components is based on a common po licy repository. The particular focus of the paper is aimed to discuss ontology and actor oriented QoS policy specification and configuration for heterogeneous networks, as well as NETQOS QoS policy management interfaces at business level and automated translation of business QoS policies to intermediate and operational policy level

Telecommunication Economics — Summary on the Dagstuhl Perspectives Seminar No. 08043

The telecommunications sector and the Internet section of Internet Service Providers (ISP) have become a dynamic key area for the economic development of industrialized nations in the world. It is in constant evolution. Because of intense competition, telecommunications companies and ISPs are forced to diversify their offers and thus to propose an increasing number of services. However, economic analysis often ignores important technical aspects of telecommunications and is not aware of new developments. Engineering models often ignore economic factors. Thus, the design and deployment of future networks that incorporate new services are subject to uncertainties such as equipment and capacity prices (due to technological innovation), demand and supply for services (due to competition). Seeing leading researchers bringing together with various backgrounds, all working on innovative aspects of technical, techno-economic, social, and regulatory issues, lead to the following four main areas that have been partially tackled in an integrated manner: Architectural side, Social side, Economic and business side, and Regulatory side

Telecommunication Economics - Overview of the Field, Recommendations, and Perspectives

Telecommunication economics has evolved into an area of research, which includes technical aspects, social issues, economic and business factors, and regulation demands. The combination of those four dimensions is becoming critical for a suitable and viable understanding of communication needs in today's society. Therefore, this report on the Dagstuhl Perspectives Seminar ‘‘Telecommunication Economics''summarizes a number of key aspects of this field, it develops a set of selected and detailed recommendations, and outlines respective perspectives, which are being worked on partially already today and which need a much closer attention in the mid-term futur

Svjesnost konteksta u mreži pokretnih programskih agenata

The paper deals with context awareness in information, communication and computing systems and context introduction in mobile software agent network. Mobile agent network is a formal system that includes a multi-agent system residing in a network of interconnected nodes, which hosts agents, allowing their operation, communication and migration. Software agents can help in managing complex relationships between information and communication service users and service providers. The role of intelligent and mobile agents representing service users and service providers in the network and supporting context awareness is considered. Context is defined as any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity respecting its physical, social, communication and computing environment. A unified treatment of context information contained in the user profile, presence service and those relevant for general context-aware systems is proposed in order to preserve the functionality and performance evaluation capabilities of the mobile agent network. The approach elaborated in the paper is based on conceptual context representation, system services and agent operations required for supporting context-awareness in the mobile agent network. Case study on agent-based ad-hoc social network service is included.Rad se bavi svjesnošću konteksta u informacijskim, komunikacijskim i računalnim sustavima i uvođenjem konteksta u mrežu pokretnih programskih agenata. Mreža pokretnih agenata je formalni sustav koji uključuje višeagentski sustav koji djeluje u mreži međusobno povezanih čvorova koji udomljuju agente, omogućujući im provedbu operacija, komunikaciju i migraciju. Programski agenti mogu pridonijeti upravljanju složenih odnosa između korisnika i davatelja informacijskih i komunikacijskih usluga. Razmatra se uloga inteligentnih i pokretnih agenata koji predstavljaju korisnike i davatelje usluga u mreži te im omogućuju kontekstno svjesnu potporu. Kontekst se definira kao svaka informacija kojom se može obilježiti situacija nekog entiteta uvažavajući njegovo fizičko, društveno, komunikacijsko i računalno okružje. Predlaže se objedinjeno tretiranje kontekstne informacije sadržane u korisničkom profilu, usluzi nazočnosti, kao i one mjerodavne za opće kontekstnosvjesne sustave, kako bi se očuvala mogućnost evaluacije funkcionalnosti i performansi mreže pokretnih agenata. Pristup obrađen u radu zasniva se na koncepcijskom predočavanju konteksta te uslugama sustava i agentskim operacijama potrebnima za potporu konteksta u mreži pokretnih agenata. Uključen je studijski primjer agentski zasnovanog ad-hoc društvenog umrežavanja

Serviços multimédia multicast de próxima geração

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesUma das mais recentes conquistas na evolução móvel foi o 3G, permitindo o acesso a serviços multimédia com qualidade de serviço assegurada. No entanto, a tecnologia UMTS, tal como definida na sua Release ’99, é apenas capaz de transmitir em modo unicast, sendo manifestamente ineficiente para comunicações multimédia almejando grupos de utilizadores. A tecnologia IMS surge na Release 5 do 3GPP que começou a responder já a algumas necessidades, permitindo comunicações sobre IP oferecendo serviços Internet a qualquer momento e em qualquer lugar sobre tecnologias de comunicação móveis fornecendo pela primeira vez sessões multimédia satisfatórias. A Release 6 por sua vez trouxe a tecnologia MBMS que permite transmissões em broadcast e multicast para redes móveis. O MBMS fornece os serviços de aplicações multimédia que todos estavam à espera, tanto para os utilizadores como para os prestadores de serviços. O operador pode agora fazer uso da tecnologia existente aumentando todo o tipo de benefícios no serviço prestado ao cliente. Com a possível integração destas duas tecnologias passa a ser possível desenvolver serviços assentes em redes convergentes em que os conteúdos são entregues usando tecnologias unicast, multicast ou broadcast. Neste contexto, o principal motivo deste trabalho consiste essencialmente em fazer uso dos recursos da rede terminando com o desperdício dos mesmos e aumentando a eficiência dos serviços através da integração das tecnologias IMS e MBMS. O trabalho realizado começa com o estudo do estado da arte das telecomunicações móveis com referência às tecnologias referidas, seguindo-se a apresentação da possível integração IMS-MBMS e terminando com o projecto de uma plataforma de demonstração que no futuro possa ser uma implementação de serviço multimédia multicast. O objectivo principal é mostrar os benefícios de um serviço que era normalmente executado em unicast relativamente ao modo multicast, fazendo uso da nova convergência de tecnologias IMS e MBMS. Na conclusão do trabalho são referidas as vantagens do uso de portadoras multicast e broadcast, tendo como perspectiva de que este trabalho possa ser um ponto de partida para um novo conjunto de serviços poupando recursos de rede e permitindo uma eficiência considerável em serviços inovadores.3G is bang up to date in the mobile phone industry. It allows access to multimedia services and gives a guarantee of quality of service. The UMTS technology, defined in 3GPP Release ’99, provides an unicast transmission, but it is completely inefficient when it comes to multimedia group communications. The IMS technology first appeared in Release 5 that has already started to consider the interests of the clients. It provides communications over IP, offering Internet services anytime, anywhere on mobile communication technologies. Also, it offers for the first time satisfactory multimedia sessions. On the other hand, Release 6 gave rise to the MBMS technology that provides broadcast and multicast transmissions for mobile networks. The MBMS provides multimedia applications services that everyone was waiting, including users and service providers. Now the operator makes use of existing technology in order to provide better costumer services. The possible integration of these two technologies will contribute to develop services based on converged networks in which contents are delivered through the unicast, multicast or broadcast technologies. Therefore, the objective of this work is basically to make use of network resources avoiding wastes and improving customer services through the integration of the IMS and the MBMS technologies. The executed work starts with the mobile telecommunications state of the art with reference to the referred technologies, followed by the IMS-MBMS convergence presentation and finishing with the proposal for implementation of a service platform that can be used for a multimedia multicast service. The main point is to show the benefits of a service that has been normally executed in unicast mode over the multicast mode, making use of the new IMS and MBMS technologies integration. To closure the work it is referred the advantages to use multicast and broadcast bearers, with the perspective that this work could be a starting point to a new set of services, saving network resources and allowing for innovate services a considerable efficency