Characterizing and Improving the Reliability of Broadband Internet Access

In this paper, we empirically demonstrate the growing importance of reliability by measuring its effect on user behavior. We present an approach for broadband reliability characterization using data collected by many emerging national initiatives to study broadband and apply it to the data gathered by the Federal Communications Commission's Measuring Broadband America project. Motivated by our findings, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a practical approach for improving the reliability of broadband Internet access with multihoming.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, 6 table

A packet error recovery scheme for vertical handovers mobility management protocols

Mobile devices are connecting to the Internet through an increasingly heterogeneous network environment. This connectivity via multiple types of wireless networks allows the mobile devices to take advantage of the high speed and the low cost of wireless local area networks and the large coverage of wireless wide area networks. In this context, we propose a new handoff framework for switching seamlessly between the different network technologies by taking advantage of the temporary availability of both the old and the new network technology through the use of an "on the fly" erasure coding method. The goal is to demonstrate that our framework, based on a real implementation of such coding scheme, 1) allows the application to achieve higher goodput rate compared to existing bicasting proposals and other erasure coding schemes; 2) is easy to configure and as a result 3) is a perfect candidate to ensure the reliability of vertical handovers mobility management protocols. In this paper, we present the implementation of such framework and show that our proposal allows to maintain the TCP goodput(with a negligible transmission overhead) while providing in a timely manner a full reliability in challenged conditions

A packet error recovery scheme for vertical handovers mobility management protocols

Mobile devices are connecting to the Internet through an increasingly heterogeneous network environment. This connectivity via multiple types of wireless networks allows the mobile devices to take advantage of the high speed and the low cost of wireless local area networks and the large coverage of wireless wide area networks. In this context, we propose a new handoff framework for switching seamlessly between the different network technologies by taking advantage of the temporary availability of both the old and the new network technology through the use of an “on the fly” erasure coding method. The goal is to demonstrate that our framework, based on a real implementation of such coding scheme, 1) allows the application to achieve higher goodput rate compared to existing bicasting proposals and other erasure coding schemes; 2) is easy to configure and as a result 3) is a perfect candidate to ensure the reliability of vertical handovers mobility management protocols. In this paper, we present the implementation of such framework and show that our proposal allows to maintain the TCP goodput (with a negligible transmission overhead) while providing in a timely manner a full reliability in challenged conditions

Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

Essential Platform Infrastructure and the Need for Regulation

Digital platforms have become a ubiquitous phenomenon and sparked innovation in various industries. However, digital platforms have also raised concerns about competition, privacy, labor protection, democracy, and negative externalities. This is why platform regulation has gained significant attention from research and practice in recent years. Regulators face the challenge of predicting the importance of a new platform of investigation with limited resources and a growing platform economy. To address this challenge, we develop a framework building on infrastructural properties, platform properties, and the notion of essentiality. We derive the concept of essential platform infrastructure to determine the need for regulation. We propose that the degree of essentiality of a digital platform and its appropriation of infrastructural properties are two dimensions indicating the magnitude of potential damage that a platform can cause in case it abuses its power, thereby indicating an increased need for regulation