Management system requirements for wireless systems beyond 3G

This paper presents a comprehensive description of various management system requirements for systems beyond 3G, which have been identified as a result of the Software Based Systems activities within the Mobile VCE Core 2 program. Specific requirements for systems beyond 3G are discussed and potential technologies to address them proposed. The analysis has been carried out from network, service and security viewpoints

Investigation of an intelligent personalised service recommendation system in an IMS based cellular mobile network

Success or failure of future information and communication services in general and mobile communications in particular is greatly dependent on the level of personalisations they can offer. While the provision of anytime, anywhere, anyhow services has been the focus of wireless telecommunications in recent years, personalisation however has gained more and more attention as the unique selling point of mobile devices. Smart phones should be intelligent enough to match user’s unique needs and preferences to provide a truly personalised service tailored for the individual user. In the first part of this thesis, the importance and role of personalisation in future mobile networks is studied. This is followed, by an agent based futuristic user scenario that addresses the provision of rich data services independent of location. Scenario analysis identifies the requirements and challenges to be solved for the realisation of a personalised service. An architecture based on IP Multimedia Subsystem is proposed for mobility and to provide service continuity whilst roaming between two different access standards. Another aspect of personalisation, which is user preference modelling, is investigated in the context of service selection in a multi 3rd party service provider environment. A model is proposed for the automatic acquisition of user preferences to assist in service selection decision-making. User preferences are modelled based on a two-level Bayesian Metanetwork. Personal agents incorporating the proposed model provide answers to preference related queries such as cost, QoS and service provider reputation. This allows users to have their preferences considered automatically

I-centric User Interaction

Die Vision I-centric Communications bedeutet, einen uneingeschränkten Blick auf das menschliche Kommunikationsverhalten zu werfen, um Kommunikationssysteme entsprechend daran angepasst zu entwickeln. Diese Vision definiert einen benutzerorientierten Ansatz zur Erstellung von Diensten und Anwendungen. Dies setzt zunächst eine Analyse der Benutzeranforderungen voraus, um geeignete Systeme und Dienste zu entwerfen. Anstatt Technologie-fokussierte Lösungen ohne jegliche Anpassung an die jeweiligen Personen anzubieten, sollte ein I-centric System seine Dienste ohne sichtbare technische Details und unter Berücksichtigung von Benutzerpräferenzen sowie der Benutzerumgebung darbieten. Der Vision von I-centric Communications folgend, stellt die vorliegende Arbeit einen Ansatz zur Realisierung der Idee von I-centric User Interaction vor. Dieser Ansatz erweitert und vervollständigt die Vision durch verbesserte Benutzerinteraktionsfähigkeiten. Diese Dissertation zeigt, dass es möglich ist, Kommunikationssysteme zu realisieren, die die Interaktion zwischen Benutzern und Diensten ohne Einschränkung auf bestimmte Technologien für Benutzerschnittstellen sowie in personalisierter und umgebungsberücksichtigende Art und Weise unterstützen. Derartig verbesserte Benutzerinteraktion wird die Akzeptanz und die Benutzung von Diensten erhöhen. Einerseits soll die Benutzerinteraktion verschiedene Arten von Technologien für Benutzerschnittstellen unterstützen, durch die die Geräte-Unabhängigkeit und der ständige Zugang zu den Diensten ermöglicht werden. Entsprechend dem aktuellem Kontext und der Absicht können die Benutzer die bevorzugte und geeignete Art der Interaktion wählen. Andererseits soll die Interaktion selbst den Benutzerpräferenzen sowie der jeweiligen Umgebung angepasst werden. Dementsprechend diskutiert die vorliegende Arbeit diese unterschiedlichen Problembereiche, identifiziert die notwendigen Funktionen und bietet entsprechende Lösungsansätze jeweils. Die Arbeit präsentiert und analysiert zunächst die Vision I-centric Communications mit Hinblick auf den Aspekt der Benutzerinteraktion. Basierend auf den identifizierten Anforderungen wurde ein Ansatz zur Realisierung von I-centric User Interaction entwickelt. Dieser Ansatz, der in dieser Arbeit vorgestellt wird, spezifiziert ein Service Adaptation Framework und einzelne Modelle für Generische Benutzerinteraktion , für Personalisierung sowie für Ambient Awareness , die sich jeweils auf die identifizierten Problembereiche konzentrieren. Abschließend präsentiert die vorliegende Arbeit Ergebnisse einer prototypischen Realisierung des dargelegten Ansatzes. Die Ergebnisse demonstrieren die Einsetzbarkeit der entwickelten Konzepte und die Erfüllung der Vision von I-centric User Interaction . Die Forschungsarbeit im Bereich I-centric Communications wurde in Kooperation zwischen dem Lehrstuhl für Offene Kommunikationssysteme (OKS) der Technischen Universität Berlin (TUB) und dem Fraunhofer Institut FOKUS durchgeführt. Die Vision sowie das Referenzmodell für I-centric Communications , die in der vorliegenden Arbeit vorgestellt werden, sind Ergebnisse dieser Kooperation. Die Forschungsschwerpunkte der Kooperation zwischen TUB und FOKUS waren das Generelle Modell für I-centric Dienste , die Dienstplattform für I-centric Dienste sowie ein Ansatz zur Interaktion zwischen Nutzern und I-centric Dienste . Die vorliegende Arbeit konzentriert sich auf den Ansatz I-centric User Interaction , der die Interaktion zwischen Nutzern und den Diensten betrachtet. Die Aspekte der I-centric Dienste werden in der vorliegenden Arbeit nicht betrachtet. Diese Aspekte wurden in einer zweiten Dissertation von Stefan Arbanowski, Fraunhofer FOKUS, analysiert und ausgearbeitet. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit wurden in verschiedenen nationalen und internationalen Forschungsprojekten (BMBF LiveFutura, BMBF PI-AVIda, BMBF VHE-UD, IST WSI, IST WWRI), Standardisierungsgremien (OMG, WWRF), Konferenzpapieren sowie Zeitschriften eingebracht, um die Vision von I-centric Communications einem größeren Auditorium vorzustellen.The vision of I-centric Communications means to take an unlimited look at human communication behavior and to adapt the activities of communication systems to it. This vision defines a user-centered approach for the realization of services and applications. It requires to start analyzing user demands to design suitable systems and services. Instead of just providing technology-focused solutions without any adaptation to individuals, an I-centric system should provide services hiding technical details and considering the individual s preferences as well as the individual s environment. Following the vision of I-centric Communications, this thesis introduces an approach to realize I-centric User Interaction. This approach enhances and completes the vision by providing advanced user interaction capabilities. It answers the question whether it is possible to realize a communication system, which allows the interaction between user and services without any restriction to specific user interface technologies and in a personalized as well as ambient aware manner. Such enhanced user interaction will lead to a higher acceptance and increased usage of services. On the one hand, the user interaction shall support different kinds of user interface technologies enabling Device Independence and ubiquitous access to the services. According to their current context and intended action, users can select the preferred and suitable way of interaction. On the other hand, the user interaction shall be adapted to the user s preferences and to the user s environment. Accordingly, this work discusses these different areas of concern, identifies necessary functions, and provides suitable solutions for each. First, the thesis introduces and analyses the vision of I-centric Communications with special regard to the aspect of user interaction. Based on the identified requirements and areas of concern, an approach to realize I-centric User Interaction was developed. The approach, presented in this thesis, specifies a Service Adaptation Framework and individual models for Personalization, for Ambient Awareness, and for Generic User Interaction focusing on the respective areas of concern. Finally, the thesis illustrates the results from the prototypical implementation of the presented approach, which has been pursued in several projects in parallel. These results demonstrate the applicability of the developed concepts and the fulfillment of the vision of I-centric User Interaction. The work in the area of I-centric Communications was carried out in cooperation of the Department for Open Communication Systems (OKS) at the Technical University Berlin (TUB) and the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS. The vision and the reference model for I-centric Communications, introduced in this thesis, are results of this cooperation. The main research directions for the cooperation between TUB and FOKUS have been a general model for I-centric services, the service platform for I-centric services, and an approach for the interaction of users with I-centric services. This thesis focuses on an approach for I-centric User Interaction. The general aspects of I-centric services as defined by the vision are out of scope of this thesis. Nevertheless, these aspects have been analyzed by Stefan Arbanowski, researcher at Fraunhofer FOKUS, in a second PhD thesis in parallel. The results of this work have been contributed to different national and international projects (BMBF LiveFutura, BMBF PI-AVIda, BMBF VHE-UD, IST WSI, IST WWRI), standardization bodies (OMG, WWRF), conferences papers, and journals by introducing the vision of I-centric Communications to a larger auditorium, and by exploiting parts of the developed I-centric systems

Smart PIN: performance and cost-oriented context-aware personal information network

The next generation of networks will involve interconnection of heterogeneous individual networks such as WPAN, WLAN, WMAN and Cellular network, adopting the IP as common infrastructural protocol and providing virtually always-connected network. Furthermore, there are many devices which enable easy acquisition and storage of information as pictures, movies, emails, etc. Therefore, the information overload and divergent content’s characteristics make it difficult for users to handle their data in manual way. Consequently, there is a need for personalised automatic services which would enable data exchange across heterogeneous network and devices. To support these personalised services, user centric approaches for data delivery across the heterogeneous network are also required. In this context, this thesis proposes Smart PIN - a novel performance and cost-oriented context-aware Personal Information Network. Smart PIN's architecture is detailed including its network, service and management components. Within the service component, two novel schemes for efficient delivery of context and content data are proposed: Multimedia Data Replication Scheme (MDRS) and Quality-oriented Algorithm for Multiple-source Multimedia Delivery (QAMMD). MDRS supports efficient data accessibility among distributed devices using data replication which is based on a utility function and a minimum data set. QAMMD employs a buffer underflow avoidance scheme for streaming, which achieves high multimedia quality without content adaptation to network conditions. Simulation models for MDRS and QAMMD were built which are based on various heterogeneous network scenarios. Additionally a multiple-source streaming based on QAMMS was implemented as a prototype and tested in an emulated network environment. Comparative tests show that MDRS and QAMMD perform significantly better than other approaches

3G migration in Pakistan

The telecommunication industry in Pakistan has come a long way since the country\u27s independence in 1947. The initial era could be fairly termed as the PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited) monopoly, for it was the sole provider of all telecommunication services across the country. It was not until four decades later that the region embarked into the new world of wireless communication, hence ending the decades old PTCL monopoly. By the end of the late 1990\u27s, government support and international investment in the region opened new doors to innovation and better quality, low cost, healthy competition. Wireless licenses for the private sector in the telecommunication industry triggered a promising chain of events that resulted in a drastic change in the telecommunication infrastructure and service profile. The newly introduced wireless (GSM) technology received enormous support from all stakeholders (consumers, regulatory body, and market) and caused a vital boost in Pakistan\u27s economy. Numerous tangential elements had triggered this vital move in the history of telecommunications in Pakistan. Entrepreneurs intended to test the idea of global joint ventures in the East and hence the idea of international business became a reality. The technology had proven to be a great success in the West, while Pakistan\u27s telecom consumer had lived under the shadow of PTCL dominance for decades and needed more flexibility. At last the world was moving from wired to wireless! Analysts termed this move as the beginning of a new era. The investors, telecommunication businesses, and Pakistani treasury prospered. It was a win-win situation for all involved. The learning curve was steep for both operators and consumers but certainly improved over time. In essence, the principle of deploying the right technology in the right market at the right time led to this remarkable success. The industry today stands on the brink of a similar crossroads via transition from second generation to something beyond. With the partial success of 3G in Europe and the USA, the government has announced the release of three 3G licenses by mid 2009. This decision is not yet fully supported by all but still initiated parallel efforts by the operators and the vendors to integrate this next move into their existing infrastructure

Multimedia in mobile networks: Streaming techniques, optimization and User Experience

1.UMTS overview and User Experience 2.Streaming Service & Streaming Platform 3.Quality of Service 4.Mpeg-4 5.Test Methodology & testing architecture 6.Conclusion

Cooperative & cost-effective network selection: a novel approach to support location-dependent & context-aware service migration in VANETs

Vehicular networking has gained considerable interest within the research community and industry. This class of mobile ad hoc network expects to play a vital role in the design and deployment of intelligent transportation systems. The research community expects to launch several innovative applications over Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). The automotive industry is supporting the notion of pervasive connectivity by agreeing to equip vehicles with devices required for vehicular ad hoc networking. Equipped with these devices, mobile nodes in VANETs are capable of hosting many types of applications as services for other nodes in the network. These applications or services are classified as safety-critical (failure or unavailability of which may lead to a life threat) and non-safety-critical (failure of which do not lead to a life threat). Safety-critical and non-safety-critical applications need to be supported concurrently within VANETs. This research covers non-safety-critical applications since the research community has overlooked this class of applications. More specifically, this research focuses on VANETs services that are location-dependent. Due to high speed mobility, VANETs are prone to intermittent network connectivity. It is therefore envisioned that location-dependence and intermittent network connectivity are the two major challenges for VANETs to host and operate non-safety-critical VANETs services. The challenges are further exacerbated when the area where the services are to be deployed is unplanned i.e. lacks communication infrastructure and planning. Unplanned areas show irregular vehicular traffic on the road. Either network traffic flows produced by irregular vehicular traffic may lead to VANETs communication channel congestion, or it may leave the communication channel under-utilized. In both cases, this leads to communication bottlenecks within VANETs. This dissertation investigates the shortcomings of location-dependence, intermittent network connectivity and irregular network traffic flows and addresses them by exploiting location-dependent service migration over an integrated network in an efficient and cost-effective manner