Ubiquitous Internet in an integrated satellite-terrestrial environment: The SUITED solution

yesThe current Internet architecture appears to not be particularly suited to addressing the emerging needs of new classes of users who wish to gain access to multimedia services made available by ISPs, regardless of their location, while in motion and with a guaranteed level of quality. One of the main objectives of so-called nextgeneration systems is to overcome the limitations of today¿s available Internet by adopting an approach based on the integration of different mobile and fixed networks. The SUITED project moves in this direction since it aims at contributing to the design and deployment of the global mobile broadband system (GMBS), a unique satellite/terrestrial infrastructure ensuring nomadic users access to Internet services with a negotiated QoS. A description of the main features of the GMBS architecture, characterized by the integration of a multisegment access network with a federated ISP network is given in this article. The GMBS multimode terminal is schematically described, and an overview of the so-called QoS-aware mobility management scheme, devised for such a heterogeneous scenario,is provided

Advanced Wireless LAN

The past two decades have witnessed starling advances in wireless LAN technologies that were stimulated by its increasing popularity in the home due to ease of installation, and in commercial complexes offering wireless access to their customers. This book presents some of the latest development status of wireless LAN, covering the topics on physical layer, MAC layer, QoS and systems. It provides an opportunity for both practitioners and researchers to explore the problems that arise in the rapidly developed technologies in wireless LAN

Performance Comparison of Handover Rerouting Schemes in Wireless ATM Networks

The major issue of the integration of wireless and wired ATM is the support of user mobility. In effect, many technical challenges have been posed due to mobility support. One of the most important challenges is the rerouting of active connections of mobile user during handover. The rerouting of connections must exhibit low handover latency, limit the handover delay or disruption time, maintain efficient routes and minimise the impact on existing infrastructure. To date, two dominant approaches have been proposed to support mobility into fixed ATM network. The first is the mobility enhanced switches approach and the second is the separate network-elements specific to mobility approach. The first approach implies updating the existing ATM switches with mobile specific features. The mobility functions in the second approach are entrusted to a control station attached to the ATM switch as is implemented by the Magic WAND projects. In this thesis, we investigate how mobility can be supported using both approaches. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the above approaches, we compare the performance by analytically derived formulate for their hand over latency, hand over delay, buffer size, and bandwidth requirements. The formulate were derived for both backward and forward hand overs using a number of potential rerouting schemes proposed for wireless ATM network. The results show that the mobility enhanced switches approach has slightly better performance than the separate network elements approach. The results also show that backward handover has better performance than forward handover in terms of the handover delay and buffer requirement. Finally, the results show that the Anchor Switch rerouting scheme is the best among other rerouting schemes proposed for wireless ATM

Energy-efficient wireless communication

In this chapter we present an energy-efficient highly adaptive network interface architecture and a novel data link layer protocol for wireless networks that provides Quality of Service (QoS) support for diverse traffic types. Due to the dynamic nature of wireless networks, adaptations in bandwidth scheduling and error control are necessary to achieve energy efficiency and an acceptable quality of service. In our approach we apply adaptability through all layers of the protocol stack, and provide feedback to the applications. In this way the applications can adapt the data streams, and the network protocols can adapt the communication parameters

Healthcare PANs: Personal Area Networks for trauma care and home care

The first hour following the trauma is of crucial importance in trauma care. The sooner treatment begins, the better the ultimate outcome for the patient. Generally the initial treatment is handled by paramedical personnel arriving at the site of the accident with an ambulance. There is evidence to show that if the expertise of the on-site paramedic team can be supported by immediate and continuous access to and communication with the expert medical team at the hospital, patient outcomes can be improved. After care also influences the ultimate recovery of the patient. After-treatment follow up often occurs in-hospital in spite of the fact that care at home can offer more advantages and can accelerate recovery. Based on emerging and future wireless communication technologies, in a previous paper [1] we presented an initial vision of two future healthcare settings, supported by applications which we call Virtual Trauma Team and Virtual Homecare Team. The Virtual Trauma Team application involves high quality wireless multimedia communications between ambulance paramedics and the hospital facilitated by paramedic Body Area Networks (BANs) [2] and an ambulance-based Vehicle Area Network (VAN). The VAN supports bi-directional streaming audio and video communication between the ambulance and the hospital even when moving at speed. The clinical motivation for Virtual Trauma Team is to increase survival rates in trauma care. The Virtual Homecare Team application enables homecare coordinated by home nursing services and supported by the patient's PAN which consists of a patient BAN in combination with an ambient intelligent home environment. The homecare PAN provides intelligent monitoring and support functions and the possibility to ad hoc network to the visiting health professionals’ own BANs as well as high quality multimedia communication links to remote members of the virtual team. The motivation for Virtual Homecare Team is to improve quality of life and independence for patients by supporting care at home; the economic motivation is to replace expensive hospital-based care with homecare by virtual teams using wireless technology to support the patient and the carers. In this paper we develop the vision further and focus in particular on the concepts of personal and body area networks

Network emulation focusing on QoS-Oriented satellite communication

This chapter proposes network emulation basics and a complete case study of QoS-oriented Satellite Communication

Energy-efficient adaptive wireless network design

Energy efficiency is an important issue for mobile computers since they must rely on their batteries. We present an energy-efficient highly adaptive architecture of a network interface and novel data link layer protocol for wireless networks that provides quality of service (QoS) support for diverse traffic types. Due to the dynamic nature of wireless networks, adaptations are necessary to achieve energy efficiency and an acceptable quality of service. The paper provides a review of ideas and techniques relevant to the design of an energy efficient adaptive wireless networ

A study on the factors affecting job satisfaction amongst employees in construction industry workplace (Case Study Saudi Arabia)

This study examines the factors that effect on job satisfaction among employee’s in construction industry in Saudi Arabia. The aims of this study also to identify the relationship between factors of job satisfaction and job/employees performance in construction project. The factors of job satisfaction that examine in this study were salary and compensation, working conditions and workplaces safety, equipment or materials are used, safety condition of the work and attitude toward each other in construction industry, administration and supervision, the expertise of supervisors, the support from supervisors and supervisors‟ communication skills, environment and communication, work and achievement, responsibility, recognition and feedback, the timing of feedback and the chance to be recognised when you done well and lastly the advancement. Employees in construction industry or in any organizations need to be motivated to facilitate their input towards the attainment of their organizational goals. Therefore, to fulfil the gap of previous researchers, the questionnaire of this study asked employees to give their suggestion as well to improve their satisfaction of work. In this research out of 265 surveys were distributed, 117 viable questionnaires were returned. Quantitative method is used in this study and the collected data was analysed by the use of SPSS 20 software with the method of analysed that being used in this research are crosstabs, frequency, percentages, mean and rank. The findings form the study show that Construction Company should pay attention to their employee’s needs and wants to motivate them in order to increase their level of job satisfaction. The concentrates for improvement job satisfaction must focus on the important factors were suggested by responses in this survey