Key Issues in Expansion of End-User Mobile Communication in China

China’s mobile communications market presents unique market challenges. With a high subscriber growth rate but polarized and stratified consumer adoption trends, an investigation into the current status of this market will improve our understanding on how adoption of mobile communications is evolving. In this descriptive paper we analyze key issues relating to market characteristics of mobile communications with an objective to better comprehend the dynamics of this largest mobile subscribers market. Using secondary data we identify mobile industry and end-user related trends to infer our conclusions for the industry.China;mobile communication;mobile subscribers market

Emerging Technology Trends That Could Transform the Way Financial Transactions Occur

In this paper, we present the application of new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) trends in the financial industry, focusing on the advancement of value exchange through the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and Mobile Point of Sale (POS) applications. We focus on their current impacts on the changing nature of money, the characteristics that make these recent ICT trends suitable to further influence the changing nature of money, their transactional models of exchange and project their future role as bedrocks for the emerging trends in the financial industry. We also briefly discuss the history of financial transactions, highlighting the different changes in trends that led to the present age and the stimuli that precipitated these changes Keywords: Financial transactions, Contactless technology, Near field communication (NFC), Mobile point of sale (POS) applications, Electronic payments, Mobile payments, Electronic wallet, Mobile walle

A software-defined architecture for next-generation cellular networks

In the recent years, mobile cellular networks are undergoing fundamental changes and many established concepts are being revisited. New emerging paradigms, such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Internet of Things (IoT),and Mobile Social Networking (MSN), bring challenges in the design of cellular networks architectures. Current Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks are not able to accommodate these new trends in a scalable and efficient way. In this paper, first we discuss the limitations of the current LTE architecture. Second, driven by the new communication needs and by the advances in aforementioned areas, we propose a new architecture for next generation cellular networks. Some of its characteristics include support for distributed content routing, Heterogeneous Networks(HetNets) and multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs). Finally, we present simulation results which show that significant backhaul traffic savings can be achieved by implementing caching and routing functions at the network edge

Mobile Phone:The Past,The Present and The Future

Since the introduction of cellular analogue phone in 1985 (first generation mobile phone), there has been a continuous improvement from the first generation to digital secondgeneration to 2.5 generation and now the third-generation. The ground is also being prepared for the fourth-generation mobile phone. Mobile technology has transformed our lives in ways that might have seemed unimaginable some years ago and yet we are still witnessing more transformations and many more are yet to come. This paper examines the concept of cellular communication, the development of mobile phones, the features in the past, the current trends and what to the future holds in general and specifically for Nigeria. The cost implications of the various generations over the previous ones to the end users are also discusse

Adaptive monitoring for mobile networks in challenging environments

The increasing capabilities of mobile communication devices are changing the way people interconnect today. Similar trends in the communication technology domain are leading to the expectation that data and media are available anytime and everywhere. A result is an increasing load on communication networks. In dynamic mobile networks that particularly rely on wireless communication such data requirements paired with environmental conditions like mobility or node density increase the risk of network failure. Consequently, monitoring is crucial in mobile networks to ensure reliable and efficient operation. Current monitoring mechanisms mostly rely on a static architecture and exhibit problems to handle the changes of mobile networks and environmental conditions over time. In this paper, an adaptive monitoring mechanism is presented to overcome these limitations. The mechanism exploits the connectivity and resource characteristics of mobile communication devices to (i) reconfigure its monitoring topology and (ii) adapt to changes of mobile networks and environmental conditions. Through evaluations we show that our proposed solution reduces the achieved relative monitoring error by a factor of six and represents a robust and reliable monitoring mechanism for these challenging environments

Visual-Related Factors in Mobile Iconic Communication

The purpose of this exploratory, sequential, mixed methods design research was to explore current design trends and patterns in mobile application icons by analyzing existing icon elements and principles of design. The process of data collection and data analyses went through three main phases: (a) identify current characteristics and pattern design of existing icons, (b) compare mobile icons across selected application categories to underline how each category was different from the other regarding elements and principles of design used, and (c) explore users’ perceptions about the elements and principles of design and account for how these elements and principles influenced the mobile application user’s interaction. The results of the three phases concluded that in mobile iconic communication, the most impactful elements of design were color and graphics. It was also concluded that the icon’s visual design had a significant impact on mobile usability, interaction, and communication whereby mobile developers were encouraged to design attractive, appealing and easy to recognize icons. The outcomes of this study emphasized the importance of graphic visual-design as a visual representative of the content and category of the application. Further studies are needed to explore the impact of other senses involved in mobile communication

Octopus - an energy-efficient architecture for wireless multimedia systems

Multimedia computing and mobile computing are two trends that will lead to a new application domain in the near future. However, the technological challenges to establishing this paradigm of computing are non-trivial. Personal mobile computing offers a vision of the future with a much richer and more exciting set of architecture research challenges than extrapolations of the current desktop architectures. In particular, these devices will have limited battery resources, will handle diverse data types, and will operate in environments that are insecure, dynamic and which vary significantly in time and location. The approach we made to achieve such a system is to use autonomous, adaptable modules, interconnected by a switch rather than by a bus, and to offload as much as work as possible from the CPU to programmable modules that is placed in the data streams. A reconfigurable internal communication network switch called Octopus exploits locality of reference and eliminates wasteful data copies

The Rise of Mobile and the Diffusion of Technology-Facilitated Trafficking

In this report, researchers at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) reveal how those involved in human trafficking have been quick to adapt to the 21st-century global landscape. While the rapid diffusion of digital technologies such as mobile phones, social networking sites, and the Internet has provided significant benefits to society, new channels and opportunities for exploitation have also emerged. Increasingly, the business of human trafficking is taking place online and over mobile phones. But the same technologies that are being used for trafficking can become a powerful tool to combat trafficking. The precise role that digital technologies play in human trafficking still remains unclear, however, and a closer examination of the phenomenon is vital to identify and respond to new threats and opportunities.This investigation indicates that mobile devices and networks have risen in prominence and are now of central importance to the sex trafficking of minors in the United States. While online platforms such as online classifieds and social networking sites remain a potential venue for exploitation, this research suggests that technology facilitated trafficking is more diffuse and adaptive than initially thought. This report presents a review of current literature, trends, and policies; primary research based on mobile phone data collected from online classified sites; a series of firsthand interviews with law enforcement; and key recommendations to policymakers and stakeholders moving forward