Improving perceptual multimedia quality with an adaptable communication protocol

Copyrights @ 2005 University Computing Centre ZagrebInnovations and developments in networking technology have been driven by technical considerations with little analysis of the benefit to the user. In this paper we argue that network parameters that define the network Quality of Service (QoS) must be driven by user-centric parameters such as user expectations and requirements for multimedia transmitted over a network. To this end a mechanism for mapping user-oriented parameters to network QoS parameters is outlined. The paper surveys existing methods for mapping user requirements to the network. An adaptable communication system is implemented to validate the mapping. The architecture adapts to varying network conditions caused by congestion so as to maintain user expectations and requirements. The paper also surveys research in the area of adaptable communications architectures and protocols. Our results show that such a user-biased approach to networking does bring tangible benefits to the user

Pilotage dynamique de la qualité de service de bout en bout pour une session "user-centric"

Aujourd hui, le marché des services est devenu de plus en plus concurrentiel. Les exigences des clients pour des offres de service en adéquation avec leurs usages et leurs préférences conduisent les fournisseurs à proposer de nouveaux services qui répondent à ce nouveau besoin pour se démarquer des concurrents et attirer de nouveaux clients. Avec la convergence des réseaux et celle des services de nouvelle génération (NGN/NGS), de nouveaux services sont apparus. Les utilisateurs sont nomades et veulent utiliser leurs services de différentes manières n importe où, n importe quand et par n importe quel type de terminal, et cela avec une continuité de service et une qualité de service de bout en bout. Ainsi, fournir des services personnalisés aux clients dans un environnement hétérogène et mobile devient un challenge pour les opérateurs et les fournisseurs de service pour améliorer le retour sur investissement (ROI) et le délai de mise sur le marché (TTM). Nos réflexions à propos de la fourniture des services personnalisés selon les besoins fonctionnels et non-fonctionnels (QoS) des usagers, nous ont conduits à identifier les besoins du nouveau contexte NGN/NGS défini par l intersection de ces trois éléments user-centric, mobilité et QoS . Comment piloter dynamiquement la QoS de bout en bout pour une session unique user-centric ? Comment assurer le service Delivery dans un contexte de mobilité et d ubiquité? Ces nouveaux besoins, nous ont motivé à proposer des solutions à travers trois contributions principales qui prennent en considération la vision utilisateur et opérateur. Notre première contribution porte sur le modèle organisationnel. Nous proposons une nouvelle organisation avec un maximum de flexibilité, d adaptabilité et d autogestion, qui permet de piloter la QoS à chaque niveau de l architecture (équipement, réseau et service). Dans cette organisation nous avons défini des acteurs et le rôle que joue chacun d eux par rapport à la prise de décision au cours de la session de l utilisateur, et cela pour maintenir la QoS de bout en bout dans un environnement qui est totalement hétérogène et mobile.Notre deuxième contribution traite du composant de service autonomique. Avec la complexité de la personnalisation des services dans un contexte hétérogène et mobile et le besoin de satisfaire la QoS de bout en bout, les ressources services doivent être prises en compte au même titre que les ressources réseaux. Donc, un degré élevé d autosuffisance, d autogestion et d automatisation est demandé dans la ressource service (composant de service) pour améliorer le service delivery. Pour cela, nous proposons un composant de service autonomique ASC: Autonomic Service Component basé sur un agent de QoS intégré qui s autocontrôle et s autogère pour adapter dynamiquement ses ressources en réponse à un changement de situations au cours de la session de l utilisateur. Notre troisième proposition couvre le modèle protocolaire. La session de services personnalisés nécessite des interactions plus flexibles au niveau service pour avoir une session unique avec une continuité de service. Nous proposons un protocole de signalisation SIP+ qui permet la négociation de la QOS des services personnalisés dès la phase d initialisation de la session et de la renégociation de la QoS pendant l usage, pour maintenir le service avec la QoS requise à travers une session unique.De façon plus concrète, nous présentons nos expérimentations à travers un scenario et une plate-forme de démonstration qui nous permet de tester la faisabilité et la performance de nos contributions. Les apports et les perspectives de cette thèse sont consignés en conclusion.Nowadays, the services market has become increasingly competitive. Customer requirements for service offerings in line with their uses and preferences led providers to offer new services to meet this new need and to stand out from competitors and attract new customers. With the success of the network and service convergence (NGN / NGS), new services have emerged. A mobile user desires to access his services anywhere, anytime and on any type of terminal.Thus, providing customized services to clients while ensuring the service continuity and the end-to-end quality of service in a heterogeneous and mobile environment became a challenge for mobile operators and service providers to improve the return on investment (ROI) and time-to-market (TTM). Our thinking about the provision of customized services according to the functional and non-functional (QoS) needs of the users has led us to identify the needs of the new context NGN / NGS defined by the intersection of these three elements "user-centric, mobility and QoS". How to dynamically control the end-to-end QoS for a single "user-centric" session? How to ensure the "Service Delivery" in the context of mobility and ubiquity? These new needs have led us to propose solutions through three main contributions that take into account the user and the operator vision. Our first contribution concerns the organizational model. We have proposed a new organization with a maximum of flexibility, adaptability and self-management which allows the control of the QoS at each level of the architecture (equipment, network and service). In this organization, we have defined actors and the role of each one in relation to the decision-making process during the user session in order to maintain the end-to-end QoS in an environment that is totally heterogeneous and mobile. Our second contribution addresses the autonomic service component. With the complexity of services personalization in a heterogeneous and mobile context and the need to satisfy the end to end QoS, services and network resources must be taken into account. Therefore, a high degree of self-sufficiency, self-management and automation is required in the resource service to improve the service delivery. We have therefore proposed an autonomic service component based on an integrated QoS-agent which is self-controlled and self-managed to dynamically adapt its resources in response to changing situations during the user s session. Our third proposal covers the model protocol. The personalized services session requires more flexible interactions at the service level in order to obtain a single session with service continuity. We have proposed a signalling protocol SIP + that allows the negotiation of the QoS of personalized services at the session initialization phase and the renegotiation of the QoS during the utilization to maintain the service with the required QoS through a unique session. More concretely, we have presented our experiments through a scenario and demonstration platform that allows us to test the feasibility and the performance of our contributions. The contributions and perspectives of this thesis are stated in the conclusion.PARIS-Télécom ParisTech (751132302) / SudocSudocFranceF

Evaluator services for optimised service placement in distributed heterogeneous cloud infrastructures

Optimal placement of demanding real-time interactive applications in a distributed heterogeneous cloud very quickly results in a complex tradeoff between the application constraints and resource capabilities. This requires very detailed information of the various requirements and capabilities of the applications and available resources. In this paper, we present a mathematical model for the service optimization problem and study the concept of evaluator services as a flexible and efficient solution for this complex problem. An evaluator service is a service probe that is deployed in particular runtime environments to assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of deploying a specific application in such environment. We discuss how this concept can be incorporated in a general framework such as the FUSION architecture and discuss the key benefits and tradeoffs for doing evaluator-based optimal service placement in widely distributed heterogeneous cloud environments

A smartphone agent for QoE evaluation and user classification over mobile networks

The continuous growth of mobile users and bandwidth-consuming applications and the shortage of radio resources put a serious challenge on how to efficiently exploit existing networks and contemporary improve Quality of Experience. One of the most relevant problem for network operators is thus to find an explicit relationship between QoS and QoE, for the purpose of maximizing the latter while saving precious resources. In order to accomplish this challenging task, we present TeleAbarth, an innovative Android application entirely developed at TelecomItalia Laboratories, able to contemporary collect network measurements and end-users quality feedback regarding the use of smartphone applications. We deployed TeleAbarth in a field experimentation in order to study the relationship between QoS and QoE for video streaming applications, in terms of downstream bandwidth and video loading time. On the basis of the results obtained, we propose a technique to classify user behavior through his or her reliability, sensibility and fairness

Mobility Management in beyond 3G-Environments

Beyond 3G-environments are typically defined as environments that integrate different wireless and fixed access network technologies. In this paper, we address IP based Mobility Management (MM) in beyond 3G-environments with a focus on wireless access networks, motivated by the current trend of WiFi, GPRS, and UMTS networks. The GPRS and UMTS networks provide countrywide network access, while the WiFi networks provide network access in local areas such as city centres and airports. As a result, mobile end-users can be always on-line and connected to their preferred network(s), these network preferences are typically stored in a user profile. For example, an end-user who wishes to be connected with highest bandwidth could be connected to a WiFi network when available and fall back to GPRS when moving outside the hotspot area.\ud In this paper, we consider a combination of MM for legacy services (like web browsing, telnet, etc.) using Mobile IP and multimedia services using SIP. We assume that the end-user makes use of multi-interface terminals with the capability of selecting one or more types of access networks\ud based on preferences. For multimedia sessions, like VoIP or streaming video, we distinguish between changes in network access when the end-user is in a session or not in a session. If the end-user is not in a session, he or she needs to be able to start new sessions and receive invitations for new sessions. If the end-user is in a session, the session needs to be handed over to the new access network as seamless as possible from the perspective of the end-user. We propose an integrated but flexible solution to these problems that facilitates MM with a customizable transparency to applications and end-users