Information technology and social media have been a driving force in the economy and have transformed all aspects of business in recent decades. Understanding social networks is necessary to evaluate their impacts and examine key business issues involving information and technological innovations. The dissertation contains three chapters exploring those issues. In the first chapter, I propose an optimal procurement mechanism for mobile data offloading, covering both technological and business aspects. The unprecedented growth of cellular traffic driven by web surfing, video streaming, and cloud-based services is creating challenges for cellular service providers to fulfill the unmet demand. My present work contributes to the existing literature by developing an analytical model, which considers the unique challenge of integrating the longer range cellular resource and shorter range WiFi hotspots. In the second chapter, I examine the effect of a social network on prediction markets using a controlled laboratory experiment. In prediction markets, people place bets on events that they think are most likely to happen, thus revealing in a sense the nature of their private information. Through a randomized experiment, I show that when the cost of information acquisition is low, a social-network-embedded prediction market outperforms a non-networked prediction market. The third chapter studies different forms of social learning in the context of location-based networks: observational learning and the saliency effect. In recent years, the location-sensing mobile devices offer geographic location capabilities to share users' information about their locations with their friends. In our context, observational learning corresponds to the fact that "check-ins" made by friends help users learn the quality information of a venue; the saliency effect refers to that check-ins lead some of the uninformed consumers to discover a new venue. / text

Device-to-device communication has been suggested as a complement to traditional cellular networks as a means of offloading cellular traffic. In this thesis we explore a solution for device-to-device communication based on opportunistic content distribution in a content-centric network. Communication opportunities arise as mobile nodes roam around in an area and occasionally enter in direct communication range with one another. We consider a node to be a pedestrian equipped with a mobile device and explore the properties of opportunistic communication in the context of content dissemination in urban areas. The contributions of this thesis lie in three areas. We first study human mobility as one of the main enablers of opportunistic communication. We introduce traces collected from a realistic pedestrian mobility simulator and demonstrate that the performance of opportunistic networks is not very sensitive to the accurate estimation of the probability distributions of mobility parameters. However, capturing the space in which mobility occurs may be of high importance. Secondly, we design and implement a middleware for opportunistic content-centric networking, and we evaluate it via a small-scale testbed, as well as through extensive simulations. We conclude that energy-saving mechanisms should be part of the middleware design, while caching should be considered only as an add-on feature. Thirdly, we present and evaluate three different energy-saving mechanisms in the context of opportunistic networking: a dual-radio architecture, an asynchronous duty-cycling scheme, and an energy-aware algorithm which takes into account node selfishness. We evaluate our proposals analytically and via simulations. We demonstrate that when a critical mass of participants is available, the performance of the opportunistic network is comparable to downloading contents directly via the cellular network in terms of energy consumption while offloading large traffic volumes from the operator. / <p>QC 20151120</p>

La popularité des plateformes mobiles telles que smartphones et tablettes génère un volume croissant de données à transférer. La principale raison de cette croissance est l'accès simplifié aux contenus vidéo sur ces plateformes. La future génération (5G) de téléphonie mobile est en cours de développement et a pour objectif d'offrir une bande passante suffisante pour de tels volumes de données. Néanmoins, un déploiement en masse de la 5G n'est pas envisagé avant 2020. De plus, la croissance est telle qu'il sera forcément intéressant de développer des solutions alternatives et complémentaires capables de délester le réseau cellulaire. L'exemple actuel le plus représentatif est le délestage de données cellulaires vers des réseaux d'accès WiFi par les principaux opérateurs mobiles. Dans ce contexte, nous proposons de déployer un nouveau réseau de contenus qui s'appuie sur les réseaux de transports publics urbains. Cette solution déploie des bornes sans-fil dans les bus et sur certaines stations de bus pour offrir du contenu aux passagers des bus. Les bus enregistrent et transportent les données, et se comportent donc comme des mules qui peuvent s'échanger des données dans certaines stations de bus. L'ensemble des bus créé un réseau de transport de données tolérantes au délai telles que de la vidéo à la demande. La création d'un tel réseau soulève de nombreuses questions. Les questions traitées dans les trois parties de cette thèse sont les suivantes: (i) le choix des stations de bus sur lesquelles une borne sans-fil doit être déployée, (ii) le choix du protocole de routage des données, (iii) la gestion efficace de la contention dans les stations et enfin (iv) la réduction du coût d'une telle infrastructure. La première partie de la thèse présente notre réseau de contenu dont l'objectif principal est de transporter de larges volumes de données. Nous montrons pour cela qu'il suffit de déployer des bornes sans-fil aux terminus des lignes de bus. Ce résultat provient de l'analyse des réseaux de transports publics des villes de Toulouse, Helsinki et Paris. Connaissant les horaires et la topologie de ces réseaux de transports, nous proposons de pré-calculer les routes pour transmettre les données dans ce réseau. Nous montrons que ce routage statique permet de réduire drastiquement le nombre de réplications de messages quand on le compare à un routage épidémique. La seconde contribution de cette thèse s'intéresse à l'échange des messages au niveau des bornes sans-fil déployées aux terminus des lignes de bus. En effet, les protocoles d'accès actuels partagent équitablement la bande passante entre les bus et le point d'accès. Dans notre cas, il en résulte une congestion importante que nous proposons de résoudre en introduisant un codage réseau XOR de proche en proche. Les flux qui se croisent sont alors combinés par la borne. Les bus transportent des paquets codés qui seront décodés au prochain saut par la borne suivante. Une analyse théorique de ce mode de communication montre que la probabilité de réception des messages peut-être augmentée au maximum de 50% et la surcharge diminuée au maximum de 50%. Pour les 3 villes européennes considérées, nous montrons par simulation que ce protocole permet d'augmenter de 35% à 48% le nombre de messages reçus. La dernière partie de cette thèse a pour objectif de réduire le coût de déploiement d'une telle architecture. Elle classifie les terminus des lignes de bus en trois ensembles qui sont équipés par des bornes sans fil de nature différentes. Les résultats de simulation montrent que pour les trois villes il est possible de garantir la connectivité de bout-en-bout tout en réduisant les coûts de déploiement d'un facteur 3. Cette architecture, dénommée 3-tier, transporte 30% plus de messages que le déploiement basique proposé en première partie. Nous montrons qu'il est possible de décharger un grand volume de données avec notre architecture. Par exemple, pour Paris, notre architecture permet de / Mobile data traffic is increasing at an exponential rate with the proliferation of mobile devices and easy access to large contents such as video. Traffic demand is expected to soar in the next 5 years and a new generation of mobile networks (5G) is currently being developed to address the looming bandwidth crunch. However, significant 5G deployments are not expected until 2020 or even beyond. As such, any solution that offloads cellular traffic to other available networks is of high interest, the main example being the successful offloading of cellular traffic onto WiFi. In this context, we propose to leverage public transportation networks (PTNs) created by regular bus lines in urban centers to create another offloading option for delay tolerant data such as video on demand. This PhD proposes a novel content delivery infrastructure where wireless access points (APs) are installed on both bus stops and buses. Buses act as data mules, creating a delay tolerant network capable of carrying content users can access while commuting using public transportation. Building such a network raises several core challenges such as: (i) selecting the bus stops on which it is best to install APs, (ii) efficiently routing the data, (iii) relieving congestion points in major hubs and (iv) minimizing the cost of the full architecture. These challenges are addressed in the three parts of this thesis. The first part of the thesis presents our content delivery infrastructure whose primary aim is to carry large volumes of data. We show that it is beneficial to install APs at the end stations of bus lines by analyzing the publicly available time tables of PTN providers of different cities. Knowing the underlying topology and schedule of PTNs, we propose to pre-calculate static routes between stations. This leads to a dramatic decrease in message replications and transfers compared to the state-of-the-art Epidemic delay tolerant protocol. Simulation results for three cities demonstrate that our routing policy increases by 4 to 8 times the number of delivered messages while reducing the overhead ratio. The second part of the thesis addresses the problem of relieving congestion at stations where several bus lines converge and have to exchange data through the AP. The solution proposed leverages XOR network coding where encoding and decoding are performed hop-by-hop for flows crossing at an AP. We conduct a theoretical analysis of the delivery probability and overhead ratio for a general setting. This analysis indicates that the maximum delivery probability is increased by 50% while the overhead ratio is reduced by 50%, if such network coding is applied. Simulations of this general setting corroborate these points, showing, in addition, that the average delay is reduced as well. Introducing our XOR network coding to our content delivery infrastructure using real bus timetables, we demonstrate a 35% - 48% improvement in the number of messages delivered. The third part of the thesis proposes a cost-effective architecture. It classifies PTN bus stops into three categories, each equipped with different types of wireless APs, allowing for a fine-grained cost control. Simulation results demonstrate the viability of our design choices. In particular, the 3-Tier architecture is shown to guarantee end-to-end connectivity and reduce the deployment cost by a factor of 3 while delivering 30% more packets than a baseline architecture. It can offload a large amount of mobile data, as for instance 4.7 terabytes within 12 hours in the Paris topology.

A incorporação das tecnologias de computação e de comunicação nos veículos modernos está viabilizando uma nova geração de automóveis conectados. Com a capacidade de se organizarem em rede, nas chamadas redes veiculares ad hoc (VANETs), eles poderão, num futuro próximo, (i) tornar o trânsito mais seguro para os motoristas, passageiros e pedestres e/ou (ii) promover uma experiência de transporte mais agradável, com maior conforto. É neste contexto que se destaca o Sensoriamento Veicular Colaborativo (VCS), um paradigma emergente e promissor que explora as tecnologias já embarcados nos próprios veículos para a obtenção de dados in loco. O VCS tem demonstrado ser um modelo auspicioso para o desenvolvimento e implantação dos Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte (ITSs). Ocorre, todavia, que, em grandes centros urbanos, dependendo do fenômeno a ser monitorado, as aplicações de VCS podem gerar um tráfego de dados colossal entre os veículos e o centro de monitoramento. Considerando que as informações dos automóveis são geralmente enviadas para um servidor remoto usando as infraestruturas das redes móveis, o número massivo de transmissões geradas durante as atividades de sensoriamento pode sobrecarregá-las e degradar consideravelmente a Qualidade de Serviço (QoS) que elas oferecem. Este documento de tese descreve e analisa uma abordagem de clusterização geográfica que se apoia no uso de comunicações Veículo-para-Veículo (V2V) para promover o descarregamento de dados do VCS em redes celulares, de forma a minimizar os impactos supracitados. Os resultados experimentais obtidos mostraram que o uso das comunicações V2V como método complementar de aquisição de dados in loco foi capaz de diminuir consideravelmente a quantidade transmissões realizadas sobre as redes móveis, sem a necessidade de implantação de novas infraestruturas de comunicação no ambiente, e com um reduzido atraso médio adicional fim a fim na obtenção das informações. A abordagem desenvolvida também se apresenta como uma plataforma de software flexível sobre a qual podem ser incorporadas técnicas de agregação de dados, o que possibilitaria aumentar ainda mais a preservação dos recursos de uplink das redes celulares. Considerando que a era da Internet das Coisas (IoT) e das cidades inteligentes está apenas começando, soluções para o descarregamento de dados, tal como a tratada nesta pesquisa, são consideradas imprescindíveis para continuar mantendo a rede móvel de acesso à Internet operacional e capaz de suportar uma demanda de comunicação cada vez maior por parte das aplicações. / The incorporation of computing and communication technologies into modern vehicles is enabling a new generation of connected cars. With the ability to get into a network formation, in the so-called ad hoc networks (VANETs), these vehicles might, in the near future, (i) make the traffic safer for drivers, passengers and pedestrians and/or (ii) promote a more pleasant transportation experience, with greater comfort. It is in this context that emerges the Vehicle CrowdSensing (VCS), a novel and promising paradigm for performing in loco data collection from the vehicles embedded technologies. VCS has proved to be an auspicious scheme for the development and deployment of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs). However, in large urban areas, depending on the phenomenon to be monitored, the VCS applications can generate a colossal data traffic between vehicles and the monitoring center. Considering that all the vehicles information is generally sent to the remote server by using mobile network infrastructures, this massive amount of transmissions generated during the sensing activities can overload them and degrade the Quality of Service (QoS) they offer. This thesis document describes and analyzes a geographic clustering approach that relies on the use of Vehicle-to- Vehicle (V2V) communications to promote the VCS data offloading in cellular networks, in order to minimize the above impacts. The experimental results obtained showed that the use of V2V communications as a complementary data acquisition method was able to considerably reduce the number of transmissions carried out on mobile networks, without the need for deploying new communication infrastructures in the environment, and with a reduced additional delay. The created approach also stands itself as a flexible software platform on which data aggregation techniques can be incorporated, in order to maximize the network resources preservation already provided by the proposal. Considering that we are just entering in the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities era, creating data offloading solutions, such as that treated in this research, is considered an essential task to keep the Internet access network operational and able to support the growing demand for mobile communications.

Les réseaux fixes et mobiles font face à une croissance dramatique du trafic de données, qui est principalement due à la distribution de contenus vidéo. Les opérateurs Télécoms envisagent donc de décentraliser la distribution de contenus dans les futures architectures convergées fixe-mobile (FMC). Cette décentralisation, conjointement au déploiement d'un cœur de réseau mobile distribué, sera un élément majeur des futurs réseaux 5G. L'approche SIPTO définie par 3GPP permet déjà le délestage sur le réseau fixe du trafic mobile, et pourra donc être utilisée en 5G. SIPTO s'appuie sur la distribution des passerelles de données (PGW) qui permet ainsi de décharger le cœur du réseau mobile actuel. Cependant, dans certains cas de mobilité des usagers, SIPTO ne supporte pas la continuité de session, quand il est nécessaire de changer de PGW, donc de modifier l'adresse IP du terminal. Cette thèse commence par quantifier le gain apporté par le délestage du trafic mobile en termes de capacité requise pour différentes portions du réseau. Un état de l'art des différentes solutions de délestage du trafic de données mobiles est fourni, démontrant qu'aucune des solutions existantes ne supporte la continuité de service pour les sessions de longue durée. C'est pourquoi, cette thèse propose des solutions pour supporter une mobilité transparente ; ces solutions s'appuient à la fois sur SIPTO et sur le protocole MultiPath TCP (MPTCP). Les protocoles du 3GPP sont inchangés car la continuité est maintenue par les extrémités. Enfin, ces solutions sont appliquées aux différentes implémentations d'architectures FMC envisagées à ce jour. / Fixed and mobile networks are currently experiencing a dramatic growth in terms of data traffic, mainly driven by video content distribution. Telecoms operators are thus considering de-centralizing content distribution architecture for future Fixed and Mobile Converged (FMC) network architectures. This decentralization, together with a distributed mobile EPC, would be used for future 5G networks. Mobile data offloading, in particular SIPTO approaches, already represent a good implementation model for 5G network as it allows the use of distributed IP edges to offload Selected IP traffic off the currently centralized mobile core network. However, in some cases, SIPTO does not support session continuity during users' mobility. This is due to the fact that user's mobility may imply packet gateway (PGW) relocation and thus a modification of the UE's IP address.This PhD thesis first quantifies the gain, in terms of bandwidth demands on various network portions, brought by the generalized use of mobile traffic offloading. A state of art of existing mobile data offloading solutions is presented, showing that none of the existing solutions solve the problem of session continuity for long-lived sessions. This is why, in the context of future FMC mobile network architectures, the PhD thesis proposes solutions to provide seamless mobility for users relying on SIPTO with the help of Multipath TCP (MPTCP). 3GPP standards are not modified, as session continuity is ensured by end-points. Lastly, the proposed solutions are mapped on different architecture options considered for future FMC networks.