A telecom industry is constantly looking for new ways to generate revenues by offering new and innovative services. Segmentation of customers by offering premium services to premium customers is a one way which has immense potential of revenue generation. Also, network and service providers are keen to provide specialized services with high quality and faster speed, with more emphasis on Quality of Experience (QoE), in order to enhance business revenue. The QoE concept offers several benefits to telecom operators as well as end-users, as it constantly monitors customer feedback and modifies services in order to delight customers. However, Net Neutrality is a current issue all over world and defined/re-defined in many ways, but many definitions overlooks practical difficulties and market realities. This demands in-depth analysis of Net Neutrality concept from regulatory and business point of view. Current business models for specialized services like Machine to Machine (M2M) communication and video streaming are not adequately designed to tackle regulatory issues such as Net Neutrality. Also the QoE concept needs to be tested on the level of Net Neutrality principles. This thesis discusses the business models incorporating QoE concept, along with analysing implications of Net Neutrality principles. The rules and regulations regarding Net Neutrality in Sweden are studied thoroughly in comparison with same principles in other countries like USA, India and countries from EU. The business models of M2M communication and video streaming services are presented and discussed considering effect of Net Neutrality regulations. Implications of Net Neutrality rules on specialize services, customized services, and zero-rating is presented. In order to have practical knowledge of telecom market and business strategies, several activities including brainstorming sessions with industrial experts and market surveys are carried out to generate meaningful conclusions. According to EU Net Neutrality rules specialized services, customized services and zero-rating services are allowed in Sweden with incorporating QoE. / Telekomindustrin letar ständigt efter nya sätt att generera intäkter genom att erbjuda nya och innovativa tjänster. Segmentering av kunder genom att erbjuda tilläggstjänster till premiumkunder är ett sätt som har enorm potential för intäktsgenerering. Även nätverk och tjänsteleverantörer är angelägna om att ge specialiserade tjänster med hög kvalitet och snabbare hastighet, med mer betoning på kvalitet på erfarenhet (QoE) begreppet, i syfte att öka företagens intäkter. Konceptet med QoE erbjuder flera fördelar för teleoperatörer samt slutanvändare, eftersom det ständigt övervakar kunder och modifierar tjänster för att glädja kunderna. Dock är nätneutralitet en aktuell fråga över hela världen och definierade/åter definieras på många sätt, men många definitioner saknar praktiska svårigheter och realiteter. Detta kräver en djupgående analys av nätneutralitet koncept från reglerings- och kommersiell synvinkel. Nuvarande affärsmodeller för specialiserade tjänster som maskin till maskin (M2M) kommunikation och video är inte lämpligt utformade för att hantera regleringsfrågor som nätneutralitet. Även QoE konceptet behöver testas på graden av nätneutralitet principer. Denna avhandling diskuterar affärsmodeller som innehåller QoE koncept, tillsammans med analys av konsekvenserna av nätneutralitet principer. De regler och föreskrifter om nätneutralitet som finns i Sverige studeras noggrant i jämförelse med samma principer i andra länder som USA, Indien och länder från EU. Affärsmodellerna för maskin till maskin (M2M) kommunikation och videostreamingtjänster presenteras och diskuteras. Inblandning av nätneutralitet regler på specialiserade tjänster, kundanpassade tjänster och noll presenteras. För att få praktisk kunskap om telekommarknaden och affärsstrategier, utfördes flera aktiviteter inklusive brainstorming med industri experter och marknadsundersökningar genomförs för att generera meningsfulla slutsatser. Enligt Eus regler gällande nätneutralitet är specialiserade tjänster, kundanpassade tjänster och zero-rating tjänster är tillåtna i Sverige med integration av QoE.

A dominant source of Internet traffic, today, is constituted of compressed images. In modern multimedia communications, image compression plays an important role. Some of the image compression standards set by the Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) include JPEG and JPEG2000. The expert group came up with the JPEG image compression standard so that still pictures could be compressed to be sent over an e-mail, be displayed on a webpage, and make high-resolution digital photography possible. This standard was originally based on a mathematical method, used to convert a sequence of data to the frequency domain, called the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). In the year 2000, however, a new standard was proposed by the expert group which came to be known as JPEG2000. The difference between the two is that the latter is capable of providing better compression efficiency. There is also a downside to this new format introduced. The computation required for achieving the same sort of compression efficiency as one would get with the original JPEG format is higher. JPEG is a lossy compression standard which can throw away some less important information without causing any noticeable perception differences. Whereas, in lossless compression, the primary purpose is to reduce the number of bits required to represent the original image samples without any loss of information. The areas of application of the JPEG image compression standard include the Internet, digital cameras, printing, and scanning peripherals. In this thesis work, a simulator kind of functionality setup is needed for conducting the objective quality assessment. An image is given as an input to our wireless communication system and its data size is varied (e.g. 5%, 10%, 15%, etc) and a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) value is given as input, for JPEG2000 compression. Then, this compressed image is passed through a JPEG encoder and then transmitted over a Rayleigh fading channel. The corresponding image obtained after having applied these constraints on the original image is then decoded at the receiver and inverse discrete wavelet transform (IDWT) is applied to inverse the JPEG 2000 compression. Quantization is done for the coefficients which are scalar-quantized to reduce the number of bits to represent them, without the loss of quality of the image. Then the final image is displayed on the screen. The original input image is co-passed with the images of varying data size for an SNR value at the receiver after decoding. In particular, objective perceptual quality assessment through Structural Similarity (SSIM) index using MATLAB is provided.

Today, the fulfillment of customer demands and user experience requirements are becoming the main differentiators for gauging the effectiveness of telecom operators and service providers. In this competitive market, the poor Quality of Experience (QoE) leads to a chain reaction of negative word of mouth, pushing customers into the arms of waiting competitors. Therefore it is important for service providers to ensure superior quality of experience in order to avoid customer disloyalty and negative reputation. QoE is a fast emerging multi-disciplinary field focused on understanding overall human quality requirements from different angles such as technology, business and context of use. The first and foremost challenge is to understand how different influencing characteristics related to business, technology, and context influence human behavior. In this thesis, initial work addresses this challenge of understanding the influence of disparate domains over QoE. A consolidated QoE interaction model is proposed which links disparate domains (human, business, technology, and context) to understand overall human quality of experience requirements. Then taxonomy is presented for QoE interaction model. Second contribution in this thesis is based on the first and its main objective is to capture and analyze QoE data through user studies. Based on user data, the influence of technological, contextual and business parameters over QoE are evaluated. Different multimedia services were selected for user study such as video streaming service, telephony (VoIP and PSTN), and 3D audio teleconferencing service. Depending upon multimedia service, different aspects were considered during each user study such as types of multimedia service parameters (QoS, content, context), the types of QoE metrics (subjective, objective cognitive or both), human characteristics (age, gender etc), and human roles (user, or customer). These findings help in understanding the link between QoE and other influencing domains. The third contribution is based upon ongoing work of developing QoE based tools for video streaming services. Two QoE based tools for the assessment of multimedia services have been presented in this thesis, their main functions are to capture, analyze and report QoE metrics in real time. These QoE tools are useful for real time measurement of QoE metrics

Cette dernière décennie a connu une prolifération des réseaux d'accès sans fil, dominée par les réseaux locaux sans fil (ou Wireless Local Area Network - WLAN), les réseaux cellulaires 3GPP de troisième (3G) et quatrième génération (4G) et en moindre mesure les réseaux Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) pour la télévision numérique. Conjugué à l'apparition des téléphones intelligents (Smartphone) et des tablettes, les réseaux sans fil ont changé la façon dont les utilisateurs consomment les applications Internet, où on constate que l'accès aux plateformes vidéo (Youtube, vidéo à la demande, Télé sur IP) et aux réseaux sociaux à partir des réseaux sans fil et mobiles a explosé. L'accès massif à ces applications par le biais des réseaux sans fil introduit de nouveaux verrous, liés principalement à l'augmentation du trafic et l'aspect temps réel de certaines applications, où un certain niveau de Qualité de Service (QdS)/Qualité d'Expérience (QdE) doit être assuré. Par conséquent, un certain nombre de défis se posent : (i) aux opérateurs des réseaux sans fil et mobiles, pour lesquels il est nécessaire d'avoir des nouveaux mécanismes et protocoles réseaux pour éviter la congestion et garantir la QdS/QdE aux utilisateurs ; (ii) aux fournisseurs de contenus (service provider) qui doivent s'adapter au contexte de l'utilisateur (bande passante, terminal utilisé, résolution, etc.) lors de la création de contenus audiovisuels (audio et vidéo). Afin d'adresser les problématiques citées dans la section précédente, l'originalité de nos contributions se situe dans la proposition de protocoles et mécanismes de contrôle de réseau dits dynamiques ou adaptatifs. L'approche dynamique permet de s'adapter : (i) aux changements de l'état du réseau (niveau de charge/contention) ; (ii) aux changements de l'état du canal sans fil (dégradation/amélioration du canal physique) ; (iii) à l'augmentation ou la réduction du trafic d'une application ; (iv) à la dégradation de la qualité de service/expérience de l'utilisateur. De ce fait, nos travaux ont généralement considéré le réseau (ou l'application réseau) ainsi que la fonction ou le mécanisme à contrôler comme un système en boucle fermée, dont le but est de modifier (contrôler) l'état d'entrée (accepter ou refuser un nouveau flux, augmenter la durée de mise en veille d'une station, maitriser la congestion, etc.) du système et mesurer les paramètres en sortie (délais, QdE) pour les prendre en compte lors des prochaines décisions du mécanisme de contrôle. Ces mesures se font soit au niveau du réseau, terminal ou application. Nos contributions sont classées suivant la nature de la mesure utilisée. Une partie de nos travaux utilise des mesures centrées QdS/réseau (tel que l'intensité du trafic, la taille de la file d'attente, débit de la station, délai applicatif), et l'autre partie est centrée sur l'utilisateur (ou human-centric) à travers la mesure de la qualité d'expérience perçue par l'utilisateur.

Haptic-based Virtual Reality (VR) applications have many merits. What is still obscure, from the designer’s perspective of these applications, is the experience the users will undergo when they use the VR system. Quality of Experience (QoE) is an evaluation metric from the user’s perspective that unfortunately has received limited attention from the research community. Assessing the QoE of VR applications reflects the amount of overall satisfaction and benefits gained from the application in addition to laying the foundation for ideal user-centric design in the future. In this thesis, we address certain issues and concerns regarding QoE of virtual environments. In essence, we propose a taxonomy for the evaluation of the QoE for multimedia applications and in particular VR applications. The taxonomy classifies QoE related parameters into groups. The groups’ organization is generated from the definition we have adopted for the QoE which is the Quality of Service (QoS) plus the user experience (UX). We model this taxonomy using first mathematical modeling based on weighted averages and then a Fuzzy logic Inference System (FIS) to quantitatively measure the QoE of haptic virtual environments. We test both models conducting user study analysis to evaluate the QoE of a VR application. These models serve as engines that facilitate the calculation of QoE with minimal amount of users. We specifically attend to the issue of the new media, haptics, within the context of increasing the QoE of virtual environments (VE). This special attention is important for comparing the effect of tactile and kinesthetic feedback on the QoE. In accordance, we investigate a particular topic that seems to have a colossal effect on QoE throughout our analysis, which is fatigue. Our analysis involved users' studies since the main focus is on the user. The QoE for virtual environments is in its primary stages. This thesis tackles issues that are vital in dealing with and understanding the importance of QoE. The various results suggest a positive user's disposition toward haptics and virtual environments, yet there will always be obstacles and challenges such as fatigue that if minimized will enhance the QoE of haptic-based applications.

Submitted by Mayara Nascimento (mayara.nascimento@ufba.br) on 2017-05-25T10:43:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 openwimesh-mob-thesis.pdf: 2880119 bytes, checksum: 22b2ecda798a5886836af27bd7152027 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vanessa Reis (vanessa.jamile@ufba.br) on 2017-05-25T12:17:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 openwimesh-mob-thesis.pdf: 2880119 bytes, checksum: 22b2ecda798a5886836af27bd7152027 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-25T12:17:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 openwimesh-mob-thesis.pdf: 2880119 bytes, checksum: 22b2ecda798a5886836af27bd7152027 (MD5) / As Redes em Malha Sem Fio (WMN, do inglês Wireless Mesh Networks) têm sido apontadas como solução vantajosa para provimento de infraestrutura sem fio, principalmente, quando comparadas com outras arquiteturas baseadas no padrão IEEE 802.11. Adicionalmente, o uso de dispositivos móveis tem crescido de tal maneira que redes Wi-Fi ubíquas e suporte a mobilidade transparente são requisitos cruciais para os provedores de rede. De modo a proporcionar uma boa experiência de mobilidade aos usuários, a rede sem fio deve prover handoff transparente aos clientes móveis, preservando as métricas de QoS e QoE em níveis aceitáveis para acomodar aplicações de tempo real e de multimídia interativa, cuja utilização torna-se cada vez mais popular. Não obstante, as estratégias de gerenciamento de mobilidade tradicionais, baseadas no padrão 802.11, incorrem em latência e degradação da QoS na rede, impactando negativamente o desempenho das aplicações. Desse modo, este trabalho propõe uma nova estratégia de handoff definido por software e baseado em monitoramento passivo da qualidade dos enlaces. Nessa estratégia, o processo de handoff é inteiramente controlado pela rede, o que permite mobilidade transparente aos usuários e não requer qualquer mudança nos dispositivos do cliente. Assim, as principais contribuições deste trabalho são: i) propor uma métrica de qualidade de enlaces Wi-Fi, a fim de identificar oportunidades de handoff , baseado em monitoramento passivo; ii) propor um algoritmo de gerenciamento de handoff composto pelas estratégias de decisão e execução do handoff , além da seleção de AP para o cliente móvel, os quais, em conjunto, melhoram a experiência de mobilidade e otimizam o uso dos recursos de rede; e iii) desenvolver um protótipo como prova de conceito dessas estratégias, através do framework OpenWiMesh. Foi realizada uma análise detalhada sobre o desempenho da proposta, comparando-a com uma estratégia baseada no protocolo B.A.T.M.A.N. e handoff controlado pelo cliente. Os resultados mostram que a proposta de gerenciamento de handoff melhorou em até 70% as métricas de QoE durante a mobilidade de clientes, ao passo que manteve métricas chave de QoS abaixo de limites de restrição para aplicações de tempo real.

Web browsing posses a major share among the activities on the Internet. Heavy usage of web browsing makes the Web Quality of Experience (QoE) one of the critical factor in deciding the overall success of network services. Amongst others, Web QoE can be effected by the delays in network that can result in higher application download times. In this thesis work, an effort has been made to map applications level download times to Quality of Experience. A subjective analysis on how the user takes into account the domain of web browsing has been carried out. For this purpose a testbed was developed at Blekinge Institute of Technology on which different users were tested. Specific sequences of delays were introduced on the network which resulted in desired application download times. Regression analysis was performed and a mapping between user QoE and application download times was carried out. Based on the results conclusions were made which are presented in this thesis report. / maxi_aks@hotmail.com Skype: ashfaq84 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ashfaqahmadshinwary

The recently released High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, which halves the transmission bandwidth requirement of encoded video for almost the same quality when compared to H.264/AVC, and the availability of increased network bandwidth (e.g. from 2 Mbps for 3G networks to almost 100 Mbps for 4G/LTE) have led to the proliferation of video streaming services. Based on these major innovations, the prevalence and diversity of video application are set to increase over the coming years. However, the popularity and success of current and future video applications will depend on the perceived quality of experience (QoE) of end users. How to measure or predict the QoE of delivered services becomes an important and inevitable task for both service and network providers. Video quality can be measured either subjectively or objectively. Subjective quality measurement is the most reliable method of determining the quality of multimedia applications because of its direct link to users’ experience. However, this approach is time consuming and expensive and hence the need for an objective method that can produce results that are comparable with those of subjective testing. In general, video quality is impacted by impairments caused by the encoder and the transmission network. However, videos encoded and transmitted over an error-prone network have different quality measurements even under the same encoder setting and network quality of service (NQoS). This indicates that, in addition to encoder settings and network impairment, there may be other key parameters that impact video quality. In this project, it is hypothesised that video content type is one of the key parameters that may impact the quality of streamed videos. Based on this assertion, parameters related to video content type are extracted and used to develop a single metric that quantifies the content type of different video sequences. The proposed content type metric is then used together with encoding parameter settings and NQoS to develop content-based video quality models that estimate the quality of different video sequences delivered over IP-based network. This project led to the following main contributions: (1) A new metric for quantifying video content type based on the spatiotemporal features extracted from the encoded bitstream. (2) The development of novel subjective test approach for video streaming services. (3) New content-based video quality prediction models for predicting the QoE of video sequences delivered over IP-based networks. The models have been evaluated using subjective and objective methods.

The demand for network resources (e.g. forwarding capacity, buffer space) by increasingly used real-time multimedia applications is growing. Moreover, their stringent performance requirements (e.g. delay and jitter bounds) pose challenges on network resource management (RM). RM determines how available resources are modeled and distributed to achieve a performance goal such as assuring forwarding quality to real-time multimedia applications. Improvements to existing RM mechanisms can avoid performance limitations of networks by facilitating more efficient use of scarce resources. For example, in a vehicular to infrastructure (V2I) communication scenario that uses IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) lacking RM support for multicast, the 3G downlink quickly becomes a bottleneck although some information is addressed to multiple receivers. The main goal of this thesis is to develop RM algorithms and protocols that improve forwarding capacity utilization and remove performance bottlenecks. An additional goal is to improve the scalability of existing RM mechanisms. Three architectural paradigms are covered to demonstrate the advantages of efficient and systematic network RM: open access networks (OAN), next generation networks (NGN), and heterogeneous access networks (HAN). For OAN, a cross-layer signaling technique called parameter injection was developed. It reduces the signaling overhead and update time for real-time multimedia sessions over Wi-Fi while autonomously selecting the format and CODEC that best match the current resource settings. Within NGN, a resource management protocol is proposed for extending unicast signaling in IMS with multicast capabilities. The contribution uses adaptive and dynamic group size selection to improve resource utilization on the 3G downlink for the signaling and data planes. For HAN, an algorithm is proposed that predicts the best access network for achieving the highest QoE of a real-time multimedia session with the available QoS resources based on regression and statistical learning. In all three paradigms, the provided core contributions serve the common goal of achieving a performance edge in terms of efficiency and systematic operation with a limited amount of network resources. / <p>Godkänd; 2011; 20110207 (ysko); DISPUTATION Nedanstående person kommer att disputera för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen. Namn: Muslim Elkotob Ämnesområde: Mobila system/Mobile Systems Avhandling: Efficient and Systematic Network Resource Management Opponent: Professor Anna Brunström, Institutionen för datavetenskap, Karlstads universitet Ordförande: Docent Christer Åhlund, Institutionen för system- och rymdteknik, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag den 18 mars 2011, kl 10.00 Plats: A1514, Luleå tekniska universitet</p>

Haptic-based Virtual Reality (VR) applications have many merits. What is still obscure, from the designer’s perspective of these applications, is the experience the users will undergo when they use the VR system. Quality of Experience (QoE) is an evaluation metric from the user’s perspective that unfortunately has received limited attention from the research community. Assessing the QoE of VR applications reflects the amount of overall satisfaction and benefits gained from the application in addition to laying the foundation for ideal user-centric design in the future. In this thesis, we address certain issues and concerns regarding QoE of virtual environments. In essence, we propose a taxonomy for the evaluation of the QoE for multimedia applications and in particular VR applications. The taxonomy classifies QoE related parameters into groups. The groups’ organization is generated from the definition we have adopted for the QoE which is the Quality of Service (QoS) plus the user experience (UX). We model this taxonomy using first mathematical modeling based on weighted averages and then a Fuzzy logic Inference System (FIS) to quantitatively measure the QoE of haptic virtual environments. We test both models conducting user study analysis to evaluate the QoE of a VR application. These models serve as engines that facilitate the calculation of QoE with minimal amount of users. We specifically attend to the issue of the new media, haptics, within the context of increasing the QoE of virtual environments (VE). This special attention is important for comparing the effect of tactile and kinesthetic feedback on the QoE. In accordance, we investigate a particular topic that seems to have a colossal effect on QoE throughout our analysis, which is fatigue. Our analysis involved users' studies since the main focus is on the user. The QoE for virtual environments is in its primary stages. This thesis tackles issues that are vital in dealing with and understanding the importance of QoE. The various results suggest a positive user's disposition toward haptics and virtual environments, yet there will always be obstacles and challenges such as fatigue that if minimized will enhance the QoE of haptic-based applications.