WSMU07 22 June 2007 Coimbra
Environment-aware Mobility
Vítor Jesus, Rui L. Aguiar
Instituto de Telecomunicações
Aveiro, Portugal
http://www.vitorjesus.com
http://hng.av.it.pt

goal and motivation
“
We discuss the interactions between Ubiquitous
Computing (UbiComp) and Network Mobility,
which is here regarded as a symbiotic relationship
(. . .)
“

goal and motivation
“
We discuss the interactions between Ubiquitous
Computing (UbiComp) and Network Mobility,
which is here regarded as a symbiotic relationship
(. . .)
“
purpose:
provide an ever increasing good experience to
end users
Quality-of-Experience (whatever that may be)

network mobility
not current mobility as we’re used to

network mobility
not current mobility as we’re used to
currently: GSM, UMTS, WiFi

network mobility
not current mobility as we’re used to
currently: GSM, UMTS, WiFi
- ever tried to use a mobile phone inside a moving train?
- ever tried to download a file using 3G/HSDPA while
on the move?
- ever tried to move from one WiFi AP to another while
watching a youTube video?

network mobility
one can think of mobility as
having 3 ages

network mobility
age 1: coverage-centered mobility (2007)
- nothing more but physical mobility: not true network mobility
- inside small geographical areas (100m ~ 1km)
- the only true service available for now is a 13kbps voice call
- even that hardly can hold in fast moving environments
- radio is not the only layer to blame
- simple connectivity is still a problem (expensive coverage)
- the terminals are still quite limited and dumb
- not even the i-Phone

network mobility
age 1I: service-centered mobility (2012...?)
- wireless triple play? wireless quad(?) play? wireless many play?
- small cells (100m?) but dense coverage (traffic limited)
- multiple technologies that complement each other
(according to applicability)
- WiFi on shopping centers, WiMax on open field
- service continuity: cell transition makes an effort to transfer
real-time sessions
- voice calls don’t drop, video doesn’t flicker

network mobility
age 1II: user-centered mobility (2017...?)
- many options everywhere, large capacity networks , smart
terminals
- poeple won’t pay for coverage or call acceptance ratio
- people will pay for advanced personalized services
- add to this a “digitalized” environment
- sensors everywhere
- highly capable terminals
- day-to-day things that have a link to the outside world
(toasters, doors, cars, ...)
Quality-of-Experience will be the central guideline.

network mobility
user-centered networks
networks that don’t just comply passively with the embedded
services
but
proactively work to provide a better Quality-of-Experience
(QoE)

user-centered networks
user-centered networks
ubiquitous
computing
provides
valuable help
here

environment-aware mobility
environment-aware mobile networks
networks that, at every moment and everywhere, manage
the terminal’s connectivity according to all sorts of
information

environment-aware mobility
environment-aware mobile networks
mobility is, put simply, a problem of mapping a data flow to
a specific Access Point
the problem is where to map which flow at what moment:

environment-aware mobility
how it could work in practice

environment-aware mobility
a practical example
- terminal reports APs it senses 10 APs: { AP1, …, AP10 }
- network knows its running flows: {flow1, flow2, …}
- terminal sends quality information to the network
- network computes all possibilities { (flow, AP) }

environment-aware mobility
a practical example
- now imagine that the user is a doctor
- and enters a hospital
- terminal received location information and sent it to the network
- a colleague of him (also in the hospital) gives him a call
- the network moved that call to the internal WiFi network of the hospital
- the doctor requested the network to do it whenever he is in the hospital
- when a patient video-calls him, the network will move the call to a special
WiMAX channel
- how can the network tell a specific call is a medical act?
- (he is at the hospital) && (the patient asserted urgent-call) && (he is on duty
since he sat in front of his computer)