Mansoor Hyder

Are QoE Requirements for Multimedia Services Different for Men and Women? Analysis of Gender Differences in Forming QoE in Virtual Acoustic Environments

In recent years, the Quality of Experience (QoE) notion has become a major research theme within the telecommunication community. QoE provides an assessment around a human perception, feeling, performance and behavior. Normally, research studies on multimedia, Quality of Experience (QoE) and gender differences are carried out separately. To develop multimedia solutions covering QoE aspects, keeping the gender differences in mind, are the need of time. In current study, we are interested in knowing how QoE is shaped in Virtual Acoustic Environment (VAE) for male and female. We present experimental test results which provide interesting findings that both male and female have difference in their performance and perception in locating concurrent talkers in small and big sized virtual conferencing rooms. The middle-sized virtual room was suitable for teleconferencing because both male and female participants’ performance and perception converge to similar trend and obtained better QoE values.

Cooperative space-time codes with network coding

Because of the gains like diversity, throughput, and the coverage extension provided by the multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) systems, it has been part of the various wireless communications standards. However, to reap the benefits offered by MIMO systems in size-constrained nodes, used in wireless communications, has been a challenging issue. To address this challenge, cooperative communications has been introduced as an implementable way to exploit the multi-antenna (MIMO) gains in small size nodes. Various schemes or protocols have been devised to address the way by which cooperative communications actually takes place. In this article, we propose and investigate a novel scheme which provides a way to combine the benefits of space-time codes and network coding for cooperative communications. In this scheme, the cooperating users using space-time codes are assisted by the availability of a fixed relay node proposed for the future wireless networks. We compare our scheme with cooperative communications using Alamouti scheme and non-cooperative communications. With analytical results, we prove that the proposed scheme offers diversity gain of order three while cooperative communications using Alamouti scheme offers two and non-cooperative communications offers diversity order of one only. Moreover, the proposed relay assisted scheme outperforms by 15% in terms of multiplexing gain, the cooperative communications scheme being compared.

Optimally using the Bluetooth subband codec

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has standardized the subband coding (SBC) audio codec to connect headphones via wireless Bluetooth links with the A2DP profile. SBC compresses audio at high fidelity while having an ultra-low algorithm delay and very low complexity. SBC is configurable to a very large extend. Six parameters can be changed including sampling frequency, bit rate and algorithmic delay. In total, more than 60000 different configuration can be selected. In this publication, we objectively measure the audio and speech quality, if SBC runs under those configurations to find the most suitable parameter under given rate and delay constrains. Finally, we present objective tests comparing the audio codecs SBC, CELT, APT-X and ULD.

Modeling User's Trust in M-Commerce Acceptance: A Conceptual Framework in Context of Pakistan

With the emergence of Internet and World Wide Web, traditional businesses got a new opportunity to compete globally. Traditional bricks-and-mortar businesses became electronic business (e-business) by utilizing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. A new term of Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) has created tremendous spectrum of business opportunities for businesses. Although there has been large scale adoption of M-Commerce in developing economies, but little growth is observed in developing economies such as Pakistan. There are doubts that users of M-commerce demonstrate a lack of enthusiasm, which may be due to lack of trustworthiness. Based on the well-known and widely used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research study provides the conceptual framework, underpinning the relationship of trust with the adoption of M-commerce in Pakistan. The aim of this paper is to study the role of trust and its relationship with the acceptance of M-Commerce in Pakistan.