Mojca Volk

IPTV Systems, Standards and Architectures: Part II - Quality-Assured Provisioning of IPTV Services within the NGN Environment

IPTV represents a solution for interactive television-like services. As the NGN has gained attention for the IP multimedia service delivery platform, IPTV has been recognized as the way to provide the key value-added services. However, IPTV differs from typical NGN-based voice and data services by the fact that it combines three conceptually unfamiliar (until now) components: streamed video, Web services, and NGN-based service control. Another difference is in the sense of the quality-assured service delivery that in the case of IPTV is much stricter for two reasons: it is more challenging to meet an end users satisfaction in the case of television services, and there are issues of quality- assured provisioning of real-time multimedia services in an environment that is best-effort in its nature. In this article, possible approaches to NGN- based IPTV services assurance are presented from the QoE and QoS viewpoints. Current environments and an overview of the standardization efforts are given. A proposal for a fully NGN-integrated quality-assured IPTV provisioning model is presented with an associated converged profile structure. The service-aware quality assurance approach is argued. The article investigates further NGN service delivery enhancements for quality-assured provisioning of IPTV services that until now remained unresolved. The objective of this article is to present the design of a realistic quality assurance model, establish the associated framework for NGN-based IPTV services delivery, and contribute to discussions and research activities. At the same time, the conclusions and the proposed models will serve as a framework for future efforts in our laboratory NGN testbed.

Application-based NGN QoE controller

In this article, a specification and testbed implementation results of an application-based QoE controller are presented, proposing a solution for objective and context-aware end-to-end QoE control in the NGN networks. The proposed solution bases on standardized NGN service enabler operation principles that allows for efficient in-service QoE estimation and optimization. QoE control is accomplished through context-based QoE modeling, the principal role of which is to provide a detailed description of the circumstances, under which the communication is established and by which the end-users QoE is affected. Implementation results and findings confirm feasibility and efficient design of the QoE controller proposal as well as full compliance with the requirements for its deployment into real-world NGN environments.

Contextualized monitoring and root cause discovery in IPTV systems using data visualization

This article describes the architecture and design of an IPTV network monitoring system and some of the use cases it enables. The system is based on distributed agents within IPTV terminal equipment (set-top box), which collect and send the data to a server where it is analyzed and visualized. In the article we explore how large amounts of collected data can be utilized for monitoring the quality of service and user experience in real time, as well as for discovering trends and anomalies over longer periods of time. Furthermore, the data can be enriched using external data sources, providing a deeper understanding of the system by discovering correlations with events outside of the monitored domain. Four supported use cases are described, among them using weather information for explaining away the IPTV quality degradation. The system has been successfully deployed and is in operation at the Slovenian IPTV provider Telekom Slovenije.

Usability Pitfalls of Diabetes mHealth Apps for the Elderly

Diabetes mellitus has high prevalence in the ageing population and is often accompanied by other comorbidities, such as Alzheimers disease, and general disabilities, such as poor eyesight. These comorbidities have redefined ways in which patients use mHealth apps, including diabetes apps. The latter have proven benefits for monitoring blood glucose levels and insulin tracking in the general population. In this paper, we analyse a diabetes monitoring app DeStress Assistant (DeSA), which was developed as a part of an EU project and tested in a hospital setting. Due to the increasing number of older adults, we wanted to ensure the app was suitable for that demographic. Based on a number of supervised tests, we show that the app, which was developed with the help of workshops and feedback from tech-savvy patients and clinicians, is difficult to use by elderly users. We demonstrate that with a small number of changes it is possible to raise the usability of the app in a number of categories. We summarise the lessons learned in the discussion. Our findings demonstrate that special care needs to be taken when developing mHealth apps for the elderly population.

Wireless Fractal Ultra-Dense Cellular Networks

With the ever-growing number of mobile devices, there is an explosive expansion in mobile data services. This represents a challenge for the traditional cellular network architecture to cope with the massive wireless traffic generated by mobile media applications. To meet this challenge, research is currently focused on the introduction of a small cell base station (BS) due to its low transmit power consumption and flexibility of deployment. However, due to a complex deployment environment and low transmit power of small cell BSs, the coverage boundary of small cell BSs will not have a traditional regular shape. Therefore, in this paper, we discuss the coverage boundary of an ultra-dense small cell network and give its main features: aeolotropy of path loss fading and fractal coverage boundary. Simple performance analysis is given, including coverage probability and transmission rate, etc., based on stochastic geometry theory and fractal theory. Finally, we present an application scene and discuss challenges in the ultra-dense small cell network.

Open and Scalable IoT Platform and Its Applications for Real Time Access Line Monitoring and Alarm Correlation

We present an open intelligent communication platform that can be used to support various usage scenarios related to future internet of things. Its purpose is twofold: to support fusion of large amounts of data, irrespective of their source or structure and to provide users or devices with semantically analysed and enriched data according to their needs and context. Using the platform, users are able to access enriched data, receive warnings and notifications about events recognised by the system. We present applications for the real time access line monitoring and alarm correlation that respond to telecommunications operators’ needs in the field of proactive line measurement in enabling the helpdesk and field technical teams to pinpoint the cause of service degradations.

The Role of mHealth Applications in Societal and Social Challenges of the Future

In recent years, the increase in aging population in developed countries has become one of the most important societal challenges. It is becoming more and more important to ensure quality care and services in countries with a rapidly increasing ageing population and find solutions to lower the costs of healthcare. Digital technologies could present a solution in the form of digital health but the question of ubiquitous availability of these technologies is then brought to the forefront. Mobile broadband has become the fastest growing market segment which makes mHealth applications a good alternative for offering healthcare and well-being services to a wide range of users. However, without a ubiquitous and reliable mobile broadband connection, the availability of most high-bandwidth and life-critical applications is still questionable. In addition, privacy and confidentiality have always been important cornerstones in healthcare and must also be ensured in mHealth applications. Of particular interest are self-monitoring mobile applications, which have shown promise in increasing awareness of the variability of patient symptoms as well as offering reassurance through monitoring. Therefore, low-bandwidth, non-critical mHealth applications, which take advantage of existing networks and give users the opportunity to monitor their health parameters with the added input from their physician, should be more widely implemented. In this article the above-mentioned challenges are discussed and an example of an implementation of an mHealth application for diabetes self-management is presented.

Application-driven OAM framework for heterogeneous IoT environments

We present a novel approach for providing a comprehensive operational picture of heterogeneous networks by collecting system information from physical, data-link, network and application layers using extended methods and mechanisms for OAM, which take into account particularities of persistent access heterogeneity and IoT. A heterogeneous OAM (H-OAM) framework is proposed with a toolset for streamlined failure detection and isolation, and automated performance measurement and monitoring. The framework combines extended standardized OAM toolsets for physical and data-link layers with multiple well-defined and recognized IP network layer toolsets, which introduces possibilities for a tactical view of the monitored system and quick root cause analysis with unified interpretation and cross-correlation of horizontal and vertical levels. A practical deployment of an H-OAM system is presented and its use is demonstrated in a live mobile IoT testbed environment where performance is a function of a wide variety of physical layer parameters that need to be tuned and monitored by the operator. Results of two concrete usage scenarios performed in cooperation with two largest Slovenian mobile operators demonstrate how continuity check and connectivity verification, and performance diagnostics are conducted for Web-based IoT applications and network services of a live operational environment.

Network monitoring applications based on IoT system

We present applications for network monitoring based on intelligent communication platform that can also be used to support various usage scenarios related to future internet of things. Applications presented include real time DSL access line monitoring and IPTV monitoring, correlated with lightning reports. The solution is used in the field of proactive monitoring, enabling the operators helpdesk and field technical teams to pinpoint the cause of service degradations.

Safety and privacy considerations for mobile application design in digital healthcare

This paper presents a case study on security and privacy implications on the design of a mobile application in digital health, the DeStress Assistant (DeSA) app, which utilizes sensing technologies and capabilities of the Internet of Things (IoT). An analysis of the applicable legislative framework is provided and selected challenges encountered during the app design are discussed, which are related with the practical implications of provisions of the international and national legislation for software applications in general as well as medical devices and handling of sensitive data in particular. We provide insights into design choices, including different possible scenarios for classification of a mobile app as a medical device and the pertaining legal risks the app developer is faced with as a consequence of possible legal obligations, and different possibilities of specifying the intended use. Also, we propose two designs of a mechanism that enables secure sharing of the patients health-related observations from the DeSA app with a medical professional within a treatment context. The first mechanism provides secure submission of health-related observations into a hospital information system, whereas the second mechanism enables secure short-term sharing of observations without storage.