Norbert Varga

Android-Based Testbed and Demonstration Environment for Cross-Layer Optimized Flow Mobility

Nowadays, the spreading and development of multi-access mobile devices together with the proliferation of different radio access technologies make possible to users to actively benefit from the advances of heterogeneous and overlapping wireless networks. This fact and the varying characteristics of mobile applications in means of the required network resources and Quality of Service parameters invoke elaboration of effective flow-based mobility handling algorithms and their cross-layer optimization. Aiming to help research and development in the above topic, we propose an advanced, Android-based testbed and demonstration environment incorporating a cross-layer optimization platform and a flow-aware, client-based mobility management scheme. The testbed relies on MIP6D-NG, which is a client-based, multi-access Mobile IPv6 implementation with different extensions (e.g., Multiple Care-of Addresses registration, Flow Bindings etc.) and an advanced cross-layer communication API. We also introduce an adaptive flow handover system for multi-access environments based on cross-layer information transfer between the applications and the MIP6D-NG core, all implemented and evaluated in the proposed testbed.

Context-aware IPv6 Flow Mobility for Multi-Sensor based Mobile Patient Monitoring and Tele-consultation

Abstract Recently, the rapid growth of multi-access mobile devices interconnected with different wearable biosignal sensors via Body Area Network (BAN) play an increasingly important role in healthcare systems and provide significant solutions for scenarios of home healthcare, real-time remote/mobile patient monitoring and ubiquitous tele-consultation. The proliferation of different radio access technologies make possible mobile healthcare (mHealth) services to actively benefit from the advances of heterogeneous and overlapping wireless networks. The varying characteristics of mHealth applications (particularly different real-time monitoring solutions) in means of the required network resources and Quality of Services parameters invoke elaboration of effective flow-based mobility management algorithms. Aiming to provide a transparent and efficient mobility infrastructure for the mHealth field we designed and developed a context-aware IPv6 flow mobility management scheme for Android focusing on mobile patient monitoring and tele-consultation use-cases in a multi-sensor environment. The proposed solution incorporates a cross-layer optimization platform and relies on MIP6D-NG, which is a client-based, multi-access, flow-aware Mobile IPv6 implementation. We have implemented a real-life multi-sensor testbed architecture where the proposed system with its adaptive flow handover scheme was evaluated.

LDM-based dynamic network discovery and selection for IPv6 mobility management optimization in C-ITS environments

ITS comprises any information and communication technologies applied to transport infrastructures for improving the performance of traffic management and warning systems, productivity and efficiency of ITS services. Benefits of ITS can be further enhanced if ITS entities continuously communicate with each other and exchange relevant information using Cooperative ITS (C-ITS) techniques. C-ITS gives scope for V2X communication technologies like Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Roadside (V2R) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) schemes. The current C-ITS protocol stack relies on heterogeneous wireless access networks, the communication diversity covers Wi-Fi, DSRC, CALM, 3G, 4G/LTE/LTE-A, and Satellite among others. This fact demands the design and implementation of context-aware, resource efficient, scalable, and optimized Layer 3 mobility management mechanisms integrated into the C-ITS standards. To provide the base infrastructure for such mechanisms, here we introduce a dynamic network discovery and selection framework relying on the tools of Local Dynamic Map (LDM) and Cooperative Awareness Message (CAM). A proof of concept implementation that demonstrates the feasibility of our approach is also presented and evaluated.

An architecture for m-health services: The CONCERTO project solution

The provisioning of e-health and specifically m-health services requires the usage of advanced and reliable communication techniques to offer acceptable Quality of Experience (QoE) for doctors in the transfer of biomedical data between involved parties (i.e. flawless, or almost flawless, and prompt enough delivery) using wired or wireless access networks. To overcome the restrictions of conventional communication systems and to address the challenges imposed by wireless/mobile multimedia transfer and adaptation for healthcare applications, the CONCERTO project proposes a cross-layer optimized architecture with all the needed critical building blocks integrated for medical media content fusion, delivery and access, even on the move in emergency contexts. This paper describes the proposed reference system architecture, presenting the developed components and mechanisms in a comprehensive way, depicting and clarifying the overall picture and highlighting the impact of the CONCERTO approach in the healthcare domain. The evaluation of the proposed system is carried out both via simulation analysis and, more importantly, via validation involving real medical staff.

Network-assisted Smart Access Point Selection for Pervasive Real-time mHealth Applications☆

Abstract Due to the fast evolution of wireless access networks and high-performance mobile devices together with the spreading of wearable medical sensors, electronic healthcare (eHealth) services have recently started to receive more and more attention, especially in the mobile Health (mHealth) domain. The vast majority of mHealth services require strict medical level Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) provision. Emergency use-cases, remote patient monitoring, tele-consultation and guided surgical intervention require real-time communication and appropriate connection quality. The increasing significance of different overlapping wireless accesses makes possible to provide the required network resources for ubiquitous and pervasive mHealth applications. Aiming to support such use-cases in a heterogeneous network environment, we propose a network-assisted intelligent access point selection scheme for ubiquitous applications of Future Internet architectures focusing on real-time mobile telemedicine services. Our solution is able to discover nearby base stations that cover the current location of the mobile device efficiently and to trigger heterogeneous handovers based on the state and quality of the current access network. The solution is empirically evaluated in Wi-Fi networks used by real-life Android mobile devices and we observed that the scheme can improve the quality of mHealth applications and enhance traffic load balancing capabilities of wireless architectures.

Client-based and Cross-layer Optimized Flow Mobility for Android Devices in Heterogeneous Femtocell/Wi-Fi Networks*☆

Abstract The number of subscribers accessing Internet resources from mobile and wireless devices has been increasing continually since i-mode, the first mobile Internet service launched in 1999. The handling and support of dramatic growth of mobile data traffic create serious challenges for the network operators. Due to the spreading of WLAN networks and the proliferation of multi-access devices, offloading from 3G to Wi-Fi seems to be a promising step towards the solution. To solve the bandwidth limitation and coverage issues in 3G/4G environments, femtocells became key players. These facts motivate the design and development of femtocell/Wi-Fi offloading schemes. Aiming to support advanced offloading in heterogeneous networks, in this paper we propose a client-based, cross-layer optimized flow mobility architecture for Android devices in femtocell/Wi-Fi access environments. The paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation details of the aforementioned mechanisms.

A network-assisted flow mobility architecture for optimized mobile medical multimedia transmission

A large part of mobile Health (mHealth) use-cases such as remote patient monitoring/diagnosis, teleconsultation, and guided surgical intervention requires advanced and reliable mobile communication solutions to provide efficient multimedia transmission with strict medical level Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) provision. The increasing deployment of overlapping wireless access networks enables the possibility to offer the required network resources for ubiquitous and pervasive mHealth services. To address the challenges and support the above use-cases in today’s heterogeneous network (HetNet) environments, we propose a network-assisted flow-based mobility management architecture for optimized real-time mobile medical multimedia communication. The proposed system is empirically evaluated in a Pan-European HetNet testbed with multi-access Android-based mobile devices. We observed that the proposed scheme significantly improves the objective QoE of simultaneous real-time high-resolution electrocardiography and high-definition ultrasound transmissions while also enhances traffic load balancing capabilities of wireless architectures.

An architecture proposal for V2X communication-centric traffic light controller systems

Efficient traffic control and management is a fundamental and urgent challenge in our ever-growing cities. Maximizing roadway capacity usage, balancing traffic flows, decreasing emission, improving traffic safety and providing motorists with the best end-to-end transportation experience are the most important goals of modern intelligent traffic control infrastructures. Evolving traffic light or traffic signal controller systems are playing an important role in these architectures by adaptively and dynamically coordinating individual traffic lights to achieve city-wide objectives of traffic operations. The integration of such systems with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to- infrastructure (V2I) communication techniques (together referred as V2X) could easily be the next step of this evolution allowing for dynamic real-time information exchange between all the players of the traffic controlling ecosystem and fostering cooperative urban mobility. In this paper we propose a possible architecture for a V2X-integrated traffic light controller systems and present the testbed with our proof-of-concept implementation of the proposed scheme.

A SUMO-Based Hardware-in-the-Loop V2X Simulation Framework for Testing and Rapid Prototyping of Cooperative Vehicular Applications

Vehicle-to-Anything (V2X) technologies aim at providing globally standardized communication tools to efficiently transmit information between all players of the transportation ecosystem. Based on such extensive data exchange between traffic objects V2X helps to create an advanced domain of transportation called Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) where an ever-growing scale of cooperative vehicular applications/services facilitate enhanced safety and comfort on the road and lead towards fully automated transportation in the future. C-ITS relies on a complex architecture consisting of a cross-layer optimized sophisticated protocol stack, hybrid radio access solutions, computing algorithms, decision schemes, special interfaces, internet-of-things (IoT) integration, etc. Moreover, C-ITS and the support of cooperative use-cases demand high reliability, enhanced Quality of Service/Quality of Experience (QoS/QoE), and rock-solid hardware/software implementations working efficiently and securely even in the most complicated environments including extreme traffic circumstances or unpredictable actions. Therefore, deliberate system testing is a crucial and strategic process, especially when we are closing to the wide-scale deployment phase of real-life C-ITS solutions. Our proposed hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) V2X simulation framework was designed to offer a cost-efficient and simple toolset for testing and rapid prototyping of cooperative vehicular solutions by partially replacing costly, time-consuming and oftentimes dangerous field tests with an easy to install, tabletop laboratory test- and development suite.

A Survey on Multimedia Quality of Experience Assessment Approaches in Mobile Healthcare Scenarios

The digital revolution in healthcare presents day after day new solutions to us. As one of the major roles in healthcare is the prevention of being diseased by the popularization of healthier living and doing sports, a vast majority of digital applications aims at self-monitoring and activity tracking via new wearable gadgets and smartphone apps. Also there are solutions for making the work of physicians and medical specialists easier and change their attitude for digital resolutions. This article gives an overview of mobile healthcare status respect to general and multimedia-related solutions and highlights the importance of the respect of Quality of Experience in these applications.