The human perspective of the wireless world (original) (raw)

Considering the user in the wireless world

IEEE Communications Magazine, 2004

The Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) is a global academic and industry forum, which is contributing to the visions of future wireless communications and identifying research topics on which to build the vision. The near future promises significant advances in communication capabilities, but one of the keys to success will be understanding what capabilities people will find valuable, and how to make those capabilities simply usable. In considering the role of the user in the wireless world of the future, Working Group 1 of the WWRF has gathered input and developed positions in four important areas: methods, processes and best practices for user-centered research and design; reference frameworks for modeling user needs within the context of wireless systems; user scenario creation and analysis; and user interaction technologies. This article provides an overview of WG1's work in these areas that are critical to ensuring that the future wireless world meets and exceeds the expectations of people in the coming decades.

IEEE Communications Magazine Article Draft

Human factors and wireless network applications: more bits and better bits

2006

Imagine a taxi driver wanting to watch a football game while working. Events in the game cannot be predetermined, the driver's available attentional resources vary and network connections change from non-existing to excellent, so it will be necessary to develop a viewing application that can adapt to circumstances. This thesis presents a system model and sketches a framework for design and run time adaptations. The model has three layers: user/usage, application and network. Quality of service metrics are proposed for each layer. A particular emphasis is placed on the difference between the user/usage layer and the application layer. Satisfaction at the former means a job well done, a match played to your liking etc. Satisfaction at the latter means good picture quality, nice colours etc. The thesis continues by identifying and describing elements required to build the system used by the taxi driver. Three studies are presented where either bandwidth or delay are varied at the network level. Video is better the higher the bandwidth; animations can be used as a complement. They are shown to be better than low quality video but worse than high quality video for watching a football game. Better video in the form of higher frame rates turned out to be worse for playing a card game over the Internet. A possible explanation is the distraction experienced when the image is updated constantly. Another result of our studies is that users can adapt their mental effort to the actual load when given feedback on the network delay affecting a computer game. The results mentioned above show that it is possible to compensate for poor network performance. For the user, improved network performance is generally more satisfactory. Early multicast collision detection is a method for improved multicast performance in high load IEEE 802.11 networks. Prioritised repeated eliminations multiple access is a method for multicast and other traffic which can be used alone or in an IEEE 802.11 network. Probabilistic performance analysis and simulations show that both protocols drastically reduce the time spent in collisions and improve throughput compared to IEEE 802.11. Some of the formulae are applied to EY-NPMA as well; they are used to estimate performance and to estimate optimal operating parameters more efficiently than with previously known methods.

A look at human interaction with pervasive computers

IBM Systems Journal, 2000

A collection of papers has been gathered in order to explore the pervasive computing trend with a humanistic approach. Is it possible for us to understand what the technological world will be like in the next millennium? These papers will help technologists to share in the successes of others in this field and also to understand problems researchers are having in creating ubiquitous computing environments. Our experiences are conveyed to motivate future work in the area and to help all of us envision and create the future. Because pervasive computing affects many people in any number of disciplines, we took a broad approach when picking topics for this issue. Education, communication, and social implications are among the topics discussed here. Although the means used by the authors to reach for their goals may be different, there are many similarities in their visions of the future.

A User-Focused Reference Model for Wireless Systems Beyond 3G

2002

This whitepaper describes a proposal from Working Group 1, the Human Perspective of the Wireless World, for a user-focused reference model for systems beyond 3G. The general structure of the proposed model involves two "planes": the Value Plane and the Capability Plane. The characteristics of these planes are discussed in detail and an example application of the model to a specific scenario for the wireless world is provided.

The Book of Visions 2001 Visions of the Wireless World

2001

An invitation to participate in the making of the future of wireless communications PREFACE The work on " Visions of the Wireless World " is supported by the European Commission under the IST programme, contract number 1999-12300, the Wireless Strategic Initiative (WSI). The Document " The Book of Visions-Visions of the Wireless World " will be continuously refined over a period of three years, spanning 2000 to 2002. The present version is intended to be the starting point of a process, taking a very first stab at the collection of issues that will in all probability have to be addressed by the R&D community in the years to come. Potential approaches to address the issues are also sketched out. It is assumed that in later versions of the document better precision of the required actions can be proposed. The issues represented in this document are the result of contributions collected in a Think Tank, with leading experts from industry and academia, and from a pub...

The Ubiquitous Wireless Communication that Ropes Mobile Devices

The concept of mobile computing may be described as a computing and technological alchemy that enables people to have access to computing and informational resources irrespective of temporal and spatial circumstances through such devices as laptops and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). However, the act of simply having a portable computing device available for use does not in itself constitute mobile computing. The essence of mobile computing dictates that there is some network access involved in the process, whereby the user gains access to organizational information, or to some remote “home base”. Recently, the term mobile computing has increasingly been used to refer to the Personal Communication Systems (PCSs), which enables people to access private information such as bank accounts and email correspondence.

The human perspective of the wireless world (original) (raw)

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