MOTIVE: MObile Terminal Information Value addEd Functionality Christos Desiniotis1, Yannis Markoulidakis1, Dimitrios I. Axiotis2, Dimitris Nikitopoulos2, Michael Caragiozidis3, Bruzzone Raul4 1
Vodafone-Panafon S.A., Tzavela 1-3, Chalandri, Athens, 15231 Greece Tel: +30 210 6702776, Fax: +30 210 6702090
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[email protected] 2
National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Heroon Polytechneiou 9, Zographou, 15773, Greece Tel: +30 2107722532, Fax: +30 2107722530 E-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] 3
APEX Concepts and Solutions AG, Bundesgasse 16, CH-3011, Bern, Switzerland Tel: +41 31 3182220, Fax: +41 31 3182224 E-mail:
[email protected] 4
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Abstract—Mobile terminals are evolving into a ubiquitous computing platform. Although they are excellent candidates for mobile data monitoring, their information gathering and processing capabilities are still under-utilized. MOTIVE enabled terminals are expected to transparently store, pre-process and upload to the network (for further processing) historical monitoring information. The MOTIVE approach enables the provision of new context aware services by exploiting measurements gathered by mobile terminals and defines a system architecture and functionality. The proposed approach can be applied to the Monitoring of the End-toEnd User Experience and to the Ubiquitous Terminal Assisted Positioning (UTAP) methodology. This concept will be further investigated within the context of FP6-IST-27659 MOTIVE project [1]. Index Terms—End User Experience, Monitoring, Positioning Techniques.
Ubiquitous
I. INTRODUCTION In a mobile telecommunications environment, the mobile terminal collects a variety of network and application performance related data that are subsequently used in order to perform basic networking functions, such as cell selection, handover or power control. Furthermore, the penetration of mobile terminals has widely increased in the last decade reaching in many countries percentages of more than 90%. Terminal collected data constitute a valuable, but
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untapped yet, source of information. The MOTIVE concept, taking advantage of the evolving mobile terminal capabilities (such as storing and processing) as well as the available communication technologies (e.g. Bluetooth, Infrared, GPRS, UMTS), intends to demonstrate the potentials stemming from the exploitation of such information. Furthermore, the means for creating new services are provided. The paper is organised as follows: Section II presents an overview of the MOTIVE notion and the proposed architecture. In Sections III and IV the applicability of the proposed concept in two different key areas is analysed. Finally, Section V concludes the paper and identifies future research directions. II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE The MOTIVE system is comprised of a terminal monitoring module (which operates in a user transparent mode) and a network server that collects the selected data set and performs processing. The information gathered can originate from different sources such as: Radio interface parameters in wireless networks (e.g. Signal Strength, Cell Identity). The underlined network could be any commercially available network but the concept could be applied to other future technologies as well.
The application level (e.g. performance of a specific application, available throughput).
It should be noted that the proposed architecture can be applied in other fields of applications, too.
External devices/sensors (e.g. temperature, air pollution, acoustic noise levels) adapted to mobile terminal.
III. MOTIVE INTEGRATED END-TO-END USER EXPERIENCE MONITORING
Monitored data correlated with the terminal’s position can provide the means for developing innovative added value services. The general architecture of the proposed system is depicted in the following figure: Data retrieval
MOTIVE Server
A P I
Data Indexing
Service Provisioning enablers
Data Storage
The user experience is highly influenced by the performance of three entities, namely the terminal, the network (access and core) and the telecommunication applications [2], [3]. The MOTIVE system can enhance user experience based on terminal information monitoring (see Figure 2) and subsequent proper network processing. In future, this trend is expected to grow leading to increased terminal device management functionality.
User Experience UMTS
WLAN, WiMAX
Motive Terminal Module
GSM, GPRS
Radio Access Environment
Terminal
Initially, the sensor or the terminal itself measures specific information. In case of external sensors this information is transferred to the terminal device through a short-range technology (e.g. Bluetooth). The data are processed (e.g. averaged) and stored locally on the terminal. It should be mentioned that terminal capacity and processing limitations should be taken into account. The terminal uploads the processed data to a predefined web server (MOTIVE server) using a radio access technology. The scheduling of the transmissions and the cost of transferring the data is a matter of service description and deployment scenarios which are out of the scope of this paper. The data coming from multiple end users’ terminals are stored on the Server and are further categorized. Each individual user, through his mobile terminal, contributes to the content production thus enabling the provision of new valuable services both for the public and for the Mobile Network Operators. The collected information can be either globally available (e.g. to other mobile users through a mobile portal) or exploited for optimizing wireless network performance as described in Section III. In the context of this paper, emphasis is placed on the applicability of the above-described system to two distinct areas related to: Integrated end-to-end monitoring and, Ubiquitous (UTAP).
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Terminal
user Assisted
experience Positioning
NMS & Planning Tools
Figure 1: MOTIVE high-level architecture
Motive Network Module
sensor
Network
Applications
Figure 2: The MOTIVE concept of Integrated End-to-End User Experience Monitoring
There are several parameters, which determine the terminal contribution to the user experience. These include the efficiency of the user interface (including the terminal Operating System e.g. Symbian, Windows Mobile) and the performance of the protocol stack (e.g. voice quality, receiver quality, IP protocol performance, etc.). Currently, these issues are evaluated mainly through terminal testing. The MOTIVE concept allows for continuous monitoring of the terminal operation based on properly targeted Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). For instance, the user interface efficiency may be assessed by the time it takes a user to trigger an application. The MOTIVE approach is beneficial for all the involving parties. Firstly, it allows terminal manufacturers to re-design their terminals or to treat faults not captured in initial terminal testing. Secondly, it provides the opportunity to operators to identify the contribution of the terminal, the network and the application performance to the overall user experience. This in turn will lead to enhancing the overall performance experienced by customers. The contribution of Network performance to the User experience can also be captured at the level of the mobile terminal by measuring primarily air-interface parameters related to coverage or air-interface performance (e.g. Received Signal Strength, Bit Error
Rate, Throughput, Signal to Interference ratio, etc.) [4]. Collection of this type of data can be extremely useful for the mobile operators (applicable to GSM, GPRS, UMTS, WLAN networks) and especially when combined with the availability of location information. The methods applied in currently deployed networks rely either on network verification surveys, Key Performance Indicators (e.g. blocked or dropped calls) derived by Network Management Systems or measurements from special terminal implementations, such as, Ericsson TEMS [12] and Nemo Handy [13]. However, these methods are highly costly since they require vehicles to cover lengthy routes and radio engineers for using the equipment. The MOTIVE system provides a new dimension to this approach as the ability to collect information directly from the user’s mobile terminal can result to more precise information (for instance, the identification of areas where the users experience a high dropped call rate, congestion hot spots in a WCDMA system, coverage verification, etc.). Initial implementations (within the MOTIVE project) using commercially available mobile terminals with Symbian OS v.8, provided the opportunity to capture the Received Signal Strength as well as the BER of data transmissions using open APIs. An application example using data collected by the terminals is the calibration of radio planning tools. Coverage planning of wireless networks is based on empirical or deterministic models, the former derived from empirical approximations through measurement campaigns (e.g. Okumura, Cost-231 Hata) and the latter based on intensive computations of theoretical wave propagation models (e.g. ray-tracing, UTP). These models involve sets of parameters that depend on specific terrain (topography, morphology) or surrounding environment characteristics. Current coverage planning tools use average values that limit the accuracy of computerised radio propagation predictions. Measurements provided by MOTIVE Monitoring functionality when linked with the terminal position can be used to treat the specific peculiarities of each geographical location (e.g. street canyons, tunnels, motorways, etc.) resulting to the improvement not only of the prediction accuracy, but of the service coverage as well. Finally, the performance of the telecommunication applications can be monitored at the terminal side in order to provide feedback to the application designer (e.g. user interface, OS etc.) or the application performance optimisation (e.g. better codecs for the audio/video streaming services). In currently deployed networks these tasks are performed through testing via a limited number of trial users. In contrast, the MOTIVE concept can further enhance this approach by capturing the real user perception and reaction for an on-demand varying, larger number of users.
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Naturally, information coming from other sources like NMS systems can also be exploited by MOTIVE system. This integrated approach will provide the operators with a powerful tool in order to continuously monitor the network and enhance the user experience. IV. MOTIVE UBIQUITOUS TERMINAL ASSISTED POSITIONING The evolution of Location Based Services is closely related to the evolution of Terminal Positioning technologies. All technology roadmaps move from network based techniques (e.g. Cell Global Identity) to AGPS or even hybrid Network-AGPS to countermeasure the AGPS inefficiencies (indoor or urban canyon environments) [5]. The recent trend for increasing the accuracy of network-based technologies is the statistical processing of a series of measurements [6]. Such examples include products like Matrix Solo provided by Cambridge Positioning Systems Limited [8] and Wireless Location Signatures Technology implemented by Polaris Wireless [9]. In the first solution (solo-matrix) the collection of network measurements requires the exchange of information between the terminal and the network in terminal idle mode. In the second example (Polaris Wireless) the terminal sends a sequence of measurements after the LBS application session set-up. The MOTIVE concept as depicted in Figure 3, is generic and applicable to different kind of networks as well as multi-network environments (networks beyond 3G). According to this approach called STAMP (Statistical Terminal Assisted Mobile Positioning), the terminal while in idle mode stores network measurements without communicating with the network. As soon as an LBS session is being set-up the terminal uploads the stored list of measurements thus allowing the network to increase the terminal positioning accuracy by their appropriate statistical processing either in a stand-alone mode or in a hybrid AGPS scheme. Such an approach allows for the concurrent estimation of the Mobile Terminal speed and direction, enabling the timely provision of advanced LBS applications. Part of this approach has been implemented for the CGI++ positioning technique described in [10] presenting significant accuracy improvement (in terms of 40%). It should be mentioned that the method is applicable to almost all positioning techniques. Another advantage of the proposed approach is the fact that the deployment of the concept requires only an additional software module on the terminal side while the impact on the terminal operation is minimal (e.g. through exploitation of parameters such as the received signal power/phase that terminals anyhow perform as part of their standard operation) [4],[7]. Furthermore, the proposed technique provides the Mobile Network Operators with the means to fulfil the FCC mandate of the E-911 emergency service within USA and future E-112 mandate within Europe [11].
M O T IV E P o s it io n in g S erver
L B S A p p lic a t io n P la t f o r m s
B 3 G C o m p o s it e C o r e N e tw o r k U p lo a d t h e lis t o f T e r m in a l M e a s u re m e n ts t o t h e L o c a t io n S e r v e r
B 3 G H e te ro g e n e o u s R a d io A c c e s s N e tw o r k
L B S A p p lic a t io n In it ia t io n
S to re
M O T IV E T e r m in a l M o d u le
S to re
S to re
M O T IV E T e r m in a l M o d u le
R e t r ie v e M O T IV E D a t a
M O T IV E T e r m in a l M o d u le
M O T IV E T e r m in a l M o d u le L B S A p p lic a t io n In it ia t io n
T e r m in a l in Id le M o d e
Figure 3: The concept of MOTIVE UTAP
MOTIVE approach is generic and simple enough so as to form a Ubiquitous Terminal Assisted Positioning (UTAP) concept in B3G environment where a variety of network technologies (GSM, GPRS, UMTS, WLANs, short-range radio interfaces, etc.) will be present either as a stand-alone or as a hybrid AGPS scheme. Along with UTAP, MOTIVE related information gathered at the mobile terminal enables the introduction of new types of LBS services based on information related to terminal velocity and direction (e.g. road traffic analysis).
conduction of trials for the evaluation of the system. The trials will be performed using commercially available mobile terminals in two different sites, Athens and Paris, employing Vodafone GSM, GPRS, UMTS and WLAN networks. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This paper introduces concepts and technologies deployed within the framework of the project MOTIVE (FP6-IST-27659), which is co-funded by the European Commission in the 6th framework of the IST program.
V. CONCLUSIONS-FUTURE RESEARCH The paper presented an approach for exploiting and processing information collected by the mobile terminals. It demonstrated the potentials stemming from this concept by defining two application scenarios. In conclusion:
[1]
FP6-IST4 27659 MOTIVE Technical Annex
[2]
Historical data can be used for improving the accuracy of positioning techniques.
Leena Arhippainen, Marika Tahti, “Empirical evaluation of user experience in two adaptive mobile application prototypes”, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, 10-12 December 2003, Norrkoping, pp.27-34
[3]
Terminal collected data can be exploited for providing new services where end users contribute to content production.
Y.Markoulidakis, C.Desiniotis, K.Kypris, “A method to capture the end user experience in Location Based Services”, Mobile eConference 2004
[4]
3GPP, TS 05.08, v8.19.0 (2003-11), “Radio Subsystem Link Control”.
[5]
3GPP TS 25.305, v.7.1.0, “UMTS; UE positioning in Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN); Stage 2”.
[6]
I.Papageorgiou, Ch.Charalambous, C.Panayiotou, “An Enhanced Received Signal Level Cellular Location Determination Method via Maximum Likelihood and Kalman filtering”, WCNC 2005, March 2005, New Orlean.
The proposed architecture can be used for capturing end users experience, monitor terminals and wireless networks performance. Further research activities include the development of the aforementioned applications as well as the 4
REFERENCES
[7]
3GPP TS 25.304 v.6.8.0, “User Equipment procedures in idle mode and procedures for cell reselection in connected mode”.
[8]
Matrix Solo positioning technique, www.cursor-system.com
[9]
Wireless Location Signatures www.polariswireless.com
Location
Engine,
[10] J.Markoulidakis, C.Desiniotis, K.Kypris, “Method for improving the CGI++ mobile location technique by exploiting past measurements”, IST Mobile Summit, Dresden, 2005. [11] CC Docket No. 96-264, “Revision of the Commission Rule to ensure compatibility with Enhanced 911 emergency calling system”, FCC reports and Orders, 1996. [12] Ericsson TEMS, http://www.ericsson.com/ products/tems/. [13] NEMO technologies, Measurement tools for technologies, http://www.nemotechnologies.com.
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wireless
