Advanced Communication Services Research Articles

A systematic review of the use of FHIR to support clinical research, public health and medical education

PurposeThis systematic review aimed to identify and categorize applications using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) to support activities outside of direct healthcare provision.Design/methodology/approachA systematic electronic search was performed, and 53 studies were included after the selection process.FindingsThe results show that FHIR is being used to support (1) clinical research (i.e. clinical research based on interventional trials, data interoperability to support clinical research and advanced communication services to support clinical research), (2) public health and (3) medical education. Despite the FHIR potential to support activities outside of direct healthcare provision, some barriers were identified, namely difficulties translating the proposed applications to clinical environments or FHIR technical issues that require further developments.Originality/valueThis study provided a broad review of how FHIR is being applied in clinical activities outside of direct clinical care and identified three major domains, that is, clinical research, public health and medical education, being the first and most representative in terms of number of publications.

On the Interplay Between Sensing and Communications for UAV Trajectory Design

The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are envisioned as promising aerial facilities for providing advanced communication services as well as sensing functionalities in the next-generation wireless system. This paper considers a UAV-enabled integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) system, where a moving ground user (GU) is simultaneously tracked by multiple UAVs and receives the downlink communication information transmitted from the UAV. In particular, to jointly enhance the sensing and communication (S&C) performance, optimizing the UAV moving trajectory is demanded. To achieve this goal, we first harness the extended Kalman filtering (EKF) method for predicting and tracking the motion parameters of GU at each time slot, which relies on the range measurements extracted from the sensing echoes at the base station (BS). Afterward, we formulate a weighted optimization problem that addresses the design of UAV trajectories and GU-UAV association simultaneously, incorporating the consideration of real-time downlink communication rates and the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) for GU tracking. The problem further is constrained by the maximum consumed power, maximum traveling distance, and minimum collision avoidance distance. As a step forward, to address the resultant non-convex problem, we develop an efficient iterative algorithm to obtain a near-optimal solution by utilizing the successive convex approximate (SCA) technique. Specifically, we alternately solve the GU-UAV association and the real-time trajectory design problem at each time slot. Finally, our numerical simulations illustrate that our proposed algorithm can track the GU accurately while meeting the sensing-centric and/or communication-centric requirements.

Growing our Technical Portfolio through Cooperation with Other IEEE Entities

The IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) is the leading global professional organization for creating advanced communications technologies and services, covering all aspects of communications from the theoretical foundation of data transmission and signal processing up to the communication infrastructures for distributed applications, services, their communication networks, and management. To continue advancing communications technologies and markets, it is important for ComSoc to evolve its technological portfolio by continuously supporting new activities that will provide significant benefit to IEEE members, the public, and the technical community. In particular, ComSoc will address those technologies and application areas that stretch across the scope of multiple IEEE operating units (i.e., Societies and Councils). In this issue of the President's Page, I am pleased to introduce Heiner Stüttgen, the Chair of Technology, Evolution, and Initiatives Standing Committee (TE&I) for 2022–2023, to share with you the details.

Seamless Handover in LEO Based Non-Terrestrial Networks: Service Continuity and Optimization

Developing non-terrestrial networks (NTN) in future wireless networks has been widely recognized to bring advanced communication services to remote and unserved areas. The Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) constellation has emerged as a promising component for NTN to provide seamless and fast global connectivity. However, since natural dynamic features, the mobility management, in particular the handover (HO) between satellites, plays an important role in ensuring a stable and continuous data service for NTN. Motivated by this fact, this paper proposes a HO optimization strategy based on conditional handover (CHO) mechanism to enhance service continuity in LEO-based NTN. A reward function, related to link service time and service capability, is firstly designed to modify the monitoring conditions of target satellite candidates. The optimal target selection algorithm is proposed to obtain the maximum reward for each CHO. Then, a service continuity performance graph (SCG) model is constructed to predict different potential CHO combinations in service duration. On the basis of SCG, the HO sequence supporting a high-quality and stable data service is predictively calculated for each accessing user. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed HO optimization scheme can obviously reduce handover rate under different NTN conditions and can better enhance NTN service continuity.

Latency Analysis for Real-Time Sensor Sharing Using 4G/5G C-V2X Uu Interfaces

With the development of communications, various applications of communication technologies, such as remote driving, delivery drones, and telesurgery, are emerging. In particular, in many cases, these applications need real-time video transmission services, and they should support low latency for operation reliability and quick response in emergencies. Sensor sharing is required to support advanced communication services, but the latency analysis of device-to-remote users or remote servers with high data traffic is insufficient. Most related works have device-to-device communication or low data traffic messages for basic device status sharing. However, the latency analysis of sensor sharing between a device and a remote server or remote user is essential to support advanced communication services such as autonomous driving utilizing data offloading and device operation by remote users via the base station and server. Therefore, in this paper, we analyze the end-to-end latency and latency elements for video sharing, which is the most representative sensor in 4G long-term evolution (LTE) and 5G new radio (NR) Uu interfaces. In addition, we derive the supportable video resolution according to the raw video and encoded video transmission in each communication system. For each video resolution level, we analyze which latency elements have a significant effect on the end-to-end latency. Depending on each communication system, we investigate the number of users for the real-time sensor-sharing system that can be supported at the same time. Simulation results show that the LTE Uu interface supports up to full high definition (FHD) video resolution, and the 5G Uu interface supports up to ultrahigh definition (UHD). Additionally, the results show that only a single user can be supported with the FHD resolution level in the LTE Uu interface, whereas up to 19 users can be supported in the 5G Uu interface.

Developing supply chain open innovation capability: The mediating role of the knowledge creation process, governance mechanism and technology as a driver

In the supply chain, companies are increasingly relying on the combination of internal knowledge creation and external knowledge resources to form a new “open innovation” approach. How to govern inter-organizational relationships (IOR) is a key determinant of knowledge creation, which involves both formal contracts and relationship behaviors. Formal contracts determine the roles and obligations of partners in the exchange, and relationship behavior is generated by mutual benefit from the exchange of various resources. Moreover, when the knowledge creation process requires partners to exchange knowledge, supply chain technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-computing based advanced communication services are key in promoting the partners’ willingness to communicate. Therefore, this study uses the governance mechanism of the supply chain as a theoretical framework, and proposes an innovative and complete research model to explore the factors that influence open innovation capability in supply chains. PLS is used to analyze 140 samples collected from 600 organizations, the response rate is 23.3%. This study finds that supply chain technology has a stronger effect than both of the IOR issues, contractual governance and relational governance, for the exchange of tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. The findings improve our understanding on how governance mechanism and technology drive the knowledge creation process towards open innovation success in the context of supply chains.

Media culture as a necessary component of media communication

The article shows that media communication is among the most eff ective ways of social interaction today. The historical review of the evolution of individuals-tothe Worldwide Web interaction suggests the technological development of the Internet did not occur consistently: by the time the advanced communication services appeared, it had become clear that information itself was meaningless, the unstructured knowledge was too voluminous to fi nd a key to it. The author claims that the knowledge that passed the internalisation stage is important. At this stage of personal assignment of information for a unit of time, it became necessary to get the maximum information.

Cost assessment of multi-tenancy for a 5G broadband network in a dense urban area

Purpose5G systems will enable an improved transmission performance and the delivery of advanced communication services. To meet the expected requirements, operators will need to invest in network modernisation, with the radio access network being the most expensive network component. One possible way for operators to reduce this investment would be via sharing of resources by means of a multi-tenancy concept. This implies that a mobile service provider may use the common infrastructure of one or various infrastructure providers, whereby it provides services to multiple tenants. This paper aims to study the expected cost savings in terms of capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX) that can be achieved when using a cloudified 5G multi-tenant network.Design/methodology/approachA cost model was used. The study period is 2020-2030 and the study area consists of three local districts in central London, UK.FindingsThis paper describes that the total cost reduction achieved when using multi-tenancy for a 5G broadband network in comparison with the case where operators make the investment independently ranges from 5.2% to 15.5%.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research is needed to assess the cost implications of network sharing for 5G on a regional or nationwide basis.Originality/valueVery little quantitative research about the cost implications of network sharing under 5G networks has been published so far. This paper sheds light on the economic benefits of multi-tenancy in a 5G broadband network.

Formal Security-Proved Mobile Anonymous Authentication Protocols with Credit-Based Chargeability and Controllable Privacy

Smart mobile phones are widely popularized and advanced mobile communication services are provided increasingly often, such that ubiquitous computing environments will soon be a reality. However, there are many security threats to mobile networks and their impact on security is more serious than that in wireline networks owing to the features of wireless transmissions and the ubiquity property. The secret information which mobile users carry may be stolen by malicious entities. To guarantee the quality of advanced services, security and privacy would be important issues when users roam within various mobile networks. In this manuscript, an anonymous authentication scheme will be proposed to protect the security of the network system and the privacy of users. Not only does the proposed scheme provide mutual authentication between each user and the system, but also each user’s identity is kept secret against anyone else, including the system. Although the system anonymously authenticates the users, it can still generate correct bills to charge these anonymous users via a credit-based solution instead of debit-based ones. Furthermore, our protocols also achieve fair privacy which allows the judge to revoke the anonymity and trace the illegal users when they have misused the anonymity property, for example, if they have committed crimes. Finally, in this paper, we also carry out complete theoretical proofs on each claimed security property.

Provisioning of Inter-Domain QoS-Aware Services

Cooperation among service providers, network providers, and access providers in the Internet allows the creation of new services to offer to customers that are in other domains, thus increasing revenue. However, the Internet heterogeneous environment, where each provider has its own policies, infrastructure and business goals, hinders the deployment of more advanced communication services. This paper presents a Quality of Service (QoS) for Inter-Domain Services (QIDS) model that allows inter-domain QoS-aware services to be defined, configured, and adapted in a dynamic and on-demand fashion, among service providers. This is accomplished by: 1) the use of a common communication channel (business layer) where service providers publish and search for services, and interact with each other to contract and manage these services; 2) the templates to specify the business and technical characteristics of the services; 3) the automatic composition of services using service elements (smaller services) according to performance and service-specific QoS parameters; and 4) the creation and enforcement of configuration rules for the underlying infrastructure. A prototype was implemented to validate QIDS and performance tests were conducted on an inter-domain Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Virtual Private Network (VPN) scenario.

Advanced Communication Models and Services for Smart World

Advanced Communication Models and Services for Smart World

Effects of Public Policy on Fixed and Mobile Broadband Infrastructure Quality

With the rapid diffusion of mobile and fixed access platforms, access to broadband services has become widely available in high and medium-income countries. While overcoming gaps in broadband access remains an important and pressing policy issue, the realization of the benefits of advanced information and communication services is increasingly dependent on the quality of the available connectivity. In spite of this increasing importance of quality attributes, such as download and upload speeds, most theoretical and empirical studies of broadband availability have thus far focused on adoption. Only a handful of recent papers have sought to address the factors influencing broadband infrastructure quality. This paper examines the factors that influence the quality of fixed and mobile broadband access. Drawing on institutional economics, the study provides an integrated conceptual framework that allows analyzing the interaction of supply, demand, policy, and contextual factors. This approach allows differentiated insights into the effects of policy choices and their interactions with other factors. Policy instruments that are examined in detail include forms of unbundling and open access, the creation of competitive conditions, and the importance of public-private partnerships. For wireless broadband, we also control for aspects of spectrum policy and management. As is known from policy research, it is often a specific combination of policy choices that affects outcomes rather than any single measure. Prior empirical research suggests that the implementation of a consistent combination of policy choices matters greatly. To address this unique interaction of policy arrangements with outcomes, we pursue a dual approach using empirical methods that allow complementary insights. The application of panel methods allows the examination of sufficient conditions and of effect sizes of drivers of broadband quality. A second method, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), pioneered by sociologists and political scientists, allows the systematic exploration of interdependencies among these drivers. This quantitative method is better suited than traditional econometric models to explore the interactions between policy choices and the quality of broadband access. QCA allows a systematic examination of the necessary and/or sufficient conditions that influence broadband quality. Because the method is based in principles of set theory, it allows a flexible analysis of not only single policy instruments but also of their interaction with other policy and external conditions. We explore the drivers of both fixed and mobile broadband quality and potential interdependencies between the developments of them. Using Ookla and Akamai data of download speeds that are actually realized over the network infrastructure for a cross-national sample of OECD and medium-income countries, we focus on the role of public policy decisions as a determinant of quality and quality upgrades of access networks. We find that the most important factor with a positive effect on quality and quality improvements is competition. We also find evidence that regulatory interventions such as unbundling or open access provision do have a positive contribution in markets with limited competition. However, the findings also provide evidence that the best policy approach is dependent on the specific context of a country so that no single best practice model emerges from the observations. This paper builds on and significantly expands earlier work, some of which was presented at conferences before (but has not yet been published). A first model of the determinants of fixed broadband quality was presented at the European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society in Florence (October 2013) and a preliminary discussion of QCA with a more limited sample, also focusing on fixed broadband, will be presented at the CPR LATAM conference in Bogota (May 2014). Compared to these earlier versions, the present paper expands the number of countries and adds mobile broadband as well as the interdependencies between fixed and mobile to the analysis.The paper contains methodological, theoretical, and practical contributions. Theoretically, it provides a more comprehensive analysis of the factors that shape broadband speeds. Methodologically, it applies a dual empirical approach to communications policy issues. Because that approach allows exploring the levers available to policy-makers more fully than econometric analyses alone, the paper also contains directly applicable practical lessons for policy-makers.

The Evolution of the European Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications

The paper reviews the historical transformation of the European regulatory framework for electronic communications from the era dominated by state-owned enterprises to the presence of regulated competition. In the course of these developments, the vision of the roles of the public and private sectors in electronic communications changed in expected and unexpected ways. While the period is characterized by a shift toward less direct state intervention, the intensity of regulation has increased in many areas. Most recently, in the wake of the financial crisis, new forms of state intervention can be observed, including public investment in communications infrastructure and public-private partnerships. As a result of the reforms, Europe has been able to achieve major successes but it also suffered unanticipated setbacks compared to other regions. The European Union emerged as the global leader in mobile communications during the 1990s and was able to roll-out first-generation broadband access networks more rapidly than many of its peers. Recently, however, Europe as a whole has not performed as well in deploying next-generation networks and advanced mobile communications services. The paper offers a political-economic explanation for these developments and assesses their effects on the performance of the European electronic communications sector and the economy. From this analysis, the European model emerges as a unique institutional arrangement with peculiar advantages and disadvantages. Once these are recognized, sensible next steps to build the strengths while avoiding the weaknesses of the model can be seen more clearly.

TDT en España y el dividendo digital

This paper aims to determine the evolution of the introduction of Digital Terrestrial Television in Spain. In this country, there are three territorial levels: state, regional, and local. Each of them with its own characteristics, legislation, and licensing division. This article refers to the state level. In the digital age, more attention is being paid to technology and media than to contents. From here it’s assumed that DTT challenges should focus on improving the variety and quality of content and promoting interactivity. The issue of the digital dividend will also be addressed. Before 2015, a frequency band must be reserved for other uses, in particular for the provision of advanced electronic communications services.

Optimization of Inter-Domain Presence Traffic Based on Privacy Rule Sharing: Performance and Impact on the IMS

Presence information was the key enabler of the great success of instant messaging applications. This information was first limited to simple binary states such as online, offline, or busy. However, it is currently evolving towards a much more generic, flexible concept that includes all context that enables users or applications to adapt and control communications in a more efficient, personalized manner. Presence paves the way for the deployment of advanced communication services and is therefore a key component in Next-Generation Networks. The main barrier to the implantation of next-generation presence-based services is the great amount of traffic involved in the distribution of presence information across domains. In this paper, we give a deep insight into multiple strategies for reducing inter-domain presence traffic. We estimate the capacity demands of these strategies on the IMS servers. Moreover, we enhance two strategies for reducing presence load: Common Subscribe and Federated Common Subscribe. Not only do the proposed enhancements prevent the disclosure of some privacy, they also save presence traffic.

Market Design: Harnessing Market Methods to Improve Resource Allocation

The emerging field of market design applies auctions and matching to solve resource allocation problems. This paper focuses on auction design, the branch of market design where money is used to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Within auctions, the paper examines applications involving government regulated resources. Who should use the scarce radio spectrum and at what prices? How should electricity markets be organized? How should financial markets be regulated? And how should runway access be assigned at congested airports? All of these are important questions in major industries. Researchers in market design have made substantial progress in answering these questions over the last fifteen years. The efforts, although at the forefront of theory have been closely tied to practice, and involved interdisciplinary teams of economists, computer scientists, and engineers, all working to solve real problems. Despite this rapid progress, the field holds much promise to provide better answers in even more complex economic environments over the next two decades. The rewards to society from improved markets will be immense. As deficits grow and baby-boomers age, governments face increasing challenges in making the best use of public resources. One successful innovation to improve the allocation of scarce public resources is for the government to harness market methods to improve decision making. The spectrum auctions, conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) since 1994, are an excellent example. These auctions, which arose from a collaboration of scientists with auction expertise, industry, and the FCC, have led to over $100 billion in new non-distortionary U.S. government revenue, and more importantly, have put the scarce spectrum resource into the hands of those best able to use it. This innovation has been a win-win for taxpayers, the companies participating in the auctions, and the hundreds of millions now enjoying advanced wireless communications services. The auction program has been replicated worldwide and remains a key example of effective government, both in the U.S. and abroad (Milgrom 2004). The spectrum auction program stimulated key scientific innovations in our understanding of how to auction many related items. These innovations have been applied not just to spectrum auctions but to e-commerce, both public and private. The advances to date, while important, are only the tip of the iceberg. Tremendous opportunities lie ahead and will be realized in coming decades with further scientific advancement in auction design.

Automated transport service management in the future Internet: concepts and operations

AbstractThis paper describes a possible approach to provide advanced communication services for the Future Internet in an automated way. This is achieved by introducing a newCognitive Transport Servicelayer on top of the traditional transport layer, which is used by the network to automatically negotiate the required transport service with the applications. Experimental validation of the proposed solution is discussed with the help of two case studies: bandwidth reservation on a secure channel and dynamic bandwidth negotiation for variable-quality video streaming.

STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING INTER-DOMAIN PRESENCE TRAFFIC: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY

Presence information was the key enabler to the great success of instant messaging applications. First, this information was limited to simple binary states such as online, offline or busy. However, this is, currently, evolving towards a much more generic, flexible concept to include all context that allows users or applications to adapt and control communications in a more efficient and personalized manner. Presence paves the way for the deployment of advanced communication services and is therefore a key component in the Next-Generation Networks (NGNs). These networks aim to unify fixed and mobile networks in order to provide users with global connectivity to always-on multimedia services. The main barrier to the implantation of next-generation presence-based services is the great amount of traffic involved in the distribution of presence information across domains. We study two strategies described in IETF drafts and one novel solution for reducing inter-domain presence traffic. We present the analytical formulas that calculate the traffic for the three strategies. Building on the analytical results, we analyze the factors that have impact on these strategies and study the suitability of each one under different conditions.

Agent-Based Middleware for Advanced Communication Services in a Ubiquitous Computing Environment

In a ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environment, system components of different types, including hardware elements, software components, and network connections, must cooperate mutually to provide services that fulfill user requirements. Consequently, advanced and flexible characteristics of software that are specialized for a ubicomp environment are needed. This article presents a proposal of an agent-based middleware for a ubicomp environment comprising computers and home electric appliances. The middleware, called AMUSE, can take quality of service (QoS) in a ubicomp environment into consideration by coping not only with user context but also with the resource context, using agent-based computing technology. Herein, we describe the concept, design, and initial implementation of AMUSE. Simulation results of an experimental ubiquitous service using AMUSE demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme. Additionally, to confirm our scheme’s feasibility and effectiveness, we describe the initial implementation of a multimedia communication application based on AMUSE.

Regulation, public policy, and investment in communications infrastructure

A growing number of countries are reexamining telecommunications policies in search of approaches that better support investment and innovation in advanced communication networks and services. In addition to regulatory instruments, a broad range of fiscal and industrial policy measures are being revitalized. These instruments affect regulated and unregulated firms in the ICT ecosystem in multifaceted ways and sometimes have counterintuitive effects on aggregate performance. The design of policies is further complicated by trade-offs between short-term and long-term policy objectives. This article examines individual and joint effects of regulatory and other policy instruments on the investment incentives in advanced communications. It conceptualizes governance as a problem of “tuning” a highly dynamic, adaptive system. Alternative consistent combinations of regulation and public policy are feasible but they have different implications for sector outcomes, most importantly the balance between static and dynamic performance.