The measurement of meaning

The Transmission Control Protocol.

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review on applications of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) in communications and networking. Modern networks, e.g., Internet of Things (IoT) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks, become more decentralized and autonomous. In such networks, network entities need to make decisions locally to maximize the network performance under uncertainty of network environment. Reinforcement learning has been efficiently used to enable the network entities to obtain the optimal policy including, e.g., decisions or actions, given their states when the state and action spaces are small. However, in complex and large-scale networks, the state and action spaces are usually large, and the reinforcement learning may not be able to find the optimal policy in reasonable time. Therefore, DRL, a combination of reinforcement learning with deep learning, has been developed to overcome the shortcomings. In this survey, we first give a tutorial of DRL from fundamental concepts to advanced models. Then, we review DRL approaches proposed to address emerging issues in communications and networking. The issues include dynamic network access, data rate control, wireless caching, data offloading, network security, and connectivity preservation which are all important to next generation networks, such as 5G and beyond. Furthermore, we present applications of DRL for traffic routing, resource sharing, and data collection. Finally, we highlight important challenges, open issues, and future research directions of applying DRL.

Applications of Deep Reinforcement Learning in Communications and Networking: A Survey

Changing network conditions pose severe problems to video streaming in the Internet. HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) is a technology employed by numerous video services that relieves these issues by adapting the video to the current network conditions. It enables service providers to improve resource utilization and Quality of Experience (QoE) by incorporating information from different layers in order to deliver and adapt a video in its best possible quality. Thereby, it allows taking into account end user device capabilities, available video quality levels, current network conditions, and current server load. For end users, the major benefits of HAS compared to classical HTTP video streaming are reduced interruptions of the video playback and higher bandwidth utilization, which both generally result in a higher QoE. Adaptation is possible by changing the frame rate, resolution, or quantization of the video, which can be done with various adaptation strategies and related client- and server-side actions. The technical development of HAS, existing open standardized solutions, but also proprietary solutions are reviewed in this paper as fundamental to derive the QoE influence factors that emerge as a result of adaptation. The main contribution is a comprehensive survey of QoE related works from human computer interaction and networking domains, which are structured according to the QoE impact of video adaptation. To be more precise, subjective studies that cover QoE aspects of adaptation dimensions and strategies are revisited. As a result, QoE influence factors of HAS and corresponding QoE models are identified, but also open issues and conflicting results are discussed. Furthermore, technical influence factors, which are often ignored in the context of HAS, affect perceptual QoE influence factors and are consequently analyzed. This survey gives the reader an overview of the current state of the art and recent developments. At the same time, it targets networking researchers who develop new solutions for HTTP video streaming or assess video streaming from a user centric point of view. Therefore, this paper is a major step toward truly improving HAS.

A Survey on Quality of Experience of HTTP Adaptive Streaming

This White Paper is a contribution of the European Network on Quality of Experience in Multimedia Systems and Services, Qualinet (COST Action IC 1003, see www.qualinet.eu), to the scientific discussion about the term "Quality of Experience" (QoE) and its underlying concepts. It resulted from the need to agree on a working definition for this term which facilitates the communication of ideas within a multidisciplinary group, where a joint interest around multimedia communication systems exists, however approached from different perspectives. Thus, the concepts and ideas cited in this paper mainly refer to the Quality of Experience of multimedia communication systems, but may be helpful also for other areas where QoE is an issue. The Network of Excellence (NoE) Qualinet aims at extending the notion of network-centric Quality of Service (QoS) in multimedia systems, by relying on the concept of Quality of Experience (QoE). The main scientific objective is the development of methodologies for subjective and objective quality metrics taking into account current and new trends in multimedia communication systems as witnessed by the appearance of new types of content and interactions. A substantial scientific impact on fragmented efforts carried out in this field will be achieved by coordinating the research of European experts under the catalytic COST umbrella. The White Paper has been compiled on the basis of a first open call for ideas which was launched for the February 2012 Qualinet Meeting held in Prague, Czech Republic. The ideas were presented as short statements during that meeting, reflecting the ideas of the persons listed under the headline "Contributors" in the previous section. During the Prague meeting, the ideas have been further discussed and consolidated in the form of a general structure of the present document. An open call for authors was issued at that meeting, to which the persons listed as "Authors" in the previous section have announced their willingness to contribute in the preparation of individual sections. For each section, a coordinating author has been assigned which coordinated the writing of that section, and which is underlined in the author list preceding each section. The individual sections were then integrated and aligned by an editing group (listed as "Editors" in the previous section), and the entire document was iterated with the entire group of authors. Furthermore, the draft text was discussed with the participants of the Dagstuhl Seminar 12181 "Quality of Experience: From User Perception to Instrumental Metrics" which was held in Schlos Dagstuhl, Germany, May 1-4 2012, and a number of changes were proposed, resulting in the present document. As a result of the writing process and the large number of contributors, authors and editors, the document will not reflect the opinion of each individual person at all points. Still, we hope that it is found to be useful for everybody working in the field of Quality of Experience of multimedia communication systems, and most probably also beyond that field.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00977812/document

Qualinet White Paper on Definitions of Quality of Experience

Cloud computing is receiving growing attention by researchers from a variety of disciplines. However, so far only a few studies exist that investigate the Quality of Experience (QoE) of cloud services, including the category of personal file storage services like Dropbox or Livedrive, from an end user perspective. The contribution of this paper is a methodology and the results of four different user studies towards a situational QoE model for file storage services. In order to obtain insights in existing usage practices and to detect possible QoE influencing factors and relevant features, we conducted an online survey amongst users of personal cloud storage services in general (N=349) and one specifically targeted at users of one of the major popular cloud storage services, namely Dropbox (N=49). A third study (N=13) on mobile Dropbox further investigated QoE and specific use cases in a mobile context, via smartphones and tablets. Based on these results, typical usage situations as well as short-term and long-term QoE influence factors were derived which included user profile, context and situation, as well as system level influences. In a fourth lab study (N= 52) the impact of waiting times, i.e. short-term QoE influences on system level during the regular usage of Dropbox, is investigated for different situations and use cases are obtained from the first three studies. As an outcome of our studies, we formulate research questions driving the agenda towards measuring and modeling QoE for cloud-based file storage services.

Need for speed? On quality of experience for file storage services

This chapter discusses prospects of QoE management for future networks and applications. After motivating QoE management, it first provides an introduction to the concept by discussing its origins, key terms and giving an overview of the most relevant existing theoretical frameworks. Then, recent research on promising technical approaches to QoE-driven management that operate across different layers of the networking stack is discussed. Finally, the chapter provides conclusions and an outlook on the future of QoE management with a focus on those key enablers (including cooperation, business models and key technologies) that are essential for ultimately turning QoE-aware network and application management into reality.

/pdf/qoe-management-for-future-networks-3p66oja0cf.pdf

QoE Management for Future Networks

The experience of web services depends on multiple factors such as the usability of the service itself as well as influences on Quality of Experience (QoE) like waiting times Existing studies so far have investigated both experimental factors (usability and QoE) in isolation, thus it is not possible to investigate dependencies between the two In this study, we manipulated the usability and QoE of a news web page in the same experiment Participants had to solve 9 tasks (three usability level and three QoE level, all combinations) Data (N=44) from two different sessions with different QoE manipulations were recorded: Simulation of initial page display delay via 1) a complete overlay and 2) a semi-transparent overlay Our preliminary results show that the usability manipulation resulted in significant effects along multiple dimensions (QoE, aesthetic, and usability) Furthermore, also the implementation of the QoE manipulation had an effect on, eg, performance parameters Surprisingly, our results reveal that participants seem to be unable to rate the constructs usability and QoE independently from each other Even after adding pronounced explanations of the constructs to the introductory phase of the second session of the experiment, the results still show a strong correlation between the two constructs We thus recommend for similar future experiments to check beforehand whether Quality of Experience and Usability can be reliably judged and distinguished by naive participants

User Experience of Web Browsing - The Relationship of Usability and Quality of Experience

This article gives a brief overview of our Open Source software framework for generating MPEG-2 Transport Streams carrying digital TV programs and related metadata. Due to the framework's modular architecture and its support for a large variety of broadcast standards, it enables the realization of a broad spectrum of prototype implementations and test setups in the context of Multimedia research and development. We describe three different example configurations for the generation of DVB-T and DVB-H streams that also support MHP applications for local interactivity.

An open source software framework for DVB-* transmission

This paper explores how we designed, with input from some elderly persons, a multi-agent user-controlled network for the home. The system was designed to support the elderly in living longer at home with minimal support. We describe how our work attempts to tackle issues such as privacy, control of personal space, and enjoyment within the home. As the number of elderly individuals' increases, a certain amount of information gathering or support may be required to assist the elderly in their homes. However, we strongly believe that we should preserve people's privacy in their homes and ensure that any artifact we propose is seen as enjoyable, aesthetically pleasing and, most importantly, not stigmatizing. We describe in this paper how a lightweight setup, using a multimodal mobile robot, a PDA, and an interactive television, can assist the elderly in the home in an enjoyable and unobtrusive way.

http://humantechnology.jyu.fi/articles/volume2/2006/baillie-schatz.pdf

Raimund Schatz

Papers

Need for speed? On quality of experience for file storage services

QoE Management for Future Networks

User Experience of Web Browsing - The Relationship of Usability and Quality of Experience

An open source software framework for DVB-* transmission

A lightweight, user-controlled system for the home