Quality of Service Requirements in Wireless and Cellular Networks: Application-based Analysis

The massive uptake of wireless and cellular networks and the substantial increases of multimedia traffic that they carry, necessitate a detailed investigation of their underlying Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. In this work, we carry out an application-based analysis of such requirements. Using this approach, we can properly take into account the heterogeneous nature of the underlying networks and the diversity of their traffic. Many parts of the developing world are highly dependent on wireless and cellular technologies, while the provision of socioeconomic services in industrialized countries is generally based on conventional broadband and advanced cellular systems. We first evaluate QoS requirements for network-based applications over different access technologies. To reach tangible outcomes, we then focus on UMTS based 3G cellular networks and WiMAX, and analyze several network-based applications with different path loss models, varying number of active users, and diverse types of traffic. The analyses demonstrate how variant technologies, network congestions, user perceptions and QoE, and radio channel conditions affect key QoS parameters.