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User-perceived quality of service in wireless data networks

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Abstract

For so long, the term quality of service (QoS) has been a pursuit area for network engineers trying to dimension wireless networks to run in the most efficient way possible. Of late, there has been a trend reversal, looking at the user perceptions of the network performance to decide where dimensioning can have the greatest impact. This paper demonstrates the importance of defining the concept of user-perceived QoS and linking this to specific wireless data network parameters for some anticipated valuable applications. It has been shown that a quantitative rating can be obtained for a variety of important factors in the assessment of service quality, and mapped to specific values of multiple network parameters. We found QoS to be application-specific, where various applications require different levels of network performance to satisfy users. The role of physical location was also examined, investigating the influence of being indoors versus outdoors on the user perception of QoS.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Telstra for permission to publish this paper. The authors also acknowledge the valuable assistance of Jonathan Li in the phases of network build, verification and result graphing, and to Dr. John Fabre for his advice on the experimental design and assistance with testing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Telstra Research Laboratories, 770 Blackburn Rd, 3168, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Anthony J. Saliba, Michael A. Beresford, Milosh Ivanovich & Paul Fitzpatrick

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  1. Anthony J. Saliba
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  2. Michael A. Beresford
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  3. Milosh Ivanovich
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  4. Paul Fitzpatrick
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Correspondence to Anthony J. Saliba.

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Saliba, A.J., Beresford, M.A., Ivanovich, M. et al. User-perceived quality of service in wireless data networks. Pers Ubiquit Comput 9, 413–422 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-005-0034-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-005-0034-7

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