Privacy-Preserving Optimal Meeting Location Determination on Mobile Devices

Equipped with state-of-the-art smartphones and mobile devices, today's highly interconnected urban population is increasingly dependent on these gadgets to organize and plan their daily lives. These applications often rely on current (or preferred) locations of individual users or a group of users to provide the desired service, which jeopardizes their privacy; users do not necessarily want to reveal their current (or preferred) locations to the service provider or to other, possibly untrusted, users. In this paper, we propose privacy-preserving algorithms for determining an optimal meeting location for a group of users. We perform a thorough privacy evaluation by formally quantifying privacy-loss of the proposed approaches. In order to study the performance of our algorithms in a real deployment, we implement and test their execution efficiency on Nokia smartphones. By means of a targeted user-study, we attempt to get an insight into the privacy-awareness of users in location-based services and the usability of the proposed solutions.

Cloud-based Orchestration of Multimedia Services and Applications

The Mobile Cloud Networking project develops among others, several virtualized services and applications, in particular: (1) IP Multimedia Subsystem as a Service that gives the possibility to deploy a virtualized and on-demand instance of the IP Multimedia Subsystem platform, (2) Digital Signage Service as a Service that is based on a re-designed Digital Signage Service architecture, adopting the cloud computing principles, and (3) Information Centric Networking/Content Delivery Network as a Service that is used for distributing, caching and migrating content from other services. Possible designs for these virtualized services and applications have been identified and are being implemented. In particular, the architectures of the mentioned services were specified, adopting cloud computing principles, such as infrastructure sharing, elasticity, on-demand and pay-as-you-go. The benefits of Reactive Programming paradigm are presented in the context of Interactive Cloudified Digital Signage services in a Mobile Cloud Platform, as well as the benefit of interworking between different Mobile Cloud Networking Services as Digital Signage Service and Content Delivery Network Service for better performance of Video on Demand content deliver. Finally, the management of Service Level Agreements and the support of rating, charging and billing has also been considered and defined.

Load Balancing in LTE Mobile Networks with Information-Centric Networking

Mobile networks usage rapidly increased over the years, with great consequences in terms of performance requirements. In this paper, we propose mechanisms to use Information-Centric Networking to perform load balancing in mobile networks, providing content delivery over multiple radio technologies at the same time and thus efficiently using resources and improving the overall performance of content transfer. Meaningful results were obtained by comparing content transfer over single radio links with typical strategies to content transfer over multiple radio links with Information-Centric Networking load balancing. Results demonstrate that Information-Centric Networking load balancing increases the performance and efficiency of 3GPP Long Term Evolution mobile networks while greatly improving the network perceived quality for end users.

Network Store: Exploring Slicing in Future 5G Networks

In this paper, we present a revolutionary vision of 5G networks, in which SDN programs wireless network functions, and where Mobile Network Operators (MNO), Enterprises, and Over-The-Top (OTT) third parties are provided with NFV-ready Network Store. The proposed Network Store serves as a digital distribution platform of programmable Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) that enable 5G application use-cases. Currently existing application stores, such as Apple's App Store for iOS applications, Google's Play Store for Android, or Ubuntu's Software Center, deliver applications to user specific software platforms. Our vision is to provide a digital marketplace, gathering 5G enabling Network Applications and Network Functions, written to run on top of commodity cloud infrastructures, connected to remote radio heads (RRH). The 5G Network Store will be the same to the cloud as the application store is currently to a software platform.

Coordinating Platform-Based Multi-Sourcing: Introducing the Theory of Convention

Spurred by the consumer market, companies increasingly deploy smartphones or tablet computers in their operations. However, unlike private users, companies typically struggle to cover their needs with existing applications, and therefore expand mobile software platforms through customized applications from multiple software vendors. Companies thereby combine the concepts of multi-sourcing and software platform ecosystems in a novel platform-based multi-sourcing setting. This implies, however, the clash of two different approaches towards the coordination of the underlying one-to-many inter-organizational relationships. So far, however, little is known about impacts of merging coordination approaches. Relying on convention theory, we addresses this gap by analyzing a platform-based multi-sourcing project between a client and six software vendors, that develop twenty-three custom-made applications on a common platform (Android). In doing so, we aim to understand how unequal coordination approaches merge, and whether and for what reason particular coordination mechanisms, design decisions, or practices disappear, while new ones emerge.

Energy Efficient Multimedia Communications in IEEE 802.11 Networks

During the last decade wireless mobile communications have progressively become part of the people’s daily lives, leading users to expect to be “alwaysbest-connected” to the Internet, regardless of their location or time of day. This is indeed motivated by the fact that wireless access networks are increasingly ubiquitous, through different types of service providers, together with an outburst of thoroughly portable devices, namely laptops, tablets, mobile phones, among others. The “anytime and anywhere” connectivity criterion raises new challenges regarding the devices’ battery lifetime management, as energy becomes the most noteworthy restriction of the end-users’ satisfaction. This wireless access context has also stimulated the development of novel multimedia applications with high network demands, although lacking in energy-aware design. Therefore, the relationship between energy consumption and the quality of the multimedia applications perceived by end-users should be carefully investigated. This dissertation addresses energy-efficient multimedia communications in the IEEE 802.11 standard, which is the most widely used wireless access technology. It advances the literature by proposing a unique empirical assessment methodology and new power-saving algorithms, always bearing in mind the end-users’ feedback and evaluating quality perception. The new EViTEQ framework proposed in this thesis, for measuring video transmission quality and energy consumption simultaneously, in an integrated way, reveals the importance of having an empirical and high-accuracy methodology to assess the trade-off between quality and energy consumption, raised by the new end-users’ requirements. Extensive evaluations conducted with the EViTEQ framework revealed its flexibility and capability to accurately report both video transmission quality and energy consumption, as well as to be employed in rigorous investigations of network interface energy consumption patterns, regardless of the wireless access technology. Following the need to enhance the trade-off between energy consumption and application quality, this thesis proposes the Optimized Power save Algorithm for continuous Media Applications (OPAMA). By using the end-users’ feedback to establish a proper trade-off between energy consumption and application performance, OPAMA aims at enhancing the energy efficiency of end-users’ devices accessing the network through IEEE 802.11. OPAMA performance has been thoroughly analyzed within different scenarios and application types, including a simulation study and a real deployment in an Android testbed. When compared with the most popular standard power-saving mechanisms defined in the IEEE 802.11 standard, the obtained results revealed OPAMA’s capability to enhance energy efficiency, while keeping end-users’ Quality of Experience within the defined bounds. Furthermore, OPAMA was optimized to enable superior energy savings in multiple station environments, resulting in a new proposal called Enhanced Power Saving Mechanism for Multiple station Environments (OPAMA-EPS4ME). The results of this thesis highlight the relevance of having a highly accurate methodology to assess energy consumption and application quality when aiming to optimize the trade-off between energy and quality. Additionally, the obtained results based both on simulation and testbed evaluations, show clear benefits from employing userdriven power-saving techniques, such as OPAMA, instead of IEEE 802.11 standard power-saving approaches.

Enhanced Caching Strategies At the Edge of LTE Mobile Networks

With a boom in the usage of mobile devices for traffic-heavy applications, mobile networks struggle to deliver good performance while saving resources to support more users and save on costs. In this paper, we propose enhanced strategies for the preemptive migration of content stored in Information-Centric Networking caches at the edge of LTE mobile networks. With such strategies, the concept of content following the users interested in it becomes a reality and content within caches is more optimized towards the requests of nearby users. Results show that the strategies are feasible, efficient and, when compared to default caching strategies, ensure that content is delivered faster to end users while using bandwidth and storage resources more efficiently at the core of the network.

The Impact of Mobile Technology on the Viewing Experience of the Avid Sports Fan

Viewing sports on television is a very different experience than viewing a game in-person. Sports commentators on television are seemingly able to pull up random statistics as soon as something unexpected happens during a game. Because these statistics are discussed on television, any sports fan who wants to watch a game in-person misses out on the opportunity to hear them during the game. This study identifies what statistics, both common and uncommon, are considered important or interesting by avid sports fans who watch a particular sport at least two times per week. In addition, it considers the rise of mobile technology and the effects that this change of trend will have on business opportunities and experiences. The purpose of the project is to find a way to mimic the television viewing experience for fans who are watching in-person through the use of mobile technology, and in particular through the use of iPhone applications.

Abstraction-carrying code: a model for mobile code safety

Proof-Carrying Code (PCC) is a general approach to mobile code safety in which programs are augmented with a certificate (or proof). The intended benefit is that the program consumer can locally validate the certificate w.r.t. the "untrustcd" program by means of a certificate checker a process which should be much simpler, efficient, and automatic than generating the original proof. The practical uptake of PCC greatly depends on the existence of a variety of enabling technologies which allow both proving programs correct and replacing a costly verification process by an efficient checking proceduri on th( consumer side. In this work we propose Abstraction- Carrying Code (ACC), a novel approach which uses abstract interpretation as enabling technology. We argue that the large body of applications of abstract interpretation to program verification is amenable to the overall PCC scheme. In particular, we rely on an expressive class of safely policies which can be defined over different abstract domains. We use an abstraction (or abstract model) of the program computed by standard static analyzers as a certificate. The validity of the abstraction on ihe consumer side is checked in a single pass by a very efficient and specialized abstract-interpreter. We believe that ACC brings the expressiveness, flexibility and automation which is inherent in abstract interpretation techniques to the area of mobile code safety.

Exploring the logic of mobile search

After more than a decade of development work and hopes, the usage of mobile Internet has finally taken off. Now, we are witnessing the first signs of evidence of what might become the explosion of mobile content and applications that will be shaping the (mobile) Internet of the future. Similar to the wired Internet, search will become very relevant for the usage of mobile Internet. Current research on mobile search has applied a limited set of methodologies and has also generated a narrow outcome of meaningful results. This article covers new ground, exploring the use and visions of mobile search with a users' interview-based qualitative study. Its main conclusion builds upon the hypothesis that mobile search is sensitive to a mobile logic different than today's one. First, (advanced) users ask for accessing with their mobile devices the entire Internet, rather than subsections of it. Second, success is based on new added-value applications that exploit unique mobile functionalities. The authors interpret that such mobile logic involves fundamentally the use of personalised and context-based services.

Modelado de sistemas de inteligencia ambiental para el entrenamiento de las cualidades físicas

En un ejercicio no extenuante la frecuencia cardíaca (FC) guarda una relación lineal con el consumo máximo de oxígeno (V O2max) y se suele usar como uno de los parámetros de referencia para cuantificar la capacidad del sistema cardiovascular. Normalmente la frecuencia cardíaca puede remplazar el porcentaje de V O2max en las prescripciones básicas de ejercicio para la mejora de la resistencia aeróbica. Para obtener los mejores resultados en la mejora de la resistencia aeróbica, el entrenamiento de los individuos se debe hacer a una frecuencia cardíaca suficientemente alta, para que el trabajo sea de predominio dinámico con la fosforilación oxidativa como fuente energética primaria, pero no tan elevada que pueda suponer un riesgo de infarto de miocardio para el sujeto que se está entrenando. Los programas de entrenamiento de base mínima y de base óptima, con ejercicios de estiramientos para prevenir lesiones, son algunos de los programas más adecuados para el entrenamiento de la resistencia aeróbica porque maximizan los beneficios y minimizan los riesgos para el sistema cardiovascular durante las sesiones de entrenamiento. En esta tesis, se ha definido un modelo funcional para sistemas de inteligencia ambiental capaz de monitorizar, evaluar y entrenar las cualidades físicas que ha sido validado cuando la cualidad física es la resistencia aeróbica. El modelo se ha implementado en una aplicación Android utilizando la camiseta inteligente “GOW running” de la empresa Weartech. El sistema se ha comparado en el Laboratorio de Fisiología del Esfuerzo (LFE) de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) durante la realización de pruebas de esfuerzo. Además se ha evaluado un sistema de guiado con voz para los entrenamientos de base mínima y de base óptima. También el desarrollo del software ha sido validado. Con el uso de cuestionarios sobre las experiencias de los usuarios utilizando la aplicación se ha evaluado el atractivo de la misma. Por otro lado se ha definido una nueva metodología y nuevos tipos de cuestionarios diseñados para evaluar la utilidad que los usuarios asignan al uso de un sistema de guiado por voz. Los resultados obtenidos confirman la validez del modelo. Se ha obtenido una alta concordancia entre las medidas de FC hecha por la aplicación Android y el LFE. También ha resultado que los métodos de estimación del VO2max de los dos sistemas pueden ser intercambiables. Todos los usuarios que utilizaron el sistema de guiado por voz para entrenamientos de 10 base mínima y de base óptimas de la resistencia aeróbica consiguieron llevar a cabo las sesiones de entrenamientos con un 95% de éxito considerando unos márgenes de error de un 10% de la frecuencia cardíaca máxima teórica. La aplicación fue atractiva para los usuarios y hubo también una aceptación del sistema de guiado por voz. Se ha obtenido una evaluación psicológica positiva de la satisfacción de los usuarios que interactuaron con el sistema. En conclusión, se ha demostrado que es posible desarrollar sistemas de Inteligencia Ambiental en dispositivos móviles para la mejora de la salud. El modelo definido en la tesis es el primero modelo funcional teórico de referencia para el desarrollo de este tipo de aplicaciones. Posteriores estudios se realizarán con el objetivo de extender dicho modelo para las demás cualidades físicas que suponen modelos fisiológicos más complejos como por ejemplo la flexibilidad. Abstract In a non-strenuous exercise, the heart rate (HR) shows a linear relationship with the maximum volume of oxygen consumption (V O2max) and serves as an indicator of performance of the cardiovascular system. The heart rate replaces the %V O2max in exercise program prescription to improve aerobic endurance. In order to achieve an optimal effect during endurance training, the athlete needs to work out at a heart rate high enough to trigger the aerobic metabolism, while avoiding the high heart rates that bring along significant risks of myocardial infarction. The minimal and optimal base training programs, followed by stretching exercises to prevent injuries, are adequate programs to maximize benefits and minimize health risks for the cardiovascular system during single session training. In this thesis, we have defined an ambient intelligence system functional model that monitors, evaluates and trains physical qualities, and it has been validated for aerobic endurance. It is based on the Android System and the “GOW Running” smart shirt. The system has been evaluated during functional assessment stress testing of aerobic endurance in the Stress Physiology Laboratory (SPL) of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). Furthermore, a voice system, designed to guide the user through minimal and optimal base training programs, has been evaluated. Also the software development has been evaluated. By means of user experience questionnaires, we have rated the attractiveness of the android application. Moreover, we have defined a methodology and a new kind of questionnaires in order to assess the user experience with the audio exercise guide system. The results obtained confirm the model. We have a high similarity between HR measurements made of our system and the one used by SPL. We have also a high correlation between the VO2max estimations of our system and the SPL system. All users, that tried the voice guidance system for minimal and optimal base training programs, were able to perform the 95% of the training session with an error lower than the 10% of theoretical maximum heart rate. The application appeared attractive to the users, and it has also been proven that the voice guidance system was useful. As result we obtained a positive evaluation of the users' satisfaction while they interacted with the system. In conclusion, it has been demonstrated that is possible to develop mobile Ambient Intelligence applications for the improvement of healthy lifestyle. AmIRTEM model is the first theoretical reference functional model for the design of this kind of applications. Further studies will be realized in order to extend the AmIRTEM model to other physical qualities whose physiological models are more complex than the aerobic endurance.

Promising Prospects in Mobile Search: Business As Usual or Techno-Economic Disruptions?

It has taken more than a decade of intense technical and market developments for mobile Internet to take off as a mass phenomenon. And it has arrived with great intensity: an avalanche of mobile content and applications is now overrunning us. Similar to its wired counterpart, wireless Web users will continuously demand access to data and content in an efficient and user-friendly manner.

A Mobile Feedback System for Integrated E-health Platforms to improve Self-Care and Compliance of Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Exploiting the full potential of telemedical systems means using platform based solutions: data are recovered from biomedical sensors, hospital information systems, care-givers, as well as patients themselves, and are processed and redistributed in an either centralized or, more probably, decentralized way. The integration of all these different devices, and interfaces, as well as the automated analysis and representation of all the pieces of information are current key challenges in telemedicine. Mobile phone technology has just begun to offer great opportunities of using this diverse information for guiding, warning, and educating patients, thus increasing their autonomy and adherence to their prescriptions. However, most of these existing mobile solutions are not based on platform systems and therefore represent limited, isolated applications. This article depicts how telemedical systems, based on integrated health data platforms, can maximize prescription adherence in chronic patients through mobile feedback. The application described here has been developed in an EU-funded R&D project called METABO, dedicated to patients with type 1 or type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Hand Image Segmentation by means of Gaussian Multiscale Aggregation for biometric applications

Applying biometrics to daily scenarios involves demanding requirements in terms of software and hardware. On the contrary, current biometric techniques are also being adapted to present-day devices, like mobile phones, laptops and the like, which are far from meeting the previous stated requirements. In fact, achieving a combination of both necessities is one of the most difficult problems at present in biometrics. Therefore, this paper presents a segmentation algorithm able to provide suitable solutions in terms of precision for hand biometric recognition, considering a wide range of backgrounds like carpets, glass, grass, mud, pavement, plastic, tiles or wood. Results highlight that segmentation accuracy is carried out with high rates of precision (F-measure 88%)), presenting competitive time results when compared to state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms time performance

Some techniques for automated, resource-aware distributed and mobile computing in a multi-paradigm programming system

Distributed parallel execution systems speed up applications by splitting tasks into processes whose execution is assigned to different receiving nodes in a high-bandwidth network. On the distributing side, a fundamental problem is grouping and scheduling such tasks such that each one involves sufñcient computational cost when compared to the task creation and communication costs and other such practical overheads. On the receiving side, an important issue is to have some assurance of the correctness and characteristics of the code received and also of the kind of load the particular task is going to pose, which can be specified by means of certificates. In this paper we present in a tutorial way a number of general solutions to these problems, and illustrate them through their implementation in the Ciao multi-paradigm language and program development environment. This system includes facilities for parallel and distributed execution, an assertion language for specifying complex programs properties (including safety and resource-related properties), and compile-time and run-time tools for performing automated parallelization and resource control, as well as certification of programs with resource consumption assurances and efñcient checking of such certificates.