QoS-Oriented Medium Access Control for All-IP/ATM Mobile Commerce Applications

The main contribution of this chapter is a novel paradigm for future mcommerce multimedia communications and applications that can be integrated with other multifunctional multimedia e-applications (e.g., e-learning, e-health, e-culture, e-work, etc.) in a cost-effective manner. We also propose an implementation of this paradigm based on our novel QoSoriented medium access control (MAC) technology and the fully distributed all-IP/ATM architecture. The proposed QoS-oriented MAC technology, along with the all-IP/ATM architecture, will provide cost-effective broadband communication multiservice for mobile and geographically distributed users anytime and anywhere. This chapter appears in the book, Mobile Commerce Applications, edited by Nan Si Shi. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING 304 Markhasin, Olariu, and Todorova Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. INTRODUCTION The term e-commerce captures the essence of activities related to buying and selling products and services using electronic media, including the Internet, and utilizing state-of-the-art technologies, including e-mail, the World Wide Web, electronic data interchange, electronic fund transfers, and smart cards, among many others. As several authors including Gurton (1999), Taylor and Walter (1999), and Raisch (2001) note, the use of e-commerce is becoming an important new tool for the manufacturing and retail industries and an imperative new development for all industries striving to maintain a competitive edge. Companies can use the mechanisms and technologies offered by e-commerce to put their stores online, thus offering novel opportunities to a large customer population. An important feature of e-commerce is that the online store is accessible 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, to a potentially huge customer base scattered around the world. As pointed out by many authors, among whom we cite Skok, Sims, and Doerninger (1999), Hanbury (1999), Evans and Wurster (1999), Dou and Chou (2002), and Raisch (2001), customer mobility has emerged as an important catalyst, triggering a new paradigm shift that is redefining the way we conduct business. Mobile commerce is a recent offspring of e-commerce that has seen tremendous growth in the past few years. Most of this growth can be attributed to the proliferation and maturation of wireless technologies and mobile communications. By their very nature, mobile commerce applications will rely on untethered communications. Recent technological developments have made sophisticated personal communication services (PCS) and anytime-anywhere communications a reality. This was one of the principal enabling factors for the advent and phenomenal growth of mobile commerce. It is expected that, in a few short years, user mobility will be the norm rather than the exception. In turn, mobility is creating new needs and wants for individuals and businesses in their daily actions. To be cost effective and economically viable, these applications will have to reach a wide consumer base. In turn, this suggests that a wide coverage—a truly global one—is a must in mobile commerce. Given that terrestrial networks only cover densely populated areas, Kaplan and Sawhney (2000) show that global coverage is only achieved by a combination of terrestrial and satellite networks. It is common knowledge that multimedia data plays an essential role in today’s mobile commerce applications. Indeed, mobile commerce relies directly on multimedia data, ranging from simple ads, to sophisticated online sales catalogues, to virtual showrooms, and the like. In turn, multimedia applications are known to require stringent quality of service (QoS) guarantees including call dropping probability, bandwidth, jitter, and end-to-end delay, among others. 27 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the publisher's webpage: www.igi-global.com/chapter/qos-oriented-medium-accesscontrol/26464