Springer Traffic and QoS Management in Wireless Multimedia Networks: COST 290 Final Report: 31 (Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, 31)

The current book provides a final report of activity performed by the COST 290 Action, ‘‘Traffic and QoS Management in Wireless Multimedia Networks,’’ which ran from March 10, 2004, until June 3, 2008. After an introduction to the COST framework and the Action’s survey time-frame and activities, the main part of the book addresses a number of technical issues, which are structured into several chapters. All those issues have been carefully investigated by the COST 290 community during the course of the project – the information presented in this book can be regarded as ultimate for each particular topic; every open research issue addressed in the book is described carefully, corresponding existing studies are analyzed and results achieved by the COST 290 community are presented and compared, and further research directions are defined and analyzed. Because the book covers a wide area of research addressing issues of modern wired and wireless networking at different layers, starting from the physical layer up to the application layer, it can be recommended to be used by researchers and students to obtain a comprehensive analysis on particular research topics including related areas, to obtain broad and ultimate referencing, and to be advised on current open issues. COST 290 is one of the Actions of the European COST Program. Founded in 1971, COST is an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research, allowing the coordination of nationally funded research on a European level. From the Back Cover This book contains the description of the research work done in ESF COST 290 Action "Traffic and QoS Management in Wireless Multimedia Networks" which ran from March 2004 to June 2008. Twenty four European countries contributed to the research within the ESF COST 290 Action with more than 70 institutions involved. The authors address new techniques and approaches to deal with the growth of data traffic in wireless mobile networks and the important need to guarantee differentiated quality of service levels to different traffic classes. The material presents the latest research achievements and results in research areas such as traffic engineering, mobility and interoperability, network architectures and planning as well as services, regulations, and economic aspects. This book covers broad areas of research on wireless communications and networking from the physical layer through the application layer. It is recommended for researchers and PhD students to receive a comprehensive and up-to-date overview on engineering approaches, optimization methods and open issues in wireless multimedia networks.