This study proposes and tests an integrative model to examine the relations among service quality, value, image, satisfaction, and loyalty in China. Analysis of survey data from 118 customers of a ...Chinese mobile communications company reveals that service quality directly influences both perceived value and image perceptions, that value and image influence satisfaction, that corporate image influences value, and that both customer satisfaction and value are significant determinants of loyalty. Thus, value has both a direct and indirect (through satisfaction) impact on customer loyalty. Other variables mediate the impact of both service quality and corporate image on customer loyalty.
In a sponsored content scheme, a wireless network operator negotiates with a sponsored content service provider where the latter can pay the former to lower the cost of the mobile subscribers/users ...to access certain content. As such, the scheme motivates the entities in the sponsored content ecosystem to be more actively involved. Meanwhile, with the forthcoming 5G cellular networks, edge caching becomes a promising technology for traffic offloading to reduce cost and improve service quality of the content service. The key idea is that an edge caching content service provider caches content on edge networks. The cached content is then delivered to mobile users locally, reducing latency substantially. In this paper, we propose the joint sponsored and edge caching content service market model. We investigate an interplay between the sponsored content service provider and the edge caching content service provider under the non-cooperative game framework. Furthermore, the interactions among the wireless network operator, content service providers, and mobile users are modeled as a hierarchical three-stage Stackelberg game. In the game model, we analyze the sub-game perfect equilibrium in each stage through backward induction analytically. Additionally, the existence of the proposed Stackelberg equilibrium is validated by capitalizing on the bilevel optimization programming. Based on the analysis of the game properties, we propose a sub-gradient-based iterative algorithm, which guarantees to converge to the Stackelberg equilibrium.
With increasing interest in the concept of 5G wireless networks and the popularization of mobile devices, users gradually watch videos through mobile devices in streaming mode rather than off-line ...mode. However, the latency and lags of mobile networks will reduce the quality of service. In HTTP live streaming services, when there are multiple sources for the same content stored in the streaming servers, the suited quality content is able to be selected for playing according to the networking bandwidth conditions between servers and user equipment, and the users can obtain appropriate streaming quality automatically. However, the selection policy is difficult to be approved between 5G wireless communication networks and SDNs. In this study a buffer-aware HTTP live streaming approach is proposed, which evaluates the weights of media segments to decide the transmitting priorities based on the current playing time and adjust the appropriate transmission path through the decision making network controller according to the utilization and stability of the routers and switches in SDN. Finally, the experimental results proved that the approach is able to correct the overall streaming source sequence with the buffer status to effectively upgrade overall streaming service quality, as well as maintain a certain level of streaming quality for SDN-enable 5G wireless networks.
This article examines the mediation effect of brand identification and the moderating effect of service quality (SQ) on the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) association on service ...brand performance. A survey of customers of mobile telecommunications services was conducted. The study finds, first, that both CSR and SQ have direct effects on brand identification and customer satisfaction and indirect effects on customer satisfaction (via brand identification) and on service brand loyalty (via customer satisfaction and via "brand identification/customer satisfaction"). Second, SQ enhances the effect of CSR on brand identification. This study contributes to the literature by incorporating three perspectives of service brand performance — CSR association, SQ, and brand identification - into one general framework that stresses (a) the mediating role of brand identification in predicting customer satisfaction and service brand loyalty; and (b) the interactive effect of CSR and SQ in predicting brand identification.
Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the barriers for adopting mobile banking services. From a methodological perspective, this paper seeks to build on two widely used models for technology ...adoption, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory and to test a model that is better able to predict consumers' intention to use mobile banking.Design methodology approach - A research model extends the TAM model by additionally examining the effects of compatibility, trust, credibility, perceived risk and cost on behavioural intention. The empirical approach was based on an online survey of 263 young people in Germany, undertaken during August September 2009. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.Findings - The results of the study indicated that compatibility, perceived usefulness, and risk are significant indicators for the adoption of m-banking services. Compatibility not only had a strong direct effect but was also identified as an important antecedent for perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and credibility. Trust and credibility are crucial in reducing the overall perceived risk of m-banking.Originality value - The results of this study have implications for researchers and practitioners. The proposed model explains 65 per cent of the variance in intention to adopt mobile phone banking, which is more than the 40 per cent of variance typically found in other studies using the TAM. This study provides a basis for further refinement of models to predict technology adoption, in particular the inclusion of compatibility as a predictor of behavioural intention. In terms of behavioural and demographic data, the study focuses on segments of individuals who are most likely to adopt m-banking.
The spectrum crunch currently experienced by mobile cellular carriers makes the underutilized millimeter-wave frequency spectrum a sensible choice for next-generation cellular communications, ...particularly when considering the recent advances in low cost sub-terahertz/millimeter-wave complementary metal-oxide semiconductor circuitry. To date, however, little is known on how to design or deploy practical millimeter-wave cellular systems. In this paper, measurements for outdoor cellular channels at 38 GHz were made in an urban environment with a broadband (800-MHz RF passband bandwidth) sliding correlator channel sounder. Extensive angle of arrival, path loss, and multipath time delay spread measurements were conducted for steerable beam antennas of differing gains and beamwidths for a wide variety of transmitter and receiver locations. Coverage outages and the likelihood of outage with steerable antennas were also measured to determine how random receiver locations with differing antenna gains and link budgets could perform in future cellular systems. This paper provides measurements and models that may be used to design future fifth-generation millimeter-wave cellular networks and gives insight into antenna beam steering algorithms for these systems.
This article addresses the issues of accessibility of the urban environment for people from groups with limited mobility. In addition, a mobile application called “City without limits” is introduced, ...which provides conditions for the comfortable movement of citizens with disabilities in urban space. The concept of this mobile application, its functionality, its technical characteristics are described. Pilot survey clarifies the target audience of the application. The strategy of further development and support of the project "City without limits" is outlined.
This paper presents a new kind of highly flexible frequency-agile bandpass filters (FA-BPFs) based on the novel synchronously tuned dual-mode resonator (STDR). The bandwidth (BW), BW variation ...tendency, passband selectivity (stopband rejection level), and frequency tuning range of the filter can be predefined individually. Benefiting from the unique characteristics of the STDR, the FA-BPF with very simple and highly flexible design/control procedures is achieved. Due to the proposed geometry, two self-adaptive transmission zeros are introduced and move with the passband. The predefined mechanism is investigated in detail, and the simple design and predefined procedures are summarized. Then, three 0.75-1.7 GHz single-band examples with elliptic response are developed to achieve three predefined absolute BWs (ABW). The design techniques and filter superiority are confirmed by the experiments. Moreover, aiming at China 2G/3G/4G cellular wireless/mobile communication system (up to band 40:0.825-2.65 GHz), a novel intrinsically switchable single-/dual-band FA-BPF is presented based on the proposed STDR. An example with a constant ABW 1 dB and a fractional bandwidth 1 dB (FBW 1 dB is designed to validate the theory and analysis. The FA-BPF is able to operate as a highly selective dual-band FA-BPF with 0.76-1.78 GHz/1.61-2.63 GHz tuning ranges, and also can be switched to single-band operation with the continuous tuning range of 0.76-2.63 GHz.
Emerging 5G systems will feature a closer collaboration between mobile network operators and cloud service providers to meet the communication and computational requirements of modern mobile ...applications and services in a mobile cloud computing (MCC) environment. In this article, we show how the marriage between heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets) and multiple clouds (a collection of which is referred to here as Intercloud) stands out as an effective response for the mobile data deluge. First, we review the building blocks of a HetNet and an Intercloud as well as the resource management entities in both domains. Second, we outline how they might be orchestrated to better support the task offloading process. Third, we identify the key design criteria and challenges related to interoperation between an Intercloud and a HetNet. We then formulate a revenue sharing approach for a coalition between a mobile network operator and cloud service providers. The approach achieves the maximum revenue for the coalition by optimally associating the users to the clouds through the base stations. Next, the concept of Shapley value is applied to individualize the contribution of each player based on the maximum revenue for the optimal user association. Numerical results illustrate the benefits of the coalition for all players.
We consider a wireless device-to-device (D2D) network where communication is restricted to be single-hop. Users make arbitrary requests from a finite library of files and have pre-cached information ...on their devices, subject to a per-node storage capacity constraint. A similar problem has already been considered in an infrastructure setting, where all users receive a common multicast (coded) message from a single omniscient server (e.g., a base station having all the files in the library) through a shared bottleneck link. In this paper, we consider a D2D infrastructureless version of the problem. We propose a caching strategy based on deterministic assignment of subpackets of the library files, and a coded delivery strategy where the users send linearly coded messages to each other in order to collectively satisfy their demands. We also consider a random caching strategy, which is more suitable to a fully decentralized implementation. Under certain conditions, both approaches can achieve the information theoretic outer bound within a constant multiplicative factor. In our previous work, we showed that a caching D2D wireless network with one-hop communication, random caching, and uncoded delivery (direct file transmissions) achieves the same throughput scaling law of the infrastructure-based coded multicasting scheme, in the regime of large number of users and files in the library. This shows that the spatial reuse gain of the D2D network is order-equivalent to the coded multicasting gain of single base station transmission. It is, therefore, natural to ask whether these two gains are cumulative, i.e., if a D2D network with both local communication (spatial reuse) and coded multicasting can provide an improved scaling law. Somewhat counterintuitively, we show that these gains do not cumulate (in terms of throughput scaling law). This fact can be explained by noticing that the coded delivery scheme creates messages that are useful to multiple nodes, such that it benefits from broadcasting to as many nodes as possible, while spatial reuse capitalizes on the fact that the communication is local, such that the same time slot can be reused in space across the network. Unfortunately, these two issues are in contrast with each other.
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