An empirical 3-D user satisfaction model in wireless data networks

We present an empirical 3-D user satisfaction model dealing with quality of service (QoS) in 2.5/3G wireless data networks. An OSI-based hierarchical framework is proposed, with mappings between performance attributes of adjacent network layers in a wireless environment. This concept is effectively a data-centric variant of a voice-service mean opinion score (MOS) to quantify user-perceived QoS, albeit in a multidimensional sense. The proposed approach is validated with a comprehensive 166-participant experiment encompassing the relationships between the top three levels of the framework: User-perceived, application- and Internet protocol (IP)-layer QoS. Finally, a wireless access technology mapping method is synthesised, aimed at giving engineers and application developers insight into the approximate bounds of an application´s user-level performance for a given access technology.