Multimedia traffic QoS adaptation in UMTS systems through a middleware functionality

In this paper the authors´ attention is on the specification of a middleware functionality for dynamic QoS control in multimedia cellular environments, such as UMTS. The functionality implements a soft QoS paradigm, at the same time optimising the perceptual QoS provided to the end user according to his/her needs. It will be shown that by exploiting suitable performance indexes and resource redistribution algorithms both an acceptable grade of service and a good degree of user satisfaction can be achieved, without an excessive increase in the network-signalling load.