Communications and Network, 2013, 5, 544-548
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/cn.2013.53B2098 Published Online September 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/cn)
Proposal for a Future Internet Business Model and
Regulatory Acts in a Technologic al C onvergence
Enviro nment Supporting Continuity of QoS
Ana P. G. Serra1, Arthur F. A. Battaglia2, Moacyr Martucci Jr.3
Polytechnic School University of São Paulo-USP, São Paulo, Braz il
Received February 2013
ABSTRACT
The communications development requires interaction between converging heterogeneous technology environment,
with quality and continuity of services to remain competitive. The full implementation of the Future Internet concept
implies in the necessity to operate among heterogeneous technology platforms with continuity of QoS (Qu ality of Ser-
vice), what leads to the necessity of an innovative business model to support it and new technical mechanisms of vertic-
al handover to ensure the QoS continuity required and expected by final users but, mainly, perceived by them. An in-
novative business model that requires innovative QoS continuity mechanisms must consider technical and commercial
interoperation among many telecommunication services providers, nationally and internationally based. This interaction
demands clear rules to be followed by every player along the telecommunication services chain, i.e., it demand s a set of
regulation acts to guide them and allow their viability.
Keywords: Technological Convergence; Business Model; QoS; Regulatory Acts; Continuity of Services; Handover;
Future Inte rne t
1. Introduction
The sector of communications, for some years, has un-
dergone significant changes requiring interaction between
converging heterogeneous technology environment, with
quality and continuity of services to remain competitive,
because this market requires constantly more technolo-
gical resources available.
Certainly one of the main propellant engines that boost
the constant technological advances is the telecommuni-
cation services segment, which develops directed to the
services consumers market. This paper considers the con-
sumer market as formed by both kinds of final users:
people and enterprises. This is the market that requires,
constantly, that more and more telecommunication ser-
vices will be made available.
The full implementation of the Future Internet concept
implies in the necessity to operate among heterogeneous
technology platforms with continuity of services and QoS
(Quality of Service), what leads to the necessity of an in-
novative business model to support it and new technical
mechanisms of vertical handover (or handoff) to ensure
the QoS continuity required and expected by final users
but, mainly, perceived by them. A satisfied user with the
set of services contracted from a telecommunication ser-
vices provider will become loyal to it, ensuring the en-
terprise market share and propitiating you commercial
activity continuity. In this sense, the continuity of QoS
perceived by users is a commercial strategic element.
QoS is defined in this paper (regarding to the percep-
tion of the end user in an environment of technological
convergence) as the quality that should be presented to
the user by mobile services and interactive multimedia
content provided by service providers in an environment
of technological convergence.
The mechanism of vertical handover aims to allow
mobility to the users ensuring the continuity of QoS per-
ceived by them along all their displacement. This me-
chanism needs to be characterized as a global solution,
i.e., the mechanism must be generic and technology in-
dependent, allowing its adoption in any network envi-
ronment taking advantage of the capillary already availa-
ble from legacy networks.
An innovative business model that requires innovative
QoS continuity mechanisms must consider, in a situation
of free market competition, technical and commercial in-
teroperation among many telecommunication services pro-
viders, nationally and in ternationally based. This intera c-
tion demands clear rules to be followed by every player

A. P. G. SERRA ET AL.
545
along the telecommunication services chain, i.e., it de-
mands a set of regulation acts to guide them and allow
their viability.
The objective of this paper is to propose a business model
and a set of items to be considered for regulation acts.
2. Technological Convergence
In this paper technological convergence is conceptualized
of a broadly under the aspect of information systems such
as the integrated use of heterogeneous technologies for
provision of mobile services and interactive multimedia
contents th at allows the end user has access to their in-
formation, applications, knowledge and services anywhere,
over any network access, anytime and using any device
[1].
The concept of technological convergence is often con-
fused with the concept of interoperability. The big dif-
ference between interoperability and convergence is that
interoperability is the ability to work together with other
systems and standalone applications, based on accepted
standards and used in the market which aims to end sys-
tems integration. While converg ence is to adjust the same
service to different media and heterogeneous technolo-
gies, allowing end users to access their information and
services anywhere, anytime, any network, any device,
through an user interf ace consisten t w ith adequate quality
of service and transparent to the user. This requires fun-
damentally the ability to mobility, portability of applica-
tions and content, interconnection and interoperability
between systems, platforms and operators [1].
Technological convergence is composed of factors that
are beyond the focus on technology. Technological con-
vergence is composed of three basic factors: 1) technol-
ogy; 2) business and 3) service [2]. Since the relationship
between these three factors is essential because technol-
ogy is a facilitator to provide services to end users, the
company is the entity/prov ider that produces, distributes
and/or management services according to market demand
and business rules of the company, and the service is the
solution to meet end users. The three factors are consi-
dered important, although the first two are more easily
reached, if the latter is not available with quality, the first
two do not make sense .
Other factors deemed important in the technological
convergence, as shown in Figure 1.
The standards establish rules and technology standards
are affected by the market, by business and by technolo-
gical innovation, which drives the creation of rules and
well-defined standards for their use, creating the need for
regulatory acts for its implementation .
3. Proposed Business Model
In Proceedings of the 2010 ITU-T Kaleidoscope Aca-
Figure 1. Factors that comprise the technological conver-
gence.
demic Conference, Sakurai [3] proposed a business mod-
el based on convergent networks for a user moving within
a heterogeneous convergent environment. His proposal is
to create a kind of enterprise designated by Service Pro-
vider, with the function of monitor the QoS level of the
other Providers: Access, Infrastructure and Content. In
this model the end user shall relate only to the Service
Provider which, in turn, relates to the Access, Infrastruc-
ture and Content Providers. The user requests the servic-
es desired to the Service Provider, which selects which of
other Providers have the best condition to meet the re-
quired service with th e quality desired by the user at that
moment. The operation of Access, Infrastructure and Con-
tent Providers becomes transparent to him, that is, be-
comes imperceptible to the user.
This model establishes the way for a formal relation-
ship among the four kinds of Providers involved. The rela-
tionship between the final user and the Service Provider
occurs through an USLA (User Service Level Agreement)
and between the Service Provider and each one of the
other Providers the relationship occurs through a PSLA
(Provider Service Level Agr eement). T his mode l is shown
in Figure 2. Figure 3 shows the logical connections of
data flows related to the business model.
The u ser’s mobile device is logically connected to two
providers: Access and Service (the physical connection
occurs only through the Access Provider).
USLA is a formal agreement between the end user and
the Service Provider. Its goal is to define the types of
services and levels of QoS that the Service Provider un-
dertakes to provide, in addition to legal provision s.
PSLA is a formal agreement between the Service Pro-
vider and each of the Access, Infrastructure and Content
Providers establishing technical and commercial parame-
ters, besides the QoS level between them for each service
Market
Service
Enterprise
(Business Rules)
Standards
Technology
(Innovation)
affects
affects
affects
influences
generate
affects

A. P. G. SERRA ET AL.
Copyright © 2013 SciRe s. CN
546
Figure 2. Business model scheme .
Figure 3. Logical connections among the actors involved.
engaged.
4. Continuity of QoS through the Vertical
Handover Mechanism
The term handover (or handoff) was intended initially to
mobile telephony, designating the mechanism for chang-
ing the flow of information between cells during a user
displacement without interrupting the connection and
seamlessly to him. For an environment of technological
convergence is no longer possible to understand the han-
dover only as a mechanism of change in the flow of in-
formation only to cell phone, or to a network with ho-
mogeneous characteristics. The handover also constitute
a mechanism for changing flow of information between
heterogeneous networks, or in other words, between dif-
ferent technologies. An example of this can be found in
[4], where is cited the transfer of information between
the cellular network and digital TV, allowing users to
enjoy mobile TV service.
The handover is divided into two categories: horizon-
tal and vertical.
Horizontal handover occurs when the flow of informa-
tion is moved between two homogeneous wireless net-
works, for example, changing the flow of information be-
tween Radio Base Stations - RBSs in a cell phone trans-
mission.
Vertical handover occurs when the flow of information
is moved between heterogeneous networks. The goal be-
ing pursued is that this handover process occurs in order
to ensure continuity of service quality to the user seam-
lessly.
To ensure continuity of service quality is necessary, for
Telecommunication Service Providers, maximize the com-
bined use of available resources in heterogeneous net-
works, su ch as: WL ANs (Wirele ss Loca l Area Netwo rk),
UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems),
VANETs (Vehicular ad hoc Network), WiMax (World-
wide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and MA-
NETs (Mobile ad hoc Networks) [5].
The need to trigger a vertical handover mechanism can
occur both from the physical displacement of the user
and from the need for reconfiguration of links between
Providers.
As an example, in the case that the user is positioned
in a particular physical location, and accessing a service
of his/her choice, the Service Provider selects the best
combination of links between Access, Infrastructure and
Content Providers to meet user demand.
If the Infrastructure Provider becomes unavailable (for
failure by overload hits or for any other reason), for in-
stance, the Service Pro vider will detect this situatio n and
provide the switching of the flow of information to anoth-
er Infrastructure Provider which, at that instant, fulfills
the conditions necessary to replace the first In frastructure
Provider in all its functions.
Regarding the relationship between the user and the
Service Provider, and in a situation of free market com-
petition, a user can hire USLAs with more than one Ser-
vice Provider to obtain the desired range of services. In
this situation, it may occur that the user has hired the
same service from two different Service Providers. This
situation, in which two different Service Providers are
contracted by a single user, can be represented by a un-
iverse of two intersecting sets, as illustr ated in Figure 4.
When a requested service only belong to the domain
administered by Service Provider 1 or, on the other hand,
belong only to the domain administered by Service Pro-
vider 2, there is no conflict on the decision to which Ser-
vice Provider fit the mission of triggering the vertical
handover. Some parameters involved in the algorithms
Service
Provider
Access
Provider
Infrastructure
Provider
Content
Provider
PSLA
PSLA
PSLA
User
USLA
Service
Provider
Access
Provider
Infrastructure
Provider
Content
Provider
Management
information
Management
information
Management
information
User
Data
Data
Data
Management
information

A. P. G. SERRA ET AL.
547
Figure 4. Universe of services offered by Service Providers 1
and 2.
for the traditional decision making processes in handover
are: received signal strength, connection time on the net-
work, available bandwidth, power consumption, cost, safety,
delay and jitter.
The decision-making process, however, must be en-
hanced to provide continuity of QoS. Besides the para-
meters listed in the preceding paragraph, other conditions
must be considered, such as those specified in the client
USLA and the PSLAs agreed between Providers. In a
USLA will be defined, for example, the limits of accept-
able service unavailability agreed between the user and
the Service Provider for each service contract. This deci-
sion process involves algorithms that seek to make the
right decision to switch the flow of information at the
right time, which implies a set of multiple criteria to be
considered.
When a handover is necessary, and its attainment af-
fect the common universe of Providers managed by Ser-
vice Providers 1 and 2, the decision process should con-
sider one more variable in the decision-making algorithm:
the Service Provider which offers the best option for the
handover, understanding as best one that off ers better tech-
nical/commercial conditions for the continuity of service
quality and the achievement of stipulated parameters in
USLAs, according to user choice policy, based on a pre-
diction algorithm for QoS.
For decision making it is necessary for Service Pro-
viders 1 and 2 to exchange information to define the best
routing option to execute the handover maintaining con-
tinuity and quality of service. Among Service Providers
there must be agreements that set the standards for this
type of interaction: the Handover Decision Service Pro-
viders Agreement - SPHDA [6]. Join a SPHDA implies
acceptance of a technical/trade partnership between the
two Service Providers involved and hence the access per-
mission of a Service Provider to the management infor-
mation database from the other, and vice versa. A man-
agement information database is the repository of all tech-
nical occurrences in networks under the administration of
the Service Provider. The reasoning developed for two
Service Providers can be extended to any number of Ser-
vice Providers.
5. Regulatory Acts
Regulatory acts establish guidelines for application of
technical and business procedures aiming the continuity
of QoS contracted by the end user. All the documents
mentioned before (USLA, PSLA and SPHDA) must have
their content regulated. The items that must be consi-
dered for an official regulation are shown hereafter.
The USLA is characterized by a set of technical in-
formation but, also, by the list of services the user wants
to hire:
• specification of the desired services;
• specification of th e maximum cost acceptable for each
service;
• specification of the level of availab ility for each hired
service;
• specification of the security level for each hired ser-
vice;
• specification of the response time for each hired ser-
vice and
• specification of other technical parameters as: band-
width, loss rate, jitter and transmission velo city.
• The PSLA is characterized by a set of business and
technical information that keeps certain resemblance
to the SHPDA:
• standardization of the type of management informa-
tion;
• standardization of the structure and formatting of man-
agement information;
• agreement allowing the Service Provider to capture
and send management information to the Access, In-
frastructure and Content Providers through mobile
agents;
• standardization of types of mobile agents that will be
used to exchange the management information among
providers;
• agreement on the availability of the management in-
forma ti on da tabase and
• access to predict the pricing between providers for
each service to be executed.
• The SPHDA is characterized by a set of business and
technical information that takes part of the decision
process to define which of the Service Providers, hired
by the same user, will trigger the handover:
• agreement for mutual access to Service Providers man-
agement information databases among all signatories
of SPHDAs;

A. P. G. SERRA ET AL.
Copyright © 2013 SciRe s. CN
548
• standardization of identification and authentication
codes for access to databases of management infor-
mation;
• standardization of the type of management informa-
tion;
• standardization of the structure and formatting of
management information;
• standardization of requests for access to a database of
management information;
• agreement to management information access through
mobile agents;
• standardization of types of mobile agents that will be
used to exchange the management information among
Providers;
• agreement on the maximum response time for each
request for access to a database of management in-
formation;
• agreement on the availability of the management in-
formation database and access to predict the pricing
between provi ders due t o the handove r to be executed.
6. Conclusion
Open standards such as 3GPP and NGN pave the way for
the development of telecommunications services provid-
ing a further development of the market for telecommu-
nications services offering services with better quality.
Besides the 3GPP and NGN th ere is a need, howev er, for
the adoption of other additional standards as function of
technological changes and behavioral patterns of the us-
ers. These standards need regulatory acts for its imple-
mentation.
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