Master thesis Technology Management

J.J.V. de Wit

December 2009

Vulnerability of Wireless City Networks

Coping with Interference in License-Exempt Frequency Bands:

A Stakeholder Approach

Vulnerability of Wireless City Networks Coping with Interference in License-Exempt Frequency Bands: A Stakeholder Approach

Author

J.J.V. de Wit/s1367676 Master Technology Management – Faculty of Economics and Business

Supervisor Agentschap Telecom

dr. H.K. Leonhard

Supervisor University of Groningen

prof. dr. G.B. Huitema

Co-assessor

prof. dr. ir. J.C. Wortmann

Date

December 2009

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Management summary This thesis report is the result of a research into the vulnerability of Wireless City Networks. Wireless City Networks are city-wide wireless infrastructures based on Wi-Fi technology. Such networks are increasingly being deployed and are projected to support business-critical processes and are serving considerable interests including public safety and healthcare. In contrast with conventional wireless infrastructures, WCNs cannot rely on dedicated frequency bands since they operate in LE spectrum and therefore they are to a large extent subject to interference. Interference may lead to degraded service quality. Agentschap Telecom, the organization responsible for spectrum regulation in the Netherlands, has the task to ensure network quality and availability and to protect networks from harmful interference. However since WCNs operate in license-exempt bands the roles of regulators are limited and it is therefore in the interest of Agentschap Telecom to adjust their means.

Degradation in service quality leads to risks for stakeholders and it is in the interest of stakeholders to manage these risks. In this research service quality is defined from a business perspective. Not only technical aspects of network performance are taken in account. Rather, in this research it is argued that service quality is a result of the comparison between customer expectations and perceived service. Therefore the following research question is formulated: What elements of risk management can be identified for stakeholders in Wireless City Networks in order to reduce the gap between expected service and perceived service?

After providing an overview of all stakeholders involved in WCNs including interests, roles, responsibilities, applications and associated risks, a Service Quality Chain is developed which includes all stakeholder relationship directly contributing to service quality delivery in WCNs. These are the Supplier – Operator, Operator – Service Provider and the Service Provider – End-user relationship. Using the SERVQUAL gap model, which aims to give insight in potential discrepancies in underlying processes leading to the gap between expected and perceived service, all three relationships are analyzed. From the analysis it is evident that there is a discrepancy between service quality specifications and service delivery since service delivery in WCNs is subject to interference and interference is not adequately addressed by stakeholders. Furthermore, there is a gap between external communications of service providers and actual service delivery. Therefore, end-user expectations are likely to exceed perceived service.

Two directions of means to close these gaps are proposed. Since these means are argued to reduce discrepancies in processes underlying service quality and degraded service quality leads to risk for stakeholders, these means are considered to be elements to improve risk management. The first direction involves technological means including incorporation of Cognitive Radio concepts and Polite Protocols in network equipment in order use spectrum more efficiently and to enable interference-tolerant operation. Furthermore, procedures for dynamic QoS negotiation are proposed in order to allocate network capacity to best serve end-users interests. These means are argued to reduce the gap between service quality specifications and service delivery. The second direction involves means for expectations management. This includes the use of SLAs as communication tools and designing services so that they pro-actively inform end-user of expected performance levels. These means are argued to reduce the gap between external communications and service delivery. Agentschap Telecom can fulfill a role by allocating spectrum for new radio technologies and by contributing to development of standards. Also, Agentschap Telecom can fulfill a consulting and a mediating role between stakeholders when formulating SLAs. Furthermore, Agentschap Telecom can fulfill a regulating role in advertizing. When service levels advertized by providers appear to be unrealistic Agentschap Telecom can intervene to create awareness of potential difficulties in service delivery.

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Acknowledgements This thesis is the end product of my master program Technology Management at the University of Groningen. The research was conducted as part of the collaboration between Agentschap Telecom and the University of Groningen regarding research into Spectrum Management.

This thesis would not be complete without showing my appreciation to all that made it a reality. First I would like to thank the people of Agentschap Telecom for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to gain insight in the field of Spectrum Management. In particular I would like to thank Helmut Leonhard for supervising me at Agentschap Telecom. His knowledge and advice helped me to take a sensible research approach in a complicated problem area.

Next, I would like to offer my gratitude to my supervisor at the University of Groningen, Professor George Huitema, who has supported me throughout my thesis with his patience and knowledge. Meetings with him provided me with new insights and helped me to structure my reasoning. I would also like to thank my second supervisor, Professor Hans Wortmann, for providing me with initial guidance on my research design.

My aim was to provide a pragmatic report for my supervisors and the Spectrum Management specialist at Agentschap Telecom, while at the same time delivering a sound piece of scientific work. I hope I have met this goal and that this thesis will prove useful as well as providing an enjoyable read.

Jelmer de Wit

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Table of Contents Management summary .......................................................................................................................... v

Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. vi

List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. x

List of Tables......................................................................................................................................... xi

List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................... xii

1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 131.1 Wireless City Networks .......................................................................................................... 131.2 Vulnerability ........................................................................................................................... 141.3 Ensuring service quality ......................................................................................................... 151.4 Role of spectrum regulators .................................................................................................. 161.5 Chapter outline ...................................................................................................................... 16

2 Agentschap Telecom .................................................................................................................. 172.1.1 Spectrum Management ................................................................................................. 182.1.2 Supervision .................................................................................................................... 192.1.3 Antenna Office ............................................................................................................... 20

2.2 Interest of Agentschap Telecom ............................................................................................ 212.3 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 22

3 Research Plan .............................................................................................................................. 233.1 Problem statement................................................................................................................. 23

3.1.1 Definition of service quality ............................................................................................ 233.1.2 Research objective ........................................................................................................ 253.1.3 Research questions ....................................................................................................... 25

3.2 Research design .................................................................................................................... 263.2.1 Research type ................................................................................................................ 263.2.2 Research theories .......................................................................................................... 263.2.3 Research model ............................................................................................................. 26

4 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................... 284.1 Literature review WCNs ......................................................................................................... 284.2 Stakeholder roles ................................................................................................................... 32

4.2.1 Sponsor ......................................................................................................................... 334.2.2 Operator ......................................................................................................................... 344.2.3 Supplier .......................................................................................................................... 344.2.4 Service provider ............................................................................................................. 344.2.5 End-user ........................................................................................................................ 354.2.6 Public site owner ............................................................................................................ 354.2.7 Regulator ....................................................................................................................... 364.2.8 Citizen ............................................................................................................................ 36

4.3 Service Quality Chain ............................................................................................................ 36

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4.4 Applications ........................................................................................................................... 384.4.1 Municipality and utility industry applications .................................................................. 384.4.2 Public safety applications .............................................................................................. 394.4.3 Applications for healthcare ............................................................................................ 404.4.4 Public use applications .................................................................................................. 404.4.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 41

4.5 SERVQUAL gap model ......................................................................................................... 424.5.1 Service Quality Gap (SQG) ........................................................................................... 434.5.2 Management perception gap (GAP1) ............................................................................ 444.5.3 Management perception – service quality specification gap (GAP2) ............................ 454.5.4 Service delivery gap (GAP3) ......................................................................................... 454.5.5 Market communications gap (GAP4) ............................................................................. 45

4.6 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 46

5 Case Studies ................................................................................................................................ 475.1 Wireless Groningen ............................................................................................................... 47

5.1.1 Background .................................................................................................................... 475.1.2 Business model ............................................................................................................. 485.1.3 Coverage area ............................................................................................................... 485.1.4 Stakeholders .................................................................................................................. 49

5.2 Wireless Rotterdam ............................................................................................................... 565.2.1 Background .................................................................................................................... 565.2.2 Business model ............................................................................................................. 565.2.3 Coverage area ............................................................................................................... 565.2.4 Stakeholders .................................................................................................................. 57

5.3 West Wireless ........................................................................................................................ 585.3.1 Background .................................................................................................................... 585.3.2 Business model ............................................................................................................. 585.3.3 Coverage area ............................................................................................................... 585.3.4 Stakeholders .................................................................................................................. 59

5.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 59

6 Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 606.1 Service Provider – End-user .................................................................................................. 60

6.1.1 SQG ............................................................................................................................... 616.1.2 GAP1 ............................................................................................................................. 616.1.3 GAP2 ............................................................................................................................. 626.1.4 GAP3 ............................................................................................................................. 626.1.5 GAP4 ............................................................................................................................. 63

6.2 Operator – Service Provider .................................................................................................. 636.2.1 SQG ............................................................................................................................... 636.2.2 GAP1 ............................................................................................................................. 646.2.3 GAP2 ............................................................................................................................. 646.2.4 GAP3 ............................................................................................................................. 656.2.5 GAP4 ............................................................................................................................. 66

6.3 Supplier – Operator ............................................................................................................... 666.3.1 SQG ............................................................................................................................... 66

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6.3.2 GAP1 ............................................................................................................................. 676.3.3 GAP2 ............................................................................................................................. 676.3.4 GAP3 ............................................................................................................................. 686.3.5 GAP4 ............................................................................................................................. 68

6.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 69

7 Elements of Risk Management ................................................................................................... 707.1 Technology ............................................................................................................................ 70

7.1.1 Cognitive radio ............................................................................................................... 707.1.2 Polite protocols .............................................................................................................. 727.1.3 Admission strategies...................................................................................................... 737.1.4 Role of Agentschap Telecom ........................................................................................ 77

7.2 Managing expectations .......................................................................................................... 787.2.1 Service level agreements .............................................................................................. 787.2.2 Service Design ............................................................................................................... 827.2.3 Role of Agentschap Telecom ........................................................................................ 83

8 Conclusion and Further Research ............................................................................................. 848.1 Answer to the Main Research Question ................................................................................ 848.2 Reflection ............................................................................................................................... 86

8.2.1 Strengths ....................................................................................................................... 868.2.2 Weaknesses .................................................................................................................. 86

8.3 Further Research ................................................................................................................... 87

Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................... 88

Appendix 1 Interference background ............................................................................................ 91

Appendix 2 Graphical representation of frequency mapping in the Netherlands ..................... 94

Appendix 3 Stakeholder roles in WCNs identified in literature ................................................... 97

Appendix 4 Service concepts for WG developed by HG (Zwetsloot, 2008) ............................... 99

Appendix 5 "Police car of the future" (de Jonge, 2008) ............................................................. 102

Appendix 6 Candidate “Polite Protocols” (Roke Manor Research for Ofcom, 2006) ............. 103

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List of Abbreviations AMR Automatic Meter Reading

ATM Automatic Teller Machine

CR Cognitive Radio

DFS Dynamic Frequency Selection

EMC Electro Magnetic Compatibility

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

HG Hanzehogeschool

ISM bands Industrial, Scientific and Medical bands

ISP Internet Service Provider

LE bands License-Exempt bands

MWN Municipal Wireless Network

NFP National Frequency Plan

PDA Personal Data Assistant

PDG Police Department Groningen

PDV Packet Delay Variation

QoS Quality of Service

R&TTE Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive

RFP Request For Proposal

RUG University of Groningen

SDR Software Defined Radio

SLA Service Level Agreement

TARB Transmissions as Receiver Beacons

TPC Transmission Power Control

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

VoIP Voice over IP

VPN Virtual Private Network

WCN Wireless City Network

WG Wireless Groningen

Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity—brand referencing to the 802.11x WLAN standards

WISP Wireless Internet Service Provider

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List of Tables Table 1: Characteristics of B2C and B2B relationships (Anderson & Narus, 2004) ............................. 38

Table 2: Listing of interview Wireless Groningen .................................................................................. 50

Table 3: Overview of services for city employees ................................................................................. 53

Table 4: Key aspects in SLAs for stakeholders in WCNs ..................................................................... 80

Table 5: Overview of proposed solutions .............................................................................................. 85

Table 6: Applications per frequency band (Tanenbaum, 2003) ............................................................ 92

Table 7: Stakeholders identified by Kramer, Lopez and Koonen (2006) .............................................. 97

Table 8: Stakeholders identified by Stratix Consulting (2006) .............................................................. 98

Table 9: Stakeholders identified by Mandviwalla et al. (2006) .............................................................. 98

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List of Figures Figure 1: Chapter outline ....................................................................................................................... 16

Figure 2: Organization chart Agentschap Telecom (Agentschap Telecom, 2008) ............................... 18

Figure 3: Model of perceived service quality (Parasuraman et al. 1985) .............................................. 24

Figure 4: QoS rating and user expectations (Bouch & Sasse, 2000).................................................... 25

Figure 5: Research model ..................................................................................................................... 27

Figure 6: Business Models of WCNs (adapted from Bar & Park, 2006) ............................................... 28

Figure 7: Business Model Configurations in WCNs (adapted from Ballon et al. 2007) ......................... 31

Figure 8: Stakeholder framework WCNs ............................................................................................... 33

Figure 9: Service Quality Chain in a WCN ............................................................................................ 37

Figure 10: Application types and associated risks ................................................................................ 42

Figure 11: SERVQUAL gap model (Parasuraman et al. 1985) ............................................................. 43

Figure 12: Coverage area Wireless Groningen: phase 1 ...................................................................... 49

Figure 13: Coverage area Wireless Groningen: phase 2 ...................................................................... 49

Figure 14: Coverage area Wireless Groningen: phase 3 ...................................................................... 49

Figure 15: Coverage area Wireless Rotterdam ..................................................................................... 57

Figure 16: Coverage area Westwireless Maassluis .............................................................................. 59

Figure 17: Coverage area Westwireless Naaldwijk ............................................................................... 59

Figure 18: Relationships adressed in Analysis...................................................................................... 60

Figure 19: SERVQUAL gap model applied to Service Provider - End-user relationship ...................... 61

Figure 20: SERVQUAL gap model applied to Operator - Service Provider relationship ....................... 64

Figure 21: SERVQUAL gap model applied to Supplier - Operator relationship .................................... 67

Figure 22: CR – Cognition cycle as proposed by Mitola III (2001) ........................................................ 71

Figure 23: CR – Cognition cycle as proposed by Akylidiz et al. (2006) ................................................ 71

Figure 24: Benefits TARB protocol (Roke Manor Research for Ofcom, 2006) ..................................... 73

Figure 25: Procedure for QoS renegotiation ......................................................................................... 75

Figure 26: Procedure for increasing QoS parameters .......................................................................... 76

Figure 27: Steps towards implementing Polite Protocols (Roke Manor Research, 2006) .................... 78

Figure 28: Electromagnetic spectrum (Tanenbaum, 2003) ................................................................... 91

Figure 29: Bending and reflecting of radio waves (Tanenbaum, 2003) ................................................ 92

Figure 30: Interference .......................................................................................................................... 93

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1 Introduction 1.1 Wireless City Networks Wireless City Networks (WCNs) are increasingly being deployed. Municipalities are partnering with private companies in order to establish Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP) to provide broadband internet access to their residents as well as additional services. These network infrastructures are based on Wi-Fi technology. Wi-Fi technology has found application in many fields mainly because of the following:

- Low cost: because of the high volume of Wi-Fi devices used for enterprise and consumer applications, infrastructure costs are relatively low.

- Client ubiquity: Wi-Fi clients are standard in almost all laptops, and increasingly in other devices such as smart phones and PDAs. This eliminates the need to purchase special client hardware or software.

- Interoperability: through the Wi-Fi Alliance, the vast majority of clients and infrastructure devices have been certified using well-defined interoperability testing, which ensures compatibility between a wide variety of different manufacturers products.

- Large bandwidth: Wi-Fi network equipment currently supports data rates of 54Mbps (802.11b/g) or 100Mbps (802.11n) which is considerably higher than alternative wireless technologies such as GPRS and UMTS.

Along with wireless internet access, WCNs are especially projected to support additional service applications such as:

- Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to establish city-wide secure wireless access for organizations to intranets.

- Voice over IP (VoIP) services to enable voice communications for businesses as well as consumers as an alternative to conventional mobile networks such as GSM and 3G. VoIP solutions can be cost-effective in comparison to large commercial networks and can provide additional functionality such as conference calls.

- Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) systems to establish networks of electronic meters. These are used by utility industry and municipalities to enable real-time measurements of resource consumption and for requesting the status of facilities. For instance measuring the energy consumption of households or remotely indicating the capacity of garbage containers (Vos, 2009).

- Systems to support public safety by deploying networks of wireless security cameras across the city and enabling streaming video in police vehicles (MuniWireless.com, 2009).

- Ad-hoc deployment of broadband access for events such as festivals and seminars located in the city. This is applicable for outdoor events in particular since indoor locations in most cases already have broadband access available. An application for instance is the deployment of wireless ATM terminals.

Considering this array of services, many will require performance levels beyond “best-effort”1. This can be illustrated by the following scenarios and associated risks:

1 A best-effort service level does not provide any guarantees that data is delivered or that a user is given a guaranteed quality of service level or a certain priority.

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- City-wide access to intranets can be used by municipal maintenance services. To increase efficiency, municipalities will organize their processes so that they rely on city-wide access of information for maintenance workers (Vissers, 2008). E.g. workers will need wireless access to schedules and building plans in order to complete their jobs. It is likely that when a wireless connection appears to be unavailable work will be delayed. Delay will result in increased costs for the municipality.

- Voice communication is a delay-sensitive application. Degradation in connection quality will quickly result in unacceptable service. Therefore, certain network performance levels will be required in order to sustain acceptable service quality. This is especially relevant when users tend to put significant stake in the reliability of these services. For instance a user can rely on VoIP for emergency calls. In such a situation, degraded service quality of VoIP can result in significant risks (Baal et al., 2007).

- AMR networks rely on a continuous reception of data from wireless meters. Degraded quality will potentially lead to inaccurate measurements. For example when AMR networks are used by municipalities to indicate the status of garbage containers and the reception of data is inaccurate it is likely that the situation will occur where garbage containers will not be services in time. This will be inconvenient for residents and will have negative effects on the quality of public services therefore this situation will form risks for municipalities.

- Wireless security cameras deployed across a city can enhance public safety (Cisco Systems, 2007). Police departments will be able to receive real-time video feeds from various locations in the city. This video feeds however will require a certain amount of consistency regarding availability, timeliness and image quality in order to be useful. Police departments will typically rely on these types of services in case of emergency situations where there is little room for error. Delay in video feeds in these cases will potentially make it difficult to assess a situation and handle accordingly. E.g. it is conceivable that police departments will allocate their available personnel inaccurately due to incorrect assessment of emergency situations. This will lead to considerable risk regarding public safety.

- The deployment of wireless ATMs during events such as festivals and seminars can offer flexible solutions for establishing checkouts and service desks. However in case the wireless connection to payment services (banks, etc.) appears to be unreliable, the situation can occur that transaction cannot be guaranteed which can potentially lead to loss of revenue. This generates risks for event organizers and retailers.

1.2 Vulnerability Considering these risks, vulnerability of WCNs is a relevant subject for research. Vulnerability, defined as the susceptibility of the network for potential damage and harm, gives insight in the extent to which data exchange can be disrupted thereby causing degradation of service quality. The concept of vulnerability can be approached from various angles. Many studies focus on deliberate abuse of wireless networks such as jamming2 and hacking (Edney & Arbaugh, 2004). However, network vulnerability can also be assessed when assuming normal usage. For wireless networks, a considerable vulnerability therein is interference. Background information on interference and its implications for telecommunication is given in Appendix 1.

While all wireless networks are subject to interference, it is vulnerability for WCNs in particular: these networks cannot rely on dedicated frequencies since they are based on Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi refers to a family of networking protocols known as the 802.11 standard, which operate in a license-exempt (LE) 2 Jamming is referred to as the use of illegal devices to transmit radio signals that deliberately disrupt communications

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frequency band (2.4 GHz). A frequency band being LE means that the government does not issue licenses to limit the amount of users of the band. In this sense Wi-Fi contrasts with conventional wireless technologies which heavily rely on dedicated frequencies. A licensed frequency enables a network operator to have the exclusive right for usage and this gives operators legal grounds to take action in case interference is caused by users which are not entitled to. Users of LE bands—in this case operators, service providers and end-users of WCNs—lack these legal grounds and have to accept interference caused by other users and applications. These include users of Wi-Fi equipment establishing private home networks as well as the wide range of applications the 2.4 GHz band already accommodates. Examples are microwaves, Audio Video senders and cordless phones. Considering all of the above, the following definition of vulnerability is used throughout this thesis:

Vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility of Wireless City Networks for signal interruption caused by interference leading to degraded service quality levels.

1.3 Ensuring service quality This problem area stated above is confirmed by several sources. Lemstra et al. (2007) argue that since Wi-Fi technology is “expected to arouse increased commercial interest, problems can be expected in providing appropriate service levels” and condering LE frequencies do not provide legal ground for exclusive usage an “alternative approach is needed to ensure sufficient bandwith”. Arts & Leonhard (2007) propose guidelines for the Dutch government regarding LE spectrum policy and present figures to assess economical value of the LE spectrum. They refer to a report by Ofcom3 which states that “users need to be aware that there are no garantuees that the spectrum will be free of interference”.

The problem area is also supported by empirical studies regarding performance of Wi-Fi technology in an urban environment. These studies provide evidence that interference in WCNs is indeed a real risk. The most applicable to the problem area are presented chronologically:

- Leeson et al. (2000) performed a study to predict the usage of the ISM band for the next 2 to 5 years. They conclude that interference problems between IEEE 802.11b, Electronic New Gathering and Outside Broadcast (ENG/OB) equipment and Radio Fixed Antenna (RFA) sytems are to be expected.

- Brik et al. (2008) carried out an extensive monitoring of a large-scale, urban mesh network that used 802.11b/g as its access standards. They conclude that the backbone network performed significantly better than the access network and degradation of performance was “mostly a result of unmigitated interference in 2.4 GHz spectrum in urban settings”.

- A research carried out by Mass Consultants for Ofcom (2009) includes a survey of Wi-Fi usage at various urban locations in the UK. Key findings are that interference between devices in the 2.4 GHz ISM band is commonplace and leads to loss of service quality for many users. Additionally, congestion—defined as the situation when the demand for bandwidth exceeds the capacity—occurs in busy areas and leads to significant loss of service quality as well. Based on their findings the authors expect that congestion will occur in every large city in the UK.

Condering the support in literature it is likely WCNs have to anticipate on degraded service quality caused by interference. As stated, stakeholders of WCNs have no legal grounds to enforce exclusive rights on the use of frequencies and therefore are designated to develop alternative means of ensuring service quality. This forms the main problem area addressed in this thesis.

3 Ofcom is the governmental organization in the UK responsible for spectrum management.

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1.4 Role of spectrum regulators An important stakeholder in this problem area is the spectrum regulator. The primary goal of a spectrum regulator is to ensure effective and efficient use of the frequency spectrum, as well as to ensure network availability and quality. In the situation of networks operating in LE bands the interest of a regulator remains the same—that is to ensure the availability and quality of such networks. However, the means by which this is achieved need to be adjusted. This thesis addresses the question rises how spectrum regulators can use their knowledge to contribute to development of the means to ensure quality in networks operating in LE bands. This research was carried out in collaboration with Agentschap Telecom—the organization fulfilling the role of spectrum regulator in the Netherlands. The situation of Agentschap Telecom therefore is considered in particular.

1.5 Chapter outline The remaining chapters are structured as follows. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the organization of Agentschap Telecom. Furthermore, the role of Agentschap Telecom in the addressed problem area is elaborated. Chapter 3 outlines the research design and presents the research objective, research questions and the definition of service quality used throughout the research. Chapter 4 includes a review of the literature available on WCNs. The section yields a theoretical framework articulating stakeholders, interests and risks in WCNs. Chapter 5 describes the case studies performed on 3 WCNs in the Netherlands. Chapter 6 provides analysis of the case studies and identifies potential gaps using the method described in Chapter 4. In Chapter 7 solutions are proposed based on the gaps identified in Chapter 6. Chapter 8 concludes this research by evaluating the answer to the main research question. Finally the research method and outcome is discussed and directions for further research are proposed.

Figure 1: Chapter outline

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2 Agentschap Telecom Frequency spectrum has become scarce due to dramatically increase of demand. This demand is a result of increased usage of telecommunications in general along with emerging new telecommunication technologies and applications. In addition to the increased demand, there are rather strict constraints for frequency usage. Key aspect herein is interference. Interference between radio waves needs to be avoided in order to ensure effective spectrum usage (see Appendix 1). To create a sustainable environment for current and new telecommunication technologies, government bodies have been established that regulate spectrum usage by allocating bands and issuing exclusive licenses to users within a geographical area thereby prohibiting other users with respect to these bands. These organizations also monitor the market of radio equipment. By setting and maintaining guidelines for manufacturers, equipment potentially causing harmful interference can be banned. These types of organizations are referred to as spectrum regulators.

The organization responsible for spectrum regulation in the Netherlands is Agentschap Telecom. Agentschap Telecom is part of the Dutch government and implements the spectrum-related policies defined by the Ministry of Economical Affairs. The mission of the organization is stated as follows (Agentschap Telecom, 2008):

The mission of Agentschap Telecom is to expand and optimize the domain of electronic communication. Using its technical expertise, Agentschap Telecom contributes to the development of this domain. Key processes are creating, allocating and protecting frequency spectrum. Agentschap Telecom has an important supervising role by monitoring the use of spectrum, supervising the market of electronics, looking upon the ability of networks to be wiretapped and overall availability and continuity of networks.

Agentschap Telecom employs approximately 300 people and is, along with supporting departments, divided in two functional departments: Supervision and Spectrum Management (see Figure 2). Furthermore, part of Agentschap Telecom is also the Antenna Office (in Dutch: Antennebureau). Each department is described in the following sections.

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Figure 2: Organization chart Agentschap Telecom (Agentschap Telecom, 2008)

2.1.1 Spectrum Management The spectrum management division of Agentschap Telecom is responsible for the development and allocation of frequency spectrum. Key task is to develop guidelines and rules how frequencies can be used and on what terms. This is published in a document called the National Frequency Plan (NFP, in Dutch: Nationaal Frequentieplan). The NFP states for each band for which purpose it can be used and on what terms. In most cases the use of frequency bands is regulated by licensing. Licenses are issued to a limited amount of users for limited geographic areas and under specific terms. Examples of such terms are limited transmitting power of equipment and requirements regarding education levels of operators. By this means, interference between equipment is prevented (Agentschap Telecom, 2009). The current mapping of frequencies and applications in The Netherlands are presented graphically in Appendix 2.

In an environment with ongoing development of telecommunication technologies there is an increasing demand for new spectrum. The spectrum management division responds to this demand by allocating frequencies for these technologies and making it available for individuals and businesses. An important aspect in this practice is that existing applications are to be respected. This means that when allocating spectrum for existing applications and associated frequency usage needs to be

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assessed to make sure little interference will occur. Considering the wide array of applications and the variance in physical behavior of different frequencies, this is a very complex task. When existing applications and technologies are assessed, spectrum is made available by issuing licenses. In most cases licenses are issued upon order of request, but when (economical) interests are high auctions are used to ensure frequency bands are properly distributed among stakeholders. In some cases monetary resources are not the only factor; for example during the process of distribution of FM frequency bands for radio broadcasting, the assessment of business plans—especially focused on distinctive elements—are determinants for allocation. In general, this type of allocation is based upon the extent to which the prospective licensee benefits the common interest.

When defining this common interest, an essential guideline is to take the consumers as well as the citizens into account. These interest show many similarities but have important differences as well. The discussion paper titled “Citizens, Communications and Convergence” (Ofcom, 2008) points out this distinction in interests. The following points cover the reasoning developed in the discussion paper:

- Consumers participate in a marketplace, buying and using goods and services. In short, consumers focus on what is good for themselves as private individuals and businesses. It is generally thought that consumers want lower prices, increased choice and improved quality. A consumer also wants information and tools that are needed to exercise choice and to be protected against scams and other unfair practices.

- A citizen participates in society. The society includes the market but goes far beyond it. Citizens are free to exchange goods and services, but are also free to participate in a whole range of social, cultural and political activities that are not the subject of commercial contracts.

The paper (Ofcom, 2008) argues that the duty of spectrum regulators is to serve both interests. Key practices are to recognize where they may conflict and overlap. With this being recognized it can be determined how to develop policy to both making markets work better and benefiting society more generally. This point can be illustrated by the following example: when UMTS frequencies in the Netherlands where auctioned, the licenses issued included the requirement of network rollout for certain geographic areas. Thus operators are required to cover areas whether these are economically feasible or not. By this means it is ensured all citizens will have access to telecom service, therebyultimately benefiting society. Operating in this field of technical constraints and conflicting interests, the spectrum management department issued over 30.000 licenses in 2008 (Agentschap Telecom, 2008) of which the main applications are fixed links (over 12.000 licenses) and mobile communication (approximately 18.000 licenses).

A key direction in future policy of Agentschap Telecom is to reduce the regulatory burden for companies and individuals by converting spectrum licenses to registrations. Instead of applying for a license, users can register their usage via a website. By this means, users are expected to save approximately 3.6 million Euro on an annual basis. Currently these changes in policy apply to frequencies used by the maritime industry and radio amateurs (Agentschap Telecom, 2008). In line with this policy, it is also recognized that more spectrum should be made available as license-exempt bands. The rationale and implications for this are further elaborated in section 2.2.

2.1.2 Supervision The supervision division of Agentschap Telecom is responsible for monitoring the compliance of licensees, as well as maintaining other parts of the law on telecommunications in the Netherlands. The following tasks can be distinguished (Agentschap Telecom, 2008):

- Monitoring of the frequency spectrum. By monitoring the spectrum, usage profiles are established and irregularities can be identified. E.g. by monitoring the spectrum Agentschap Telecom can pinpoint users which potentially are causing interference with other applications.

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Also, part of the spectrum can be identified which are expected to congest. Based on this, action is taken to correct his, e.g. by issuing penalties for parties using spectrum for which they are not entitled to.

- Supervising the market of electronic devices. All electronic devices on the Dutch market must have a CE-certificate. A CE label prescribes electronic devices to comply with various European guidelines (e.g. EMC4 and R&TTE5) which are developed to keep devices from interfering with each other. Agentschap Telecom, in corporation with other organizations such as KEMA and TNO, makes sure non-CE devices do not enter the market by performing tests. Along with avoidance of harmful interference, an important aspect is safety of devices. Agentschap Telecom contributes to public safety by testing electronic devices, receiving signals from the market on unsafe devices and taking action to reclaim potential unsafe devices.

- Wiretapping obligation of networks. Operators of telecommunication networks are obliged to be wiretapped by law enforcement agencies. It is the responsibility of Agentschap Telecom to make sure operators meet the requirement of their network traffic being able to be intercepted to assist law enforcement agencies.

- Availability and continuity of networks. Society has an increasing interest in availability of telecommunication networks. Users tend to rely on networks without taking into account the consequences when networks fail. Agentschap Telecom tries to anticipate on emergency situation caused by failure of networks. This is done by developing roadmaps and participating in emergency drills. Also, Agentschap Telecom attends big events—which are subject to increased risk of such network failures—which yields important data to improve network availability and continuity.

Other (secondary) tasks are:

- Enforcing the regulations on trenching6 (in Dutch: grondroerdersregeling). These regulations are developed to avoid damage caused by trenching. Agentschap Telecom checks if all parties involved (e.g. sponsor, contractor and operator) comply with the legal requirements.

- Enforcement of the law on space activities. This law is focused on the avoidance of damage caused by space activities and liability of the Dutch government. Supervision is not only focused on technical issues but also on the insurance coverage of license-holders.

2.1.3 Antenna Office The Antenna Office is an inquiry office for citizens, local governments and companies to provide all sorts of information on the use of antennas. The Antenna Office addresses legal, technical and health issues. Basic information is provided using a website. For more complicated questions the Antenna Office provides a telephone helpdesk and participates in meetings. In 2008 the Antenna Office’s website had 144.000 hits and 1100 telephone calls where taken. Furthermore, the Antenna Office

4 European directive regarding electromagnetic compatibility of devices: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/electrical/documents/emc/legislation/ 5 European directive regarding requirements of radio and telecommunications terminal equipments including avoidance of harmful interference and public health matters: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/rtte/documents/index_en.htm 6 Trenching is referred to as the labor to dig channels for establishing wired telecommunication networks (e.g. cable, optical fiber, etc.).

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participated in 76 meetings and the antenna registry7 was consulted 72.000 times (Agentschap Telecom, 2008).

2.2 Interest of Agentschap Telecom As explained in the preceding sections, spectrum is allocated by issuing licenses and monitoring the compliance of licensees. By this means effective spectrum usage is ensured and interference is avoided. A completely different approach to allocate frequencies is to not allocate them at all—just let everyone transmit at will without a license. Most governments have handled accordingly by setting aside some frequencies which are open for all users. The benefits of this approach are recognized: since no initial investments are required to use this spectrum the barriers are low to develop applications. Thereby the availability of LE spectrum increases innovation. Also, it is recognized that the availability of LE spectrum positively contributes to the efficiency of spectrum usage (Lemstra et al., 2007). For these reasons, spectrum regulators have adopted the policy to protect and expand LE frequency bands. This is also the case in the policy of Agentschap Telecom (Ministry of Economical Affairs, 2008).

An example of a LE bands is the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. This band was originally reserved internationally for industrial, scientific and medical purposes other than communications. In general, communications equipment must accept any interference generated by ISM equipment. Examples of typical ISM applications are:

- Large heating installations using electromagnetic radiation (e.g. large industrial microwave ovens or welding equipment).

- Heating of tissue for the purpose of therapy (medical).

- Facilitation of radio propagation experiments (scientific).

However, many other (commercial) applications have been developed that operate in the ISM band (the ISM band is often referred to as the “melting pot” of the radio spectrum). For many people the most common is the home microwave oven operating at 2.45 GHz. Also, communications equipment has been developed that operates in the ISM band. Examples are cordless phones (DECT), Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi has proven to have robust performance considering the occurrence of interference in this band and is able to establish high data rates in comparison to other wireless technologies. The technology is predominantly used in small applications such as home networks and small business. Typically, a single wireless access point is placed indoor in homes and office buildings, enabling users to establish local area networks (LANs) without the need of network cables. To an increasing extent Wi-Fi is used in an outdoor setting to establish wireless hotspots to enable users to access the Internet at convenient locations. Examples are wireless hotspots at airports and gas stations. As mentioned in Chapter 1, Wi-Fi is used in an increasing pace to establish wireless networks covering large geographic areas. This is achieved by combining a large number of hotspots. Examples are Wi-Fi covering the campus of a university or, in case of WCNs, an urban area.

For regulators this creates an exceptional situation: each user of a LE band has equal rights. When issues between users arise caused by interference in these bands the role of the spectrum regulator islimited—users cannot be denied access because of the absence of licenses. One aspect however a regulator can use to moderate the situation is to define norms for network equipment. For example, Wi-Fi equipment is precept to use a limited transmission power of 100mW. Thereby the probability of interference is reduced because of a limited range of equipment. Additionally, to increase tolerance for

7 The antenna registry gives an overview of all antenna-installations for mobile telephone and broadcasting present in The Netherlands.

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interference, equipment is required to use spread-spectrum8 modulation technology. These measures are effective to restrain interference problems to a certain extent. However, the usage of LE frequency further increases and LE bands are used increasingly to serve commercial interests and to support business-critical applications. Therefore it can be questioned if these measures are enough to ensure adequate service levels on these networks. The question rises how regulators can use their knowledge to expand means to consult stakeholders of wireless LE networks—in this research stakeholders of WCNs in particular—to reduce interference problems and increase network quality and availability. This has not been yet been adequately covered by research. In particular the role spectrum regulators can fulfill in protecting communication networks in LE bands needs to be elaborated.

Recently Agentschap Telecom took note of the development of WCNs such as Wireless Groningen and Wireless Rotterdam. In these initiatives it is expected that interference problems will occur. This has triggered the need for Agentschap Telecom to develop means to assess the availability and quality of such networks and to assess the associated risks. For these reasons Agentschap Telecom is interested in this research.

2.3 Summary This chapter provides an overview of the line of work of Agentschap Telecom. The main tasks of Agentschap Telecom is developing and allocating spectrum and assigning this spectrum to users by issuing licenses. Furthermore, the compliance to these licenses is monitored by performing several supervising tasks. This situation is changed by the increased usage of LE spectrum. While the benefits of LE spectrum are recognized (fostering innovation and efficiency of spectrum usage), it is also recognized that it will require a different approach in ensuring network availability and quality. The interest of Agentschap Telecom is to identify means to ensure availability and quality of networks operating in LE bands.

8 Spread-spectrum is a modulation technology which ‘spreads’ energy across frequency bands which causes signals to become indistinguishable from background noise. This makes spread-spectrum relatively robust with respect to interference (Lemstra, Arnbak, Stout, Hayes, & Wissing, 2007).

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3 Research Plan This chapter states the problem addressed in this thesis and articulates the way in which this research aims to contribute to a solution to this problem. To develop a research design, the guidelines developed by De Leeuw (2000) are used. In the problem statement, the research objective and the research questions are defined. Finally, a research method is presented in which all successive steps that work towards the research objective are stated.

3.1 Problem statement As discussed in the former sections, WCNs are vulnerable for signal degradation caused by interference. This potentially leads to degradation in service quality on these networks. Noting that WCNs are increasingly being deployed and are projected to support business-critical processes and are serving considerable interests, degradation in service quality can cause significant risks for stakeholders. There is a need to manage these risks. Risk management is referred to as the tools available to influence the causes of risks. Therefore in order to develop risk management, insight is needed into these causes. To approach this problem, a workable definition of service quality is required. In this thesis the concept of service quality is addressed from a business perspective. The following section aims to define a workable definition of service quality from a business perspective in a telecommunication context. With this definition in place, the research objective and research questions are is discussed according to the guidelines by De Leeuw (2000).

3.1.1 Definition of service quality From a technical viewpoint, network performance is referred to as Quality of Service (QoS). QoS essentially includes the measurement of network characteristics and matching required performance levels of these characteristics with services. By this means the appropriate QoS levels can be defined for each service. The main determinants of QoS are (Tenenbaum, 2003):

- Throughput or bit rate: expressed as the average duration of successful message delivery over a communication channel. The throughput is usually measured in bits per second.

- Delay or latency: specifies how long it takes for a bit of data to travel across the network from one device to another. Delay is measures in seconds or fragments of seconds.

- Jitter: specifies the variability over time of packet delay across a network. Jitter determines the extent in which systems can be designed to anticipate on delay. Thereby this characteristic is of importance for real-time applications.

- Packet loss: occurs when one or more packets of data travelling across a network fail to reach their destination. Packet loss can be caused by a number of factors of which the most important is signal degradation over the network medium.

A less aggregated approach however is needed to assess service quality from a business point of view. From this perspective, quality is assessed from a customer’s viewpoint which involves criteria that go beyond technical aspects. Quality is a word often used as if it refers to a single obvious attribute. However, contemplation of even the simplest product shows that quality involves a bundle of notions. In the goods sector, the consumer employs many tangible clues to judge quality e.g. style, hardness, color, feel, package etc. In the service sector however, there often is a lack of physical elements for consumers to evaluate quality since services are performances rather than objects. This is referred to as intangibility. Additionally, service quality is determined simultaneously with the delivery—the production and consumption of a service are inseparable. The third and final main characteristic of services is that they are heterogeneous: their performance will differ from producer to producer, from consumer to consumer and from day to day. These three main characteristics of a

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service—intangibility, inseparability and heterogeneous nature—make it difficult for consumers to evaluate its quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985).

A common finding in literature is that service quality perceptions from a consumer’s perspective results from a comparison of expectations with actual performance. Lewis & Booms (1993) state the following: “Service quality is a measure of how well the service level delivered matches customer expectations. Delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectations on a consistent basis”. In line with this thinking, Gronroos (1982) developed a model which articulates that consumers compare the service they expect with perceptions of the service they receive in evaluating service quality. Parasuraman et al. (1985) consolidated all research on service quality and constructed a model that shows how consumers evaluate service quality (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Model of perceived service quality (Parasuraman et al. 1985)

The perceived quality is a result of the comparison between the expectations one has of the service and the actual perceived service. When perceived service meets or exceeds expectations, service quality will be perceived high. When the perceived service does not meet expectations, quality is perceived low.

Gozdecki et al. (2003) recognize this approach and consider it applicable in a context of IP networks. They argue that along with intrinsic QoS—which involves the technical engineering of network performance and which is evaluated by the comparison of measured and expected performance characteristics—perceived QoS has to be taken into account. Perceived QoS reflects the customer’s experience of using a particular service. More specifically, perceived QoS is constructed by a comparison of customer expectations and observed service performance.

Figure 4: QoS in IP networks (Gozdecki et al., 2003)

The assumption that expectation is a key element when evaluating service quality is stressed by the research performed by Bouch & Sasse (2000). They argue that users’ expectations of network performance directly influence their subsequent judgement regarding the QoS they received. There

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research shows that received network quality that concurs with that which is expected by the user is judged as more acceptable than an identical level of quality that is not expected by the user (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: QoS rating and user expectations (Bouch & Sasse, 2000)

The perceived service quality construct as shown in Figure 3 provides a workable definition to approach the problem from a business perspective. Furthermore, the research by Bouch & Sasse (2000) and Gozdecki et al. (2003) provides proof that this definition is valid in the context adressed here. Therefore, this definition will be used throughout this research.

3.1.2 Research objective Considering the problem stated: WCNs are subject to degrading service quality due to interference and the degradation of service quality will lead to considerable risk for stakeholders and given the definition of service quality in the former section, the following research objective is defined:

This thesis aims to establish means for stakeholders in Wireless City Networks to improve risk management in order to reduce the gap between expected and perceived service.

3.1.3 Research questions Based on this objective, the following Main Research Question is formulated:

What elements of risk management can be identified for stakeholders in Wireless City Networks in order to reduce the gap between expected service and perceived service?

The following sub questions (RQ1-3) are formulated which are used to provide an answer to the Main Research Question:

RQ1 Which stakeholders are involved in WCNs and what are their interests, roles, responsibilities and associated risks?

RQ2 Which causes of the gap between expected service and perceived service in WCNs–leading to degradation of service quality– can be identified?

RQ3 What means are available to reduce this gap and how can they be applied in WCNs in order to manage risks?

This research in particular considers the role of Agentschap Telecom in the addressed problem area. Therefore in RQ3 special attention is given to means applicable for Agentschap Telecom.

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3.2 Research design This section defines the research type and aims to give an overview of the successive steps to be taken to answer the sub questions. Furthermore, the theory used to answer the sub questions is introduced. The chapter is concluded by presenting a research model.

3.2.1 Research type Evaluating De Leeuw (2000), this research is a Problem Solving Research. A Problem Solving Research aims at finding solutions for a stated problem. De Leeuw (2000) distinguishes two types of Problem Solving Researches: one focuses more on developing a new design, while the other type of research focuses on improving the current problem situation. End-products of Problem Solving Researches are realized systems or products or improved situations, respectively. Because the interest of a regulator (Agentschap Telecom) in networks operating license-exempt bands remains the same but the means by which this is achieved require adjustments, this thesis deals with a design focused Problem Solving Research. The designed solution is therefore not an end in itself but a means to improve performance. It will enable Agentschap telecom to conduct their tasks better to ensure the availability and quality of networks operating in LE bands.

3.2.2 Research theories To answer the research questions different theories are applied. In Chapter 4, a stakeholder analysis is performed. Based on this analysis, a stakeholder framework is developed. The roots of stakeholder analysis are in the political and policy sciences, and it is introduced as a managerial tool by Freeman (1984). Stakeholder analysis aims to evaluate and understand stakeholders from the perspective of an organization, or to determine their relevance to a project or policy. Because certain stakeholders have similar roles, interests and relationships, a model is developed to outline the basic relationships between the different stakeholders involved in service delivery: the service quality chain. By this means an answer to RQ1 is provided.

The SERVQUAL gap model (Parasuraman et al., 1985) is proposed to give insight into the business processes influencing perceived service quality. The basic thought of this model is that a set of discrepancies exists within businesses regarding executive perceptions of service quality and tasks associated with service delivery to consumers. The model is applied to all stakeholders in the service quality chain, thereby identifying potential discrepancies in processes that underlying the risks of interference. By this means an answer to RQ2 is provided.

After identifying causes of problems in Chapter 6, means to address these problems are discussed. These means should contribute in the way that stakeholders can ensure the availability and quality of networks operating in LE bands. This provides an answer to RQ3.

3.2.3 Research model The research model is a conceptual representation of the research strategy including the successive research steps and deliverables (Figure 6). For each deliverable the associated research question is given.

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Figure 6: Research model

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4 Theoretical Framework This chapter aims to give an overview of the current state of WCNs based on literature. The information is analyzed and generalized in order to derive a comprehensive set of stakeholder roles. The stakeholders considered as most relevant in this research are selected and the service quality chain is defined. Additionally, an overview of all services mentioned in the literature reviewed is compiled wherein the risks of interference are assessed. Finally, a model is proposed to define means to manage these risks.

4.1 Literature review WCNs The majority of literature on Wireless City Network initiatives focuses on the role of municipalities and the political debate to what extent local governments should participate in the establishment of telecommunication infrastructures (Lehr, Sirbu & Gillett, 2006; Bar & Park, 2006; Tapia, Maitland & Stone, 2006; Ballon, Van Audenhove, Poel & Staelens, 2007). A general finding is that the private sector has failed to provide broadband access to segments other than which are financially attractive for them, and given the fact that broadband access nowadays has an important role in all economical as well as social processes it is desirable that the government intervenes. This is referred to as market failure. Key interests of municipalities herein is bridging the digital divide—that is providing broadband access as a public service for minorities thereby fostering economical development—as well as providing wireless connectivity to city employees to improve efficiency. Furthermore, municipal involvement is explained by pointing out that cities both have the means to provide inexpensive deployment—e.g. they have the locations to mount equipment (lamppost, public buildings, traffic lights, etc.) readily available—and the motives to provide wireless connectivity to city employees, foster the economic development of communities and offer universal and affordable broadband services to residents (Lehr, Sirbu & Gillett, 2006; Bar & Park, 2006).

Bar & Park (2006) and Ballon et al. (2007) performed studies on the subject of WCNs and business models. These studies are relevant in this context because a business model has implications for the stakeholders involved in a WCN. The studies take different approaches: Bar & Park (2006) propose 9 potential business models based on a theoretical perspective while Ballon et al. (2007) propose 6 business model configurations which are empirically tested.

Bar & Park (2006) propose potential business models ordered according to two questions: who owns the network and who operates it. These two questions yield nine viable business models as illustrated in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Business Models of WCNs (adapted from Bar & Park, 2006)

Three options for network ownership and fulfilling the operator role are presented: the city, one private actor or multiple private actors. Each of the proposed business models are addressed in the following sections.

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For city-owned networks, that is where the municipality is the owner of the infrastructure, there are three possible configurations. Cities often choose to own the Wi-Fi infrastructure when the main objective is to provide communications facilities for the city’s internal needs. They typically contract with an equipment maker to install network equipment on city-owned sites. When their plans go beyond internal use to include offering Wi-Fi services to the public, municipalities have three main choices:

- The first option is that the city operates and retails the network itself through a public utility along the lines of municipal water and power utilities. The most prominent reason for adopting this model is to take advantage of the past experience of public utility companies in provision of other infrastructures. Through such an arrangement, cities can leverage their existing resources for subscriber acquisition, customer service, technical support and billing.

- A second option is for the city to act as a wholesaler. In this case, the city sells excess capacity in the network to a single private service provider such as a telecom company or an internet service provider who then retails the service to the city residents. In this model the city funds the design, construction and operation of the Wi-Fi network, the private service provider performs customer acquisition, customer service, technical support and billing. The city can still receive benefits from owning the infrastructure through reduced telecommunication costs.

- A third option is an adjustment on the wholesale model in which the city offers excess capacity in its network to several ISPs as an open platform.

In networks with a single private owner, municipalities make an agreement with one private company to build and own the network, under an agreement that allows them to use city-owned antenna sites.

- The first option in this configuration is that the municipality chooses to operate a set of hosted services on a private infrastructure. A city choosing this configuration would essentially set up a municipality-controlled ISP offering service on privately-owned network facilities. This option is possible in theory but highly unlikely in practice (Bar & Park, 2006).

- A second option is that the private network owner operates the network as well as sells services directly to consumers. In most cases, the municipality is the private owner’s main customer or Anchor Tenant—the municipality commits itself to buy services from the private owner for a given period thereby (partly) securing the private owner’s investments. Also the municipality is able to negotiate certain service provisioning since it controls the rights over the sites needed to mount network equipment. This involves e.g. limits to monthly subscription fees or requirements to insure certain network coverage throughout the city.

- The third option is theoretically possible but not likely to be implemented in practice. In this case the private network owner would act as a common carrier, making its Wi-Fi network infrastructure available to multiple ISPs, city services, and possibly other such as private networks. They may choose to do so because of requirements imposed by the city (for example in exchange for access rights to antenna sites) or because it makes business sense to have others retail the service to individual customers. This is one of the options currently under discussion in the city of San Francisco.

The third and final configuration proposed by Bar & Park (2006) is that the network has multiple private owners. In this case the city may choose to encourage construction of Wi-Fi networks by multiple players. For this configuration the three possible business models are:

- The first option for the municipality is to offer a common public overlay to these multiple networks that could range from uniform ‘city branding’ to uniform login and authentication.

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- A second option would be for the multiple network owners to outsource service provisioning and billing operations to a private overlay operator. This option is common in commercial public Wi-Fi provision in cafés and hotels.

- A third option is a set of diversely-owned network facilities operated by multiple players. This option is not found in practice so far, but the concept is expected to provide an interesting test of the self-organizing organic mesh enabling a broadly open spectrum common. In this setting, current Wi-Fi deployments would naturally emerge into a more ubiquitous network where the multiple players seek collaboration. It also thinkable that local governments would take an active role by promoting Wi-Fi deployment in public buildings and making antenna sites available in exchange for a commitment to cooperate with other Wi-Fi networks in the area.

As mentioned before Ballon et al. (2007) elaborate on the proposed business models by Bar & Park (2006) by arguing that while theoretically possible, for many of them insufficient empirical proof exists. Based on the comparison of 15 cases in the US and the EU, they present a simplified approach yielding 6 business model configurations. These configurations are distinguished on two levels: network ownership and service provisioning. On the level of network ownership these are:

- Private player: the network is operated on the basis of a contractual arrangement in the form of a license, concession, etc. The municipality contributes by providing access to sites, existing backbones, financial support, etc.

- Public player: the municipality own the network and operates it itself.

- Open site: the municipality provides open access to sites for the construction of networks.

- Community player: the network is operated by a community of individuals and/or organizations.

On the level of service provisioning these are:

- Private player: one private player provides access to services on the network.

- Public player: a public or non-profit actor provides access to services on the network/

- Wholesale: various private players build don a wholesale access offer and provide services to end-users.

- No specific ISP: there is no specific party providing access to end-user services (e.g. because only point-to-point data links are provided).

This theoretically yields 16 combinations of business model configurations. However, combinations that are impossible or highly unlikely have been omitted, and configurations resulting in very similar business models were joined together. By this means, 6 potential business models can be identified and are graphically displayed in Figure 8.

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Figure 8: Business Model Configurations in WCNs (adapted from Ballon et al. 2007)

Each configuration (1-6) is addressed below:

1. Private-private model: a private player is selected by the municipality by means of a tendering procedure. The municipality provides sites and facilities (lamppost, traffic lights, etc.) on which the selected actor can build the network. Limited public financial input is provided. The same private actor delivers services to end-users and in most cases service provisioning is limited to city employees.

2. Private-wholesale model: a private player builds the network and the municipality provides public sites and facilities (lamppost, traffic lights, etc.) on which the private actor can build the network. The usage of these sites is compensated by the private network owner by direct financial returns to the city, granting inexpensive network access to city employees and agreeing to price caps for citizens. The city becomes anchor tenant of the network. The private player provides network capacity to external service providers (wholesale).

3. Public-public model: in this case the municipality decides to—usually from the rationale that internet access should be free and accessible to all—construct and operate a Wi-Fi network as a public utility. The city carries full cost of network deployment and operation and in addition functions as service provider. Therefore, the city is free to determine services and prices entirely by itself (in most cases internet access will be free for all). Financing is assured through taxes and through operational cost savings in municipal services.

4. Public-wholesale model: in the model the network is financed and operated by the municipality and is subsequently opened up in a wholesale arrangement to service providers. The model is similar to the private-wholesale model in terms of service provisioning. The expectation is that allowing several service providers to make use of the wireless infrastructure will enable innovations and affordable tariffs, while alleviating concerns over unfair competition.

5. Open site model: in this model the city grants access to a number of public sites or to its backbone infrastructure for whomever whishes to roll out a wireless network. The objective in this case is to have preferably several network builders and operators competing among each other. Given the fact that some infrastructure competition is aimed for, it is not likely that the municipality will use the concession or contracts—linked to the use of public sites—to enforce a wholesale model. Private operators may of course still decide to adopt a wholesale model.

6. Community model: in the community model a group of individuals or (non-profit) organizations link up to form a wireless network. This type of models can be disruptive to private as well as public models. A vibrant example of this model is Wireless Leiden. The network is build and operated by the wireless community itself. There is no specific ISP. Another initiative

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addressed by the authors is Turku. Here a virtual network layer is built upon existing private broadband network. Members of the community open their routers to all other members. A private company fulfills the role as service provider of this virtual network layer. It authenticates and provides access to members (for free) and to guests who do not own a router (paid access)—the community mandates a private player to be the service provider. The municipality can participate in such models by providing sites and provide additional resources to buy network equipment. In general influence of public bodies are low and there seems no possibility for public to influence the pace, scope or focus of the initiatives.

The literature reviewed so far primarily focuses on the position of municipalities in a WCN and the different possible business models in WCNs. While municipalities are recognized as key stakeholders in WCNs this thesis aims to move beyond political discussions by giving a broader overview. Therefore additional surveys and feasibility studies are reviewed which take a more general approach (Kramer, Lopez & Koonen, 2006; Stratix Consulting, 2006; Mandviwalla et al., 2006). In these surveys and feasibility studies several cases and business models are discussed. Through discussing the business models, each case deals with its own set of stakeholders. In Appendix 3 the identified stakeholders and associated roles of the reviewed cases are listed.

4.2 Stakeholder roles In the following sections each stakeholder role identified in the reviewed literature (see Appendix 3) is described and an overview is presented graphically in Figure 9. Important to note is that none of the reviewed literature addresses the role of spectrum regulators or in any way addresses the issue of interference in Wireless City Networks—which confirms that this problem area is not yet covered by literature. Nevertheless it is argued here that the role of the regulator is an important one and therefore will be included in the stakeholder framework. The role of the regulator is defined based on the viewpoint articulated by Agentschap Telecom (Agentschap Telecom, 2008; Arts & Leonhard, 2007).

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Figure 9: Stakeholder framework WCNs

4.2.1 Sponsor Sponsors are the parties willing to invest in a wireless infrastructure. They can aim to fulfill an active role in the form of service provider or end-user, or a passive role—not participate in the project but just aiming on a return on investment. Either way sponsors are willing to invest because they believe the infrastructure will contribute to their long-term goals and their interests lie in the continuity of the infrastructure.

In the reviewed literature, a sponsor role is in all cases fulfilled by the local government of the city subject to the wireless infrastructure. In many cases, other large institutions in the city such as libraries, universities and utility companies fulfill the role as sponsor as well. In many cases the sponsor has an agreement with the operator which, in exchange of monetary resources, states requirements of the network. This can involve technical requirements of the network e.g. certain geographic areas of coverage within the city or certain minimal requirement of bandwidth, as well as other agreements such as a limit of subscription fees the operator can charge. The deal often not only includes monetary resources but also the provisioning of (public) sites needed to establish the network. E.g. a municipality agrees to provide their public sites such as lamppost and traffic lights to the operator to mount antennas in exchange for a limit of fees the operator can charge to the municipality. In these cases sponsors fulfill the role of provider of public sites as well.

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4.2.2 Operator The operator is the party that builds and manages the network infrastructure which includes antennas and other network equipment as well as the support organization. The operator can be a public or a private actor. In case of a private actor there will primarily be commercial interests—profit and continuity. In case of a public actor—in Wireless City Networks this will usually be a municipality—interests will be focused on serving the public e.g. by providing an infrastructure for taxpayers.

The operator needs to have agreements with sponsors in order to establish the finance needed to develop the network. Also, agreements with public site owners are needed to get access to locations to mount network equipment throughout the city. Furthermore, operators have contracts with service providers to which they sell network capacity. The last relationship mentioned is a provider-buyer agreement wherein the operator is the provider and the service provider is the buyer.

4.2.3 Supplier Companies that supply network equipment—including hardware and software—to operators needed to establish the wireless infrastructure are referred to as suppliers. Suppliers have contracts with the operator and are responsible to supply the proper equipment to achieve certain service quality levels on the network. By this means suppliers contribute to the service quality levels delivered on the network. The contracts between suppliers and the operator are identified as a provider-buyer relationship.

Furthermore, the role of supplier also refers to the companies providing equipment to service providers and end-users as well as equipment to other applications in LE bands which may cause interference with the Wireless City Network. Considering this, suppliers can fulfill an important role in coping with interference. Suppliers should incorporate technology in their products that takes the situation of interference into account. Examples are incorporation of modulation techniques that are interference-tolerant (e.g. spread spectrum techniques) or incorporate systems that diagnose the level of interference and handle accordingly (e.g. give warning signals).

4.2.4 Service provider A party that aims to provide services to end-users on the network infrastructure is referred to as a service provider. A service provider can either have a commercial interest—that is aiming for profit and continuity, or non-commercial interests—to provide services that support tasks in an organization rather than generate revenue directly. These two types are distinguished here as commercial and institutional service providers.

In the case of a commercial service provider the analogy with commercial ISPs and mobile telecommunication providers can be made—a commercial service provider seeks customers which will have a sales contract specifying (monthly) fees and other pricing structures and the agreed level of service provided. Examples of such service providers in Wireless City Networks are WISP, providing wireless internet access throughout the city for paying customers. Another example is a commercial party that provides VoIP services, providing voice services as an alternative to GSM and UMTS networks.

An institutional service provider uses the wireless infrastructure for non-commercial reasons. This can best be illustrated with the following examples:

- A municipality fulfills the role of an institutional service provider when it aims to provide wireless connectivity and additional functionality to its employees in order to improve efficiency. Examples are providing maintenance workers with PDAs to provide onsite information on building plans and work schedules or to establish AMR networks to get real-time information on the status of garbage containers. These services will not generate

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revenue for the municipality directly, but rather improve overall service levels and efficiency—maintenance workers will be able to work more efficiently, ultimately reducing the FTEs needed for the job and the timeliness of garbage container servicing can be improved.

- A police department fulfills the role of institutional service provider by developing information services for police officers in the field, ultimately improving public safety. Examples are enabling police vehicles to receive streaming video from various security cameras throughout the city.

- A municipality can engage as an institutional service provider by developing services aimed at tourist to create a more attractive environment for visitors. This will not generate revenue directly; however increased tourism in a city will contribute to the local economy.

- Internet access is considered a necessary condition for economical development. A municipality can engage by providing internet access as a public utility using the WCN. This will not generate revenue but will contribute to the development of the local economy.

Whether commercial or institutional, a service provider will have a purchasing contract with the operator, specifying the pricing structure as well as the agreed service level (bandwidth, availability, etc.). Also, a service provider will have a contract with its end-users. In the case of a commercial service provider, this contract will be made explicit by means of a sales contract. In case of a institutional service provider, the contract will in most cases not be made explicit. Relevant for this research is to identify the buyer-provider relationships: a service provider buys network capacity off the operator (as mentioned in 4.2.2.) and an end-users buys a service from a service provider.

4.2.5 End-user An end-user is a person that uses a service on the network. An end-user has certain requirements and expectations regarding the service. The service provider needs to take these requirements and expectations into account.

An end-user can be a customer—that is a person that pays a fee to use a service, e.g. a subscription to a WISP operating on the wireless infrastructure. In this case the end-user will have a contract with a commercial service provider. Also, an end-user can be an employee—or in another way a member of an organization—that uses a service on the network to support its tasks and not directly paying for the service. In this case the end-user will have a contract with an institutional service provider. In both cases, an end-user will have a buyer-provider relationship with the service provider.

4.2.6 Public site owner In order to develop the Wireless City Network public sites are needed to mount network equipment (antennas, routers etc.). Owners of public sites and real estate are required to participate in WCNs in order for operators to get access to sufficient sites to develop a city-wide network. By this means the owners fulfill the role of providing access to public sites for operators.

Such stakeholders have an important role in WCN project—their involvement is needed in order for the project to succeed. Therefore they have a special position for negotiation. E.g. they can require the operator to limit the fees charged in order for them to provide the rights to use the sites. They have certain choices to make as well—for what time span will the sites be available to the operator, and will the sites be provided exclusively to one operator? In this sense, site owners will have the power to decide whether multiple wireless operators will be accepted in the city or just one.

The main public site owner in a city in most cases is the municipality. The municipality owns sites such as lamppost, traffic lights, etc. which are key locations for mounting network equipment. Furthermore, large real estate owners such as universities, public schools and housing corporations will fulfill the

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role of site provider. In many cases a public site owner chooses to participate in the project by fulfilling a role as service provider or end-user.

4.2.7 Regulator As mentioned, the reviewed literature on Wireless City Networks does not address the subject of interference or addresses the role of spectrum regulators at all. Probably this is due to the fact that WCNs operate in LE bands and there regulators have no formal role. However, it is argued here that regulators can, and should fulfill a role in WCN projects.

The regulator’s interest is to stimulate the use of available frequencies for increase of welfare. WCN initiatives are therefore—as all LE usage of frequencies—encouraged. However, a regulator is also interested in ensuring availability and continuity of all networks—especially when such networks are projected to support vital services such as public safety and healthcare. In other words, a regulator is concerned with a WCN causing interference on other infrastructures and with the WCN being hampered by other infrastructures. For these reason regulators precept a WCN not to use so much power that other applications in LE bands are hampered. Other forms of legislation apart from power limitations are thinkable as well—prescribe which equipment an operator is allowed to use, and what density of antennas is allowed throughout the city. Furthermore, a regulator should—using its knowledge on telecommunications and frequencies—advice WCN initiatives on the field of which type of applications are suitable for the infrastructure.

4.2.8 Citizen A resident of the city subject to the WCN is referred to as a citizen. A citizen may or may not be an end-user of the WCN. This stakeholder role is addressed here because a citizen may have certain concerns regarding the WCN and it is important for the operator to take these concerns into account. The two main concerns are:

- Since WCN use radio waves as a medium for telecommunications, establishing such a network will result in increased levels of radiation in the city. Whether supported by scientific proof or not, citizens may believe that this radiation can be harmful for their health.

- Since WCN operate in LE bands and citizens have the same rights of using these bands, citizen may be concerned with the interference on these bands caused by the WCN. This can be illustrated with the situation wherein a city resident wants to establish a home network using a Wi-Fi router, and encounters interference by a node operated by the WCN next to his house.

4.3 Service Quality Chain The objective of this research focuses on identifying means to manage risk regarding quality degradation in WCNs. For this reason, the stakeholder relationships involved in the process of service delivery are of importance. All stakeholders involved in service delivery are apprehended here in the service quality chain. Basic thought of this is as follows: the end-user has certain expectations regarding a service and according to this defines certain requirements. To meet these requirements, service providers subsequently have requirements regarding network performance which are controlled by the operator. In order for the operator to achieve the required network performance, network components are required that enable such network performance. These components are provided by the supplier. From the previous it can be concluded that the role of the supplier, operator, service provider and end-user make up the service quality chain (see Figure 10). Considering this the following relationships are included in the Service Quality Chain:

- The operator buying network equipment from a supplier in order to establish the wireless infrastructure.

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- The service provider buying network capacity from the operator in order to facilitate its services on the network.

- The end-user buying services from service providers. In this case buying must not be taken literally. The end-user can either be a consumer (paying a fee directly to the service provider), the service can be made available to the end-user as an additional service (e.g. students getting access to the wireless network as part of their enrollment) or the end-user uses a service to support its task (e.g. employees of the municipality is expected to use wireless service in their work). In all cases the end-user is referred to as a buyer.

Figure 10: Service Quality Chain in a WCN

The three relations in the Service Quality Chain differ in nature. Both supplier-operator and operator-service provider relations are B2B relationships, while the service provider-end-user relation is a B2C relationship. B2B and B2C relations have different characteristics: see Table 1 (Anderson & Narus, 2004).

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Table 1: Characteristics of B2C and B2B relationships (Anderson & Narus, 2004)

B2C B2B

Product driven Relationship driven

Maximize the value of the transaction Maximize the value of the relationship

Large target market Small, focused target market

Single step buying process, shorter sales cycle Multi-step buying process, longer sales cycle

Brand identity created through repetition and imagery Brand identity created on personal relationship

Merchandising and point of purchase activities Educational and awareness building activities

Emotional buying decision based on status, desire, or price Rational buying decision based on business value

Considering the research objective, it is the service provider – end-user relationship that requires the most attention. The reasons for this are:

- The demand of the end-user is the key driver to develop a WCN. When a service provider fails to meet the requirements of end-users, it is unlikely a sustainable network can be created.

- As this relation is a B2C relationship, discrepancies in expectations and perceived quality is more likely to occur due to the fact that there is less close collaboration (see section 4.5).

- It is in this relationship where interference problems will directly surface. An end-user will report connection problems and degraded service levels due to interference to the service provider.

In the following section a generic overview of potential services on WCNs offered by service providers to end-users are discussed. This overview is compiled using the literature reviewed in section 4.1. For each service type the risk of interference is assessed based on the probability of the occurrence of interference as well as the impact of the event when it occurs. The following definition of risk is used:

Risk = (probability of event occurring) x (impact of event occurring)

By assessing these two factors the extent of risk per service type is defined. This is shown graphically in Figure 11.

4.4 Applications 4.4.1 Municipality and utility industry applications For many cities, streaming workflow in the field represents an enormous potential reduction in the staff required to accomplish the city’s work and increase in productivity. A primary goal is enabling employees to remain in the field instead of having to return to an office to receive the next assignment. Using wirelessly enabled PDAs or laptops allow city personnel to receive job assignments, research material or equipment databases while in the field. With wireless mobility, city personnel can become more responsive to ad hoc assignment changes.

A key application for municipalities and utility industries is automatic meter reading (AMR). A wireless network can automatically aggregate data using AMR systems in areas of a city. This eliminates the need for manual reading, which is not only expensive and time-intensive but may also be a safety risk

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for meter reading personnel. AMR systems enable real-time monitoring of water and electricity usage data by the utility industry, creating more visibility into consumption. With real-time monitoring, companies can determine if a high usage of electricity or water at any given time could be a result of faults in the system, such as water leakage from broken pipes. A quick response can improve customer satisfaction with the agency performance in emergency situations.

From a technical perspective, AMR systems in general don’t have high requirements regarding throughput or latency—in most cases relatively small amounts of data is being transferred nor are they time-sensitive. However, they have stringent demands regarding reliability and network coverage: in most cases, pending a reading is not an option. For instance when monitoring gas pipes it is of importance that the system is able the read the status at all times. Also, objects may be spread across wide geographic areas therefore large areas of network coverage are required. Considering the little amounts of data being transferred in an AMR system, implicating that in most cases there will be redundancy in bandwidth; it is argued that there is a moderate probability that the occurrence of interference will hamper the functioning of the system directly.

If however interference leads to connection problems with the meters included in the AMR network, it will potentially cause an AMR to aggregate inaccurate data or to generate a delay in aggregating the data. When connection problems due to interference are detected, users have to switch back to manual reading, yielding significant increase in work hours and associated costs. In this case the impact is considered low. When users however rely heavily on AMR systems—for instance when it is used as the primary system to detect water or gas leakage—interference problems will have a significant impact. E.g. a gas leakage not being detect for some hours will generate significant costs as well as potential health hazards.

4.4.2 Public safety applications Public safety applications cover a broad spectrum of potential users: police, fire, emergency medical services and airports. Some examples of applications that improve the effectiveness of public safety agencies include the following:

- Mobile data access—immediate access to records, warrants, photographs, criminal records and Amber Alerts9 to speed decision making an increase safety.

- Streaming video and digital images—video surveillance from government buildings and businesses to gauge the nature of the response needed.

- Building schematics and plans—immediate access to schematics and plans as critical aid to fire safety personnel in search and rescue operations.

- Ad hoc wireless networks—critical for facilitating local communication among emergency responders.

Mobile devices such as laptops and PDAs are most commonly used for these applications. The devices are generally used in response vehicles or “rugged” for use outside the vehicle. Because of the highly sensitive nature of much of the information, security measures for these applications must be much more stringent than for municipal or public use applications.

From a technical perspective this type of applications required high levels of systems coverage, capacity, security and control. Furthermore, public safety agencies are often accustomed to deploying and managing their own private systems. The latter can be achieved in a WCN infrastructure by

9 System to publish high-priority reports about missing children

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providing a public safety agency with a private SSID10. Regarding the former, WCNs theoretically enable higher levels of capacity in comparison to most commercial-grade networks (e.g. Wi-Fi technology supports significant higher data rates than UMTS). However, on the occurrence of interference these performance levels may be jeopardized. It is argued here that the probability that the occurrence of interference will hamper this type of applications is high: in general the applications require large amount of bandwidth (e.g. transferring images, video, etc.) and they are in many cases time-sensitive (streaming video, VoIP). Therefore there will be limited redundancy in bandwidth, and also increased levels of latency will directly affect the quality of the delivered service.

Considering the nature of this type of applications— they are often used in emergency situations where lives are at stake—the impact of the occurrence of interference hampering the applications will go beyond financial loss. Rather the occurrence has a societal impact (e.g. loss of life) and therefore the impact is considered high.

4.4.3 Applications for healthcare A WCN can create an environment to support telecare applications. Telecare is a term used to provide remote care of elderly and vulnerable people, providing the care and reassurance needed to allow them to remain living in their own homes. The use of sensors is often part of a package which can provide support for people with illnesses such as dementia or people at risk of falling. Additionally, a WCN can provide services to support healthcare workers in the field. E.g. remotely accessing and updating patient records. These services can provide an enormous potential increase in productivity.

From a technical perspective these types of applications have stringent requirements regarding data rate and time-sensitivity because they use streaming video—a patient uses a two-way video stream to communicate with the healthcare provider. Also, because of the sensors used as alerting devices, reliability is of importance. For instance, when a patient is provided with a sensor used to transmit a signal in case of heart failure, it is of essence that this sensor is able to transmit the signal at all times. Because of the high requirements regarding data rate and latency combined with high requirements regarding availability, the probability that the occurrence of interference hampering the system is considering high.

Similar to public safety applications, healthcare applications deal with societal rather than solely financial interests. To an even larger extent the health of people are at stake. When systems fail due to interference, it may occur that alerting signals are delayed or even aren’t transmitted at all. Obviously, this can have significant impact. Also, the key driver of engaging in this type of applications is cost savings for healthcare providers. When systems do not perform as expected the projected costs savings aren’t realized or even additional costs are generated (e.g. insurance claims). Considering this societal as well as financial losses, the impact for healthcare applications are considered high.

4.4.4 Public use applications Public use applications represent the most widely discussed area of outdoor wireless networks based on Wi-Fi. Applications range from free, pervasive outdoor deployment in city centers for use by anyone, to daily fee-based systems and monthly subscriptions for businesses and residents in select areas. Applications using the network therefore will be broad, but in general the primary goal is to provide a high-speed broadband connection. While the laptop is currently the primary device for connecting to the network, a wide range of devices that are designed to connect to public Wi-Fi networks are becoming available. Examples include mobile data devices such as phones that operate as Wi-Fi devices and even cameras that are enabled with embedded wireless LAN clients. 10 A SSID represents a Service Set Identified which is an authentication method used in the 802.11x protocols. SSID provides means of virtually separating networks.

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As mentioned this type of applications covers a wide array of service types from a technical perspective therefore it is difficult to assess the probability regarding interference affecting service quality. In general, when applications are real-time (e.g. streaming video and VoIP) they will be less tolerant for interference. Also, high data rates will have implications for bandwidth redundancy—the higher the required data rate, the lesser redundancy in bandwidth therefore a lower tolerance regarding interference.

While in many cases interference will influence the quality of services delivered, it is argued that the impact will be less severe than the application types described in the former section: for many services it is likely that they will be provided on a best-effort basis—for example free broadband access for city residents. In that case, the impact of interference causing service quality degradation will not go further than “citizens not being content with the wireless network” and thereby is considered low. In other cases, there is an agreement between end-user and service provider: a certain service level is agreed upon and a monthly fee is paid by the end-user. When in this case interference hampers the agreed service level, the end-user will report to the service provider and there will be to a certain extent financial as well as reputational damage for the service provider. In this case the impact is considered moderate.

4.4.5 Conclusion From the applications types discussed above different implications for the probability as well as the impact of interference can be identified. These implications are mapped in Figure 11. From the figure can be derived that for all addressed application types the probability of interference affecting the service levels is moderate to high. It can therefore be concluded that interference is an important aspect in the relationship between service provider and end-user (see Figure 10). The impact depends on the nature of the applications—in applications serving a societal interest, interference will in general have a large impact.

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Figure 11: Application types and associated risks

The former section gives an overview of the risks for stakeholders engaging in providing services on WCNs. Interference generates risk for service providers and, as articulated in chapter 1 and chapter 2, interference must be accepted as a fixed circumstance and cannot be eliminated from the scene. This research focuses on how to manage the risks of interference. To work towards means to achieve this, insight is needed in the processes of service delivery and service appreciation of stakeholders in the Service Quality Chain (see Figure 10). The following section a model is proposed to achieve this.

4.5 SERVQUAL gap model In Chapter 3, a definition of service quality from a business perspective is given. From a buyer’s level, service quality is defined by a comparison of expectations regarding service levels and the actual perceived service level. With this definition in place, a model is needed to provide insight in business processes affecting perceived service quality. Parasuraman et al. (1985) developed a conceptual model of based on focus group interviews with consumers and in-depth interviews with executives. The research has been conducted in various industries and common patterns have been identified yielding a general conceptual representation of service quality; the SERVQUAL gap model. The model summarizes the key aspects of service quality and the aspects affecting it (see Figure 12). Basic thought is that a set of discrepancies exists regarding executive perceptions of service quality and tasks associated with service delivery to consumers. These gaps can be major hurdles in attempting to deliver a service which consumers would perceive as being of high quality.

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Figure 12: SERVQUAL gap model (Parasuraman et al. 1985)

In this research, the model will be applied to all relationships in the Service Quality Chain (see Figure 10).

4.5.1 Service Quality Gap (SQG) On a buyer’s level, certain expectations regarding a service exists. According to Parasuraman et al. (1985), these expectations are a joint result of the personal needs of the buyer, past experiences of the buyer with a similar service, and word-of-mouth communications regarding the service. Based on the comparison between expectations and the experiences when actually using the service, the buyer defines service quality (see section 3.1.1). The discrepancy of the expected service and the perceived service is referred to as the Service Quality Gap (SQG). As mentioned in section 4.3, the Service Quality Chain consists of two B2B relationships and one B2C relationship. In general it can be stated that the SQG is less likely to occur in B2B relationships since parties are closely involved, and more information is available. Therefore it is less likely that a discrepancy exists between expectations and actual perceived service.

From a provider’s perspective, it is argued by the authors that there are several means in which the perceived service as well as the expectations from a buyer’s perspective can be moderated based on processes associated with the design, marketing and delivery of services. Goal of this moderation is to adjust expectations and/or perceived service, thereby adjusting the SQG. These processes are:

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1. The development of management perceptions regarding buyer expectations. This involves demand analysis and market research.

2. The translations of management perceptions regarding buyer expectations into service quality specifications. This involves planning the service and translating norms into technical specifications.

3. The delivery of the service. This involves the production of the service according to quality specifications.

4. External communications to buyers. This involves all information given to buyers regarding the service including advertising, technical support, etc.

In all these processes gaps can occur which are referred to as GAP1-4 respectively. Herein the size and direction of the SQG depends on the nature and extent of GAP1-4.

Gaps at the provider’s side of the equation can be favorable or unfavorable from a service quality perspective (Parasuraman et al., 1985). To illustrate; GAP3 will be favorable when actual service delivery exceeds specifications and it will be unfavorable when service specifications are not met. Also, when the provider’s external communications creates expectations which cannot be lived up to (GAP4) buyer expectations tend to exceed the perceived service performance thereby resulting in an unfavorable perceived service quality. However when the provider’s external communications are modest, it is more likely that buyer expectations meets the perceived performance, thereby leading to a more favorable perceived service quality.

The SERVQUAL gap model has become a widely accepted method to identify means to manage service quality levels and it has been applied in various studies in telecommunication industry (Meng & Zhang, 2008; Bouch & Sasse, 2000). Moreover, it can be concluded from Baal et al. (2007) that the basic thought of the model is consistent with Agentschap Telecom’s definition of vulnerability of telecommunication networks: vulnerability occurs when user expectations are not met by actual service delivery. For these reasons, the SERVQUAL gap model is used throughout this research to identify means to manage the risks of interference in WCNs.

In the following sections, each potential discrepancy on a provider’s level (GAP1-4) is described, thereby giving a generic listing of possible causes of these gaps according to the empirical study conducted by Palaima & Banyté (2006).

4.5.2 Management perception gap (GAP1) The management perception gap occurs when management perceives buyer quality expectations incorrectly. In essence, this gap occurs when management does not understand what features a service must have to meet the buyer’s demands and what levels of performance of service are needed to deliver high quality service. The gap is due to:

- Inaccurate information from market research and demand analysis.

- Inaccurately interpreted information about expectations.

- Nonexistent demand analysis.

- Bad or nonexistent upward information from the firm’s interface with its customers to management. Too many organizational layers which stop or change the pieces of information that may flow upward from those involved in customer contacts.

- Insufficient relationship focus.

- Inadequate services recovery.

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4.5.3 Management perception – service quality specification gap (GAP2) This gap means that service quality specifications are not consistent with management perceptions of quality expectations. The quality specification gap is a result of:

- Planning mistakes or insufficient planning procedures.

- Bad management of planning.

- Lack of clear goal-setting in the organization.

- Insufficient support for planning service quality from top management.

- Unsystematic new service development process.

- Vague, undefined service designs.

- Failure to connect service design to service positioning.

- Lack of customer defined service standards.

- Absence of process management to focus on customer requirements.

4.5.4 Service delivery gap (GAP3) GAP3 occurs when quality specifications are not met by performance in the service production and delivery process. The gap between service quality expectations and actual service delivery will directly affect the perceived service from a buyer’s perspective. The gap can have the following causes:

- Specifications which are too complicated and/or to rigid.

- Employees not agreeing with the specifications and therefore not fulfilling them.

- Specifications not being in line with existing corporate culture.

- Bad management of service operations.

- Lacking or insufficient of internal marketing.

- Technology and systems not facilitating performance according to specifications.

- Deficiencies in human resource policies: ineffective recruitment, role ambiguity and role conflict, poor employee-technology job fit, lack of empowerment, perceived control and teamwork.

- Failure to match supply and demand: failure to smooth peaks and valleys of demand, inappropriate customer mix, overreliance on price to smooth demand.

- Customers not fulfilling roles: customer ignorance of roles and responsibilities, customer negatively affecting each other.

- Problems with service intermediaries: channel conflict over objectives and performance, channel conflict over costs and reward, difficulty controlling quality and consistency, tension between empowerment and control.

4.5.5 Market communications gap (GAP4) Advertising and other external communications by a company affect buyer expectations. Especially in the case of new technologies where previous experiences are practically nonexistent—as is the case in WCNs—expectations of buyers will primarily be formed by the propositions made by the provider. Promising more than can be delivered will raise initial expectation but will lower perceptions of service quality when the promises are not fulfilled. Furthermore, when providers do not inform their buyers about the effort put into a service, buyers tend to perceive a delivered service in a less favorable way

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than when they are aware of the amount of effort that is devoted to serve their best interest (Parasuraman et al., 1985). By this means, external communications affects buyer’s expectations as well as the how the service is perceived. The market communications gap can be due to (Palaima & Banyté, 2006):

- Market communication planning not being integrated with service operations

- Lacking or insufficient coordination between traditional external marketing and operations

- The organization failing to perform according to specifications whereas marketing communication campaigns follow these specifications.

- An inherent propensity to exaggerate and this promise too much.

- Lack of integrated marketing communications: tendency to view each external communication as independent, not including interactive marketing in communications plans.

4.6 Summary In this chapter a stakeholder framework for WCNs is developed based on findings in literature. Furthermore, an overview is given of generic services to be provided on WCNs, including the associated risks due to interference. The risks are assessed based on the probability of interference hampering the service, as well as the impact when the event would occur. With insight into risks caused by interference in WCNs established, a model is proposed to provide means to identify the underlying processes that lead to service delivery, as well as the factors that lead to buyer expectations.

The next chapter includes the description of three cases. The description of the cases is based on the theoretical framework proposed in this chapter. By this means the cases can be used for further analysis to identify the underlying causes of problems discussed in this chapter and provide empirical evidence of these problems.

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5 Case Studies This chapter describes the WCN initiatives in The Netherlands: Wireless Groningen, Wireless Rotterdam and West Wireless. For each case, the background is described to provide insight into the rationale for the initiative as well as the events that have lead to the development of the network. Furthermore, a description is compiled using the framework developed in chapter 4 as a template. Regarding Wireless Groningen and Wireless Rotterdam it should be noted, since they are projects in development, the stakeholders involved in the project are subject to change. For instance, new stakeholders might be attracted recently and therefore not be included in the description. Furthermore, as the researcher was more involved with Wireless Groningen compared to the other two cases, this case yielded the most comprehensive description.

5.1 Wireless Groningen 5.1.1 Background In 2005 the Agreement of Groningen (AvG hereafter) made up of the city’s main knowledge institutions: University of Groningen (RUG), Hanzehogeschool (HG) and UMCG as well as the municipality of Groningen, took the initiative to investigate the feasibility of a Wireless City Network in the city of Groningen. A key finding from preliminary research was that the absence of investors so far was due to the fact that the uncertainty about the profitability of such a network was too high (referred to as “market failure” by Lehr, Sirbu & Gillett (2006)). Therefore, participants of the AvG decided to take the position of Anchor Tenants meaning that they would commit themselves to be guaranteed buyers of services in the startup phase of the network in order to secure investments of a private party. The foundation Stichting Draadloos Groningen (SDG) was established to mediate between the Anchor Tenants and a future contractor. The following goals of the initiative where formulated (Eekma et al., 2007):

- Foster development of the city of Groningen. Development of a wireless network is expected to attract businesses as well as inhabitants and students.

- Improve efficiency of municipality services. The municipality aims to offer services to their employees to support field work and improve communications. Opportunities are seen in AMRs and remote switching of public lighting.

- Improve public safety by providing support to police forces by means of streaming video.

- Improve healthcare efficiency and provide a platform to develop new means to use ICT to support healthcare services.

- Providing a research environment for researchers and students of the University of Groningen and Hanzehogeschool and thereby giving students and researchers the opportunity to work in an innovative environment.

- Providing broadband connections for students.

By means of a tender, a private party is selected to develop the network and fulfill the role as operator. Following specific requirements formulated by the Anchor Tenants, private parties are given the opportunity to make a proposal. The bidder that best meets the criteria was awarded the project. The criteria are formulated as following (Stichting Draadloos Groningen, 2008b):

- Coverage and phasing—on what geographic area does the bidder guarantee coverage, and in what time span?

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- Capacity and phasing—what amount of network capacity does the bidder guarantee in the area covered and in what time span?

- Functionality—which type of devices does the bidder support, which functionality in terms of QoS and what test facilities are provided?

- Security—what measures does the bidder take to ensure the network is secure, and how does this fit with the current systems of the Anchor Tenants?

- Reliability and availability—which guarantees regarding service levels does the bidder give and what measures are taken to achieve this?

- Future strength—to what extent is the proposed network infrastructure scalable and expandable, and to what extent are future technologies and protocols taken into account?

- Vision and approach—how convincing is the vision on the future of the network regarding market approach and the open service model. Are planning and work processes well-documented?

5.1.2 Business model One of the key criteria on which the operator was selected is the vision on the future—that is the ability of the party to anticipate on future developments—and the ability to create a sustainable business model for the network. Despite the fact that the municipality, along with other institutional stakeholders (RUG, HG), are the initial drivers behind the project, they are aimed to play a rather limited role in the eventual business model. Referencing to the work of Ballon et al. (2007), WG is aimed to have a private-wholesale business model configuration:

- A private party is selected based on a tender initiated by the municipality as well as other institutions in the city (University of Groningen and Hanzehogeschool). Initial funding is available (AvG will act as Anchor Tenants) but the on the long term the network is aimed to be funded privately.

- The operator is required to accept all service providers on the network without restrictions—open service model (Stichting Draadloos Groningen, 2008b). Thereby the operator acts as a wholesaler of network capacity.

Future challenge for the private party is to attract a sufficient amount of business in order to run a profitable network. This must be achieved in 2012—when the commitment of the Anchor Tenants ends.

5.1.3 Coverage area The network is projected to be rolled out in three phases. Phase 1 has become operational in October 2009. This coverage area includes the city centre and the Zernike campus11 (see Figure 13; Zernike campus not included in image). From this point, the coverage area is further expanded: phase 2 (see Figure 14) is projected to be operational April 2010 and phase 3 (see Figure 15) is projected to be operational April 2011.

11 Zernike campus is the area where the HG and a large part of the RUG is located.

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Figure 13: Coverage area Wireless Groningen: phase 1

Figure 14: Coverage area Wireless Groningen: phase 2

Figure 15: Coverage area Wireless Groningen: phase 3

5.1.4 Stakeholders Key stakeholder in the WG project where interviewed (see Table 2). With the information yielded from the interviews supplemented with the data derived from the RFP issued by SDG (Stichting Draadloos Groningen, 2008b), test results (Stichting Draadloos Groningen, 2008a) and several presentations on service concepts held by projected service providers, a comprehensive overview of stakeholders is constructed.

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Table 2: Listing of interview Wireless Groningen

Person Organization Job title/department

R.F. Janz Stichting Draadloos Groningen Managing director Stichting Draadloos Groningen

H. Zwetsloot Hanzehogeschool Managing Director Institute for ICT Hanzehogeschool

H. Kuné University of Groningen Policy advisor ICT

E. de Jonge Police department Groningen Projectmanager Research & Innovation

B. Vissers Municipality of Groningen Department of Spatial Planning and Economical Affairs (RO/EZ).

University of Groningen

The University of Groningen is participant in the Agreement of Groningen (AvG) and is one of the initiators of the Wireless Groningen project. Referencing to the framework developed in section 4 (see Figure 9), this stakeholder fulfills the following roles:

- By acting as an Anchor Tenants, the university commits itself to consuming network capacity for an amount of 1 million Euros in the first three years; thereby it fulfills the role as sponsor.

- As can be derived from the former, the university aims to fulfill the role of service provider, primarily to provide additional services for students and employees. Considering this it is argued here that the university has a buyer-provider relationship with its end-users as well as a buyer-provider relationship with the operator—the university buys network capacity from the operator in order to provide services (see Figure 10).

- Usage of these services by students and employees refers to the role of end-user.

- The university is owner of a significant amount of real estate in the city and has network infrastructure as well that is provided to the operator in order to establish the network. By this means the university is a site provider in the project.

The university primarily wants to use the wireless infrastructure to provide access to its internal network via Eduroam for students and employees. Eduroam is a system that enables users to securely access their own institutional network as well as other associated networks. E.g. a student from the University of Amsterdam who is taking a course in Groningen can easily access his own institutional network via Eduroam. This is offered to students (ca. 24000) and employees (ca. 4500 fte) as an additional service at no additional cost on a best-effort basis (Kuné, 2008). This application falls within the type public use applications as discussed in section 0. Associated risks are discussed in section 4.4.4.

Additionally, with the wireless network the RUG aims to provide a research and testing environment for students and researchers. The nature of such testing environments can vary widely. Examples are:

- Establishing a sensor network (AMR) to create a research environment for chemical studies (e.g. measure levels of certain substances in the atmosphere).

- Establish a (virtually) dedicated network to test new telecommunication services developed by IT and business students.

As mentioned the nature of such testing applications can widely vary. Since the applications are in a testing phase they will be implemented in a controlled environment and will not be open to the public.

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When these applications are further developed it can be determined to which of the application types (see section 4.4) they belong.

In general, the interest of the RUG is to create a more attractive environment for students and employees. The competition between educational institutions is fierce and additional services such as ubiquitous wireless broadband access and the availability of innovative testing platforms can have a positive contribution to the image of the institution thereby attracting more students, researchers and candidate employees.

Hanzehogeschool

The HG, also participant in the AvG, has a position similar to the RUG and aims to fulfill the following roles:

- By acting as an Anchor Tenant—thereby committed to the consumption of network capacity for an amount of 1 million Euros in the first three years—the HG fulfills the role as sponsor.

- The HG aims to fulfill the role as service provider for students and employees.

- Usage of these services by students and employees refers to the role of end-user.

- Owning a significant amount of real estate and network infrastructure throughout the city, the HHG fulfills the role of site provider for the operator.

The HG has a position in the Service Quality Chain (see Figure 10) similar to the university: there is a buyer-provider relationship with end-users and a buyer-provider relationship with the operator. The HGaims to provide the following services on the network (Zwetsloot, 2008; Velthuijsen, 2009):

- Providing internet access and access to the institution’s internal network for students (ca. 8500) and employees (ca. 1200) of the HG in the city of Groningen.

- Providing wireless VoIP services on the campus of the HG for employees.

- Provide a platform for developing new communication tools for education and education-related purposes.

- Provide a platform for students developing prototypes of new services.

- Create an environment for developing new business opportunities in collaboration with new and existing entrepreneurs in the region.

With providing students and employees with ubiquitous wireless connectivity as well as providing a platform for testing new services, the HG aims to create a more attractive environment for students and employees. Several exploratory studies have been conducted to identify potential services to support educational processes at the HG which have yielded the following list:

- Provide online class schedule and relevant information such as scores, cancellations, etc. and make this available via the wireless infrastructure for students and employees on wireless devices such as laptops and PDAs.

- Location finder: class rooms, available work rooms and work stations—combine GPS with real-time information on availability and scheduling to help students find their way in the various HG facilities.

- Collaborative cooperative school projects—provide a platform online for students to support collaboration.

- Online class participations, e.g. in case of absent students—provide (two-way) video streams for students which are unable to attend classes (e.g. in case of illness or disabilities) and use

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the wireless infrastructure to broadcast the video stream or to receive the video stream on wireless devices.

- Finding teachers with appropriate knowledge for between classes Q&A—e.g. linking teacher information with the GPS location of the device carried by that teacher.

- In class participations of streamed events such as courtroom sessions and operations.

All applications mentioned above fall within the application type public use (see section 4.4.4). Although these applications will only be accessible for HG student and employees, the risks associated with these applications are similar to those of public use applications.

Additionally, several lectorates12 of the HG have put effort into developing concepts for innovative services to be tested on the Wireless Groningen infrastructure. This has yielded an extensive list of service concepts giving a basic insight in the requirements of the WG network as a testing environment. An overview is given in Appendix 4.

The application concepts developed by the HG are very diverse, and not all are specially focused on wireless networks. Those that are, have different requirements regarding network performance, ranging for basic file transfer applications (Web browsing, database access, etc.) to real-time video streaming. What can be derived from the comprehensive set of service concepts is that the HG will have high demands regarding the WG infrastructure as a test platform. When services move beyond the concept phase they can be assessed regarding risks more specifically.

In general, the HG has a similar interest in WG to the RUG; creating an attractive environment in order to attract more students as well as researchers and employees.

Municipality of Groningen

The final participant in the AvG addressed here is the municipality of Groningen. The municipality aims to fulfill the following roles:

- First, the municipality is Anchor Tenant in the Wireless Groningen project and thereby fulfills the role as sponsor.

- Also, the municipality fulfills a predominant role as public site provider owning most public sites necessary to mount network equipment (lamppost, traffic lights, etc.).

- Moreover, the municipality will fulfill the role of service provider, aiming to provide services primarily for city employees.

- Usage of these services by employees refers to the role of end-user.

The municipality has several internal organizations for which they aim to provide services to stream the workflow and to increase productivity. The various internal organization and projected services are listed in Table 3 (Vissers, 2008).

12 The various fields of research at the HG are ordered into “lectorates” chaired by a “lector” (title equivalent to a professor in universities).

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Table 3: Overview of services for city employees

Organization Applications

Department of Social Work (DSW) - Mobile access to various service-specific online applications.

Public Healthcare and Fire Prevention Services (Hulpverleningsdienst Groningen)

- Providing a service for fire prevention inspectors to consult files wirelessly.

- Mobile consulting of patient records for youth healthcare services.

- On-site consulting of building plans etc. on incident locations.

Environmental Services (Milieudienst) - Services to support workers in the field. Primary focus herein is the process of enforcing environmental rules.

- Support of acquisition tasks.

- Data communication between the ca. 800 underground garbage dumpsters as well as mobile dumpsters and the control center. This achieved by establishing an AMR system.

Social Affairs and Employment (SWZ) - Services to support the current processes thereby increasing efficiency by real-time consulting and processing of information.

Spatial Planning and Economic Affairs (ROEZ) - Enable employees to wirelessly access the back-office and web applications.

- Enable citizens to access the municipal applications provided via the web over the WG infrastructure.

- Telemetrics—use sensors in traffic meters, parking meters to improve information flow. Use telemetrics to control traffic lights etc. remotely to route traffic dynamically.

Administrative Service (Bestuursdienst) - Mobile access to e-mail, agenda and documents—in other word access to the organization’s intranet.

The majority of applications listed in Table 2 can be classified as applications for municipality and utility industry (see section 4.4.1). They all serve the purpose of improving the efficiency of city employees. Associated risks are discussed in section 4.4.1. One of the applications listed in Table 2 belong to the public safety application type, namely the applications for public healthcare and fire prevention. The risks associated with this application type are described in section 4.4.2.

Police department Groningen

The police organization in The Netherlands is working on developing technological innovations to make their processes more effective and to allow police officers to work more efficiently. The police department of Groningen (PDG hereafter) is actively involved in this movement, and sees opportunities to use WG to leverage their concepts for innovation. This is primarily because of the large bandwidth of Wi-Fi which makes it especially suitable for supporting video services. The PDG aims to fulfill the following roles:

- Providing services for police employees thereby fulfilling the role as service provider.

- Usage of these services by employees refers to the role of end-user.

- Also, the PDG has committed itself, to a lesser extent than the three primary Anchor Tenants, to consume network capacity on WG and thereby fulfills the role of sponsor.

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The rationale for innovations regarding telecommunications is that experience shows that first responders13 are more effective if they have always-on mobile access to information such as arrests warrants, police records, maps, license plate information or driving directions. In addition, live video feeds from police vehicles—as well as feeds from fixed cameras—help fellow officers informed of each other’s activities (de Jonge, 2008). For this reasons, the PDG is developing a wide array of telecommunication services. This is done by connecting fixed security cameras, mobile security cameras in vehicles and PDAs with back-office applications. Examples of applications are the following:

Equip police offers with PDAs to access criminal records directly or to directly process fines.

Cameras in police vehicles (see Appendix 5) are connected to the network and equipped with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology. Thereby the system can generate automatically alerts by reading a number plate and checking it upon the police databases.

Applications to provide the control room with real-time video streams of various locations in the city, as well as the mobile video streams provided by police vehicles. By this means the control room has information to assess incidents more accurately and give directions to personnel accordingly.

Use VoIP services to establish group voice calls and push-to-talk applications to improve communications of officers in the field.

The applications developed by the PDG have stringent demands regarding network performance levels. A large part of the portfolio consists of real-time video, which has both high demands regarding bandwidth as well as time-sensitivity. Also, considering the nature of the applications failure of systems will have considerable impact. Therefore, the risks caused by interference are high. This confirms with the public safety applications mentioned in section 4.4.2.

The PDG is aware of these risks, and has stressed the importance of quality control regarding network performance in the RFP issued by SDG (Stichting Draadloos Groningen, 2008b). Furthermore, the PDG has incorporated several back-up technologies in case WG has connection problems. When WG becomes unavailable the connection switches to alternative networks (e.g. UMTS).

UMCG/Healthcare industry

The UMCG is not an Anchor Tenant at this time and is less closely involved in the development of WG as other stakeholders but it is expected that the WG infrastructure will provide significant opportunities for the healthcare industry.

- When these opportunities are acknowledged by the UMCG, the UMCG might develop services for employees and patients fulfilling the role of service provider.

- Usage of these services by patients and employees refers to the role of end-user.

The region of Groningen deals with an aging population and the demand for healthcare will increase significantly. For this reason, there will be a lot to gain in making the processes in healthcare industry more efficiently using ICT. The ICT platform of the RUG was involved with I2Care14 which is an initiative that deals with this field of research. A project developed by I2Care is KOALA which is an application that provides a telecare solution. With an easy to operate camera and a household TV, the patient has an always-on connection with the medical service centre. Additionally, sensors can be used to track the location of the patient in case of emergency as well as generating alerts in case of falling, heart failure, etc. By this means the service centre can communicate remotely with patients as

13 In public safety and emergency services referred to as personnel arriving first at an incident 14 http://www.i2care.nl/

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well as receive signals from sensors and handle accordingly. Using these applications healthcare can be provided remotely which can lead to significant cost savings as well as improvements in quality and responsiveness. Opportunities are recognized in using the WG infrastructure to facilitate KOALA.

As mentioned in section 4.4.3, telecare applications on WCN infrastructures deal with significant risks. Therefore, the UMCG is considered a stakeholder with stringent demands considering network performance. For instance, in a KOALA environment, network connections with monitoring devices (e.g. sensors to detect heart failure) are expected to be always-on. When these connections appear to fail, medical personnel may not be able to take action in time causing serious health risks for patients or even death.

Residents and visitors

Residents of the city of Groningen potentially fulfill the following roles:

- A resident owning real estate may allow the operator to provide a site to mount network equipment, thereby fulfilling the role as public site owner.

- A resident may be using several services on the WG infrastructure, including services offered on a best-effort basis as well as service bases on a fee, thereby fulfilling the role as end-user.

Also, the network is projected to offer services for visitors and tourists, therefore visitors and tourists are projected to fulfill the role of end-users. Applications for this user group falls in the public use application type with associated risks (see section 4.4.4).

Unwired Holding CV

Unwired Holding CV is selected by the Anchor Tentants led by SDG to operate the network and therefore fulfills the following roles:

- As it is responsible for developing and rolling out the WG infrastructure it fulfills the role of operator.

- The operator potentially offers services on WG thereby fulfilling the role of service provider.

Unwired is founded in 2007 and has the objective to invest in large-scale wireless broadband infrastructures using Wi-Fi mesh and WIMAX technology. Unwired has projects in de US as well as Europe, and has offices in Hilversum and New York. The company already operates several Wi-Fi networks including Wireless Rotterdam (see section 5.2).

As mentioned in section section 4.3 risks of interference appear in the relationship service provider – end-user. The operator does not deal with this directly but has to take these risks into account to fulfill its role optimally. Obviously, if the risks cannot be mastered by the service providers leading to nonfunctioning of WG, the operator loses its customers and therefore its reason to exist. It is therefore in the interest of the operator to overcome all risks appearing in the service provider-end-user relationship. As mentioned, Unwired operates already several similar networks and it is therefore assumed Unwired is aware of this.

Strix Systems, Alcadis, IBM

As derived from the response on the RFP (Unwired, 2009) Strix Systems, Alcadis and IBM fulfill the role of supplier. The equipment supplier collaborating with Unwired is Strix Systems. Strix Systems is a manufacturer specialized in wireless mesh networking equipment to deploy outdoor wireless networks based on Wi-Fi mesh a WIMAX technology. The manufacturer offers solutions tailor-made for applications in WCNs such as equipment for ad-hoc deployment for public safety agencies, broadband in fast-moving vehicles and AMR systems. The distributor in The Netherlands for Strix Systems is Alcadis and is specialized in distributing customized network equipment. As a specialist in

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ICT services, IBM has been selected to be system integrator. IBM supplies helpdesk services, system management/integration services and network operation support.

Similar as to the operator, suppliers do not deal with risks of interference directly but has to take these risks into account to fulfill its role optimally. It is therefore also in the interest of the suppliers to contribute to overcoming the risks appearing in the service provider-end-user relationship. As all suppliers are specialized in network equipment, it is assumed they are aware of the associated risks of interference.

5.2 Wireless Rotterdam 5.2.1 Background Wireless Rotterdam (WR) is an initiative of the Development Bureau of the municipality of Rotterdam. The project manager of WR, R. van der Bolt, has been interviewed to get an idea of the current state of the project as well as an overview of the current projected services.

The goal of the project is to demonstrate the opportunities of wireless broadband for businesses and organizations. At this moment, a pilot has been set up and various services are being tested. WR provides network capacity via the wholesale model and any organization can use the infrastructure to provide their services. Herein it is stated explicitly that the responsibility of service delivery to end-users is of the service providers. Using the testing environment, organizations can evaluate their mobile applications on a small-scale, thereby limiting the functional and organizational risks. Eventually, the municipality of Rotterdam aims to attract a private party to further develop and expand the network, covering the whole area of Rotterdam.

5.2.2 Business model Like in WG, several Anchor Tenants will be attracted that will help protect the private party’s investment. The private party is expected to fully own the network, and network capacity must be provided on a wholesale basis. For this reasons, the aimed business model configuration as described by Ballon et al. (2007) is private-wholesale. Currently it is expected that the municipality and the police department of Rotterdam will to some extent fulfill the role of sponsor by taking the position of Anchor Tenant.

5.2.3 Coverage area A testing environment has been set up which currently covers the downtown area of Rotterdam (see Figure 16).

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Figure 16: Coverage area Wireless Rotterdam

5.2.4 Stakeholders The project is currently in a testing phase. Therefore no final stakeholders can be defined. Rather, several parties are evaluating the opportunities of the network within the testing environment. It is too early to define them as stakeholders but they might position themselves as a stakeholder in the future.

The following parties are evaluating the opportunities:

The municipality has made two websites available permanently for citizens (or visitors) of Rotterdam. With a laptop or other Wi-Fi enabled device, users can access www.rotterdam.nl or www.9292ov.nl via the wireless infrastructure. In the future, the municipality plans to make more city services available via the infrastructure. Also the municipality sees opportunities for energy saving by connection public lighting to the Wi-Fi network (thereby enabling remote switching), for providing location-based information for tourists and to provide city surveillance workers (in Dutch: stadstoezicht) with PDAs connected with WR to enable digitalized real-time reporting. Currently the municipality already fulfills the role of public site owner and sponsor. In the future, the municipality aims to fulfill the role of service provider as well as end-user.

The police department of Rotterdam-Rijnmond started a pilot on April 2009 where video streams from surveillance cameras are forwarded to PDAs carried by police officers. Results of these tests have not been made available to use in the analysis. But if the results are positive, the police department may develop itself as a service provider and an end-user (similar to the police department in WG).

Utility companies are interested in establishing AMR systems and connecting “smart” energy meters. Currently, these meters are connected using (commercial) GPRS networks. The utility industry recognizes advantages of a Wi-Fi network such as WR in comparison to GPRS networks. These are: more control over the environment regarding customization and security, costs can be saved because no subscriptions are needed at commercial telecom companies and there will be less bandwidth limitations—using commercial GPRS networks, meters have to be read at a specific point of time due to bandwidth limitations. In a Wi-Fi environment, meters can be read real-time.

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Currently several other parties are testing services on the pilot network. Examples of services are:

At 18 July 2009 during the Free-Gaming event, visitors could use the wireless infrastructure for gaming.

From 13 to 19 June the Poetry International took place in Rotterdam. The WR infrastructure was used here to broadcast performances. Live streams where provided on the website of the event (www.poetry.nl).

WG was used to broadcast the finish of Roparun—a running event held in the city of Rotterdam. This test was aimed to make live video streams of the event available via www.roparun.nl. This test has failed due to a software configuration error.

During the Film Festival of Rotterdam, the website of the event (www.iffr.nl) was made available over the WR infrastructure. Visitors used the website to make reservations and payments.

During the “Museumnacht” in Rotterdam on March 7 2009, the website of the event was made available on WR.

These examples imply that several parties are evaluating the opportunities to offer services on WR. When the results turn out to be positive they might develop themselves as service providers.

5.3 West Wireless 5.3.1 Background West Wireless is a Wi-Fi network primarily operating as a WISP situated in Maassluis and Naaldwijk. The initiative was started in 2004. One of the individuals involved, T. van Leeuwen, has been interviewed to establish an overview of the infrastructure and the services provided.

5.3.2 Business model The network is an initiative of a group of individuals and fits the community model as described by Ballon et al. (2007). Initially, the network was funded by the (private) initiators. As the network evolved, sponsors have been attracted.

5.3.3 Coverage area The network currently covers parts of Maassluis and Naaldwijk (see Figure 17 and Figure 18).

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Figure 17: Coverage area Westwireless Maassluis Figure 18: Coverage area Westwireless Naaldwijk

The group of individuals running the network is operating 6 nodes in Maassluis and 3 nodes in Naaldwijk. Each node is connected to the backbone infrastructure.

5.3.4 Stakeholders As the project is rather small, few stakeholders are involved:

- The founders together fulfill the role of operator as well as service provider. The services they have developed are: web browsing, VoIP, wireless security cameras and wireless billboards. The latter service involves connecting terminals to the network in order to remotely manage the display of advertisements.

- The sponsors of the initiative where initially the founders themselves. As the network evolved, more sponsors where attracted which are the municipality (providing public sites) and several advertisers.

- The municipality and several owners of real estate in the coverage area fulfill the role of public site owners.

- End-users are several (350-400) residents and business in Maasluis and Naaldwijk.

5.4 Summary In this chapter 3 case descriptions of WCNs in the Netherlands are presented. For each case the background, business model, coverage area and stakeholders are addressed. These descriptions are used in the analysis in order to identify potential gaps causes degraded levels of service quality. This analysis is presented in the following chapter.

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6 Analysis In this chapter the SERVQUAL gap model described in Chapter 4 is applied, evaluating the empirical findings described in chapter 5. By this means the analysis works towards the identification of aspects that influence service quality levels in WCNs thereby providing an answer to RQ2. The basis of the analysis is the Service Quality Chain proposed in Chapter 4 (see Figure 19).

Figure 19: Relationships adressed in Analysis

6.1 Service Provider – End-user This section evaluates the relationship between service provider and end-user by applying the SERVQUAL gap model as described in section 3 (see Figure 20). First, the aspects that lead to the construct of service expectations are described. Second, the processes on a service provider level are addressed that form the successive steps that lead to service delivery thereby focusing on the potential gaps (GAP1-4) that can occur in these processes. The analysis ultimately aims to identify the causes of degraded service quality levels on an end-user level (SQG).

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Figure 20: SERVQUAL gap model applied to Service Provider - End-user relationship

6.1.1 SQG From an end-user point of view, expectations are first of all defined based on the personal needs of the end-user (Parasuraman et al., 1985). For example, a user is interested in “making phone calls” or “watching television”. In the context of a WCN, this represents “using VoIP services on a Wi-Fi mesh network” or “watching streaming video on a Wi-Fi mesh network” respectively. However, it is assumed that end-users don’t necessarily take consideration of technical backgrounds. Second, end-user’s expectations of a certain service may be established by past experiences (Parasuraman et al., 1985). These refer to services that fulfill the same goal: for instance “making phone calls”. However in many cases these services may be different from a technical perspective: for instance, an end-user may consider his experiences in using a cell phone on a GSM network when forming expectations for mobile VoIP services on a WCN infrastructure. This situation is also confirmed by the report of Baal et al. (2007) in which the developed of convergence in the telecommunication landscape is describe. Because of convergence, telecommunication services are no longer bound to a specific medium. As a result, users no longer, or at least to a lesser extent, take consideration of the characteristics of different mediums. Last, Parasuraman et al. (1985) argue that user expectations are determined by word-of-mouth communications. This type of information is hard to verify and may not rely on the actual situation. Moreover, WCNs are relatively new which makes it probable that word-of-mouth communications don’t reflect the actual situation. Considering this, user expectations in WCNs may not be consistent with actual service delivery. This leads to a gap between end-user expectations and perceived service (SQG).

The perceived service is a result from the business processes of the service provider. Following the SERVQUAL gap model, several gaps can occur in these processes. In the following section, each of these gaps is addressed.

6.1.2 GAP1 First, end-user expectations should be mapped carefully in order to avoid a gap between management perceptions of end-user expectations and actual end-user expectations (GAP1). This involves a relationship focus including market research and demand analysis. When demand analysis is inaccurate, incomplete or not interpreted correctly, service providers will not understand what features a service must have to meet the end-user’s demands and what levels of service are needed to deliver

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high quality service. To yield accurate information, service providers have to be involved with their end-users.

In the case of WG, it is argued that there has been put effort in this. The current service providers (RUG, HG, the municipality and PDG) have carefully mapped the needs of their end-users, and have specified requirements and service concepts accordingly (Stichting Draadloos Groningen, 2008b). This is an aspect that future stakeholders should take into account. Also service providers in WG develop services for their own employees (end-users) and it can therefore be assumed that they have insight in end-user needs. In the case of West Wireless, the network primarily functions as a WISP for which the requirements are rather trivial. Therefore it is assumed that understanding end-user needs does not impose a challenge. With regard to WR, the end-users are not yet involved as the project is still in its testing phase. From the cases it can be concluded that service providers pay attention to GAP1 which lowers the probability that the gap occurs.

6.1.3 GAP2 Second, management perceptions need to be translated into service specifications. There may emerge a gap when this process results in quality specifications that are not consistent with management perceptions regarding end-user expectations (GAP2). This might be the result of inadequate specifications processes, low involvement of management and lack of know-how regarding technical engineering.

In the case studies there is no empirical evidence to confirm this. In general however it can be stated that this gap is likely to occur when there is a lack of management commitment to service quality as well as lack of resources. Moreover, since the three cases are networks operating in LE bands, interference complicates the formulation of specifications. In this step service providers need to take interference into account in the sense that redundancy has to be build-in to be able to deal with interference.

6.1.4 GAP3 Third, the process of actual service delivery by the operator according to quality specifications is addressed. When actual service delivery is not consistent with service quality specifications GAP3 will occur which directly leads to declined levels of perceived service. This potentially increases the SQG.

In complex networks as WCNs quality specifications can become complex. For a service provider this might become too complicated as they may not have the appropriate resources. Regarding resources, a gap in service delivery might occur when technology and systems do not facilitate performance according to specifications. In WCNs, this is a relevant aspect since the infrastructure is subject to interference. Due to interference, systems in some cases will not facilitate performance to specifications and therefore this is a process where the vulnerability of WCNs as described in the problem statement surfaces. Also human resources are of importance to assure adequate know-how to deal with the technology. Another cause of GAP3 is the inability of a provider to smooth peaks and valleys of demand. If not taken into account, end-users might experience low levels of performance in busy areas which leads to service delivery not meeting expectations.

From WG it has become clear that certain service providers have doubts about the quality of the delivered services. Although the operator of the testing environment confirmed to comply with the demands of the PDG, testing results indicated there were several difficulties related to interference (Stichting Draadloos Groningen, 2008a). This indicates that interference was not taken into account properly to ensure the quality of the delivered service. Also in the case of WW there were some end-users that experienced connection problems due to interference.

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6.1.5 GAP4 The final process mentioned here is the external communications of the service provider. This includes press releases, advertizing, etc. According to Parasuraman et al. (1985) service providers should be aware that with external communications, an unrealistic image might be created (GAP4), resulting in high buyer expectations. When communications are not consistent with actual service delivery, the SQG will potentially be increased (see Figure 20). Furthermore, service providers should emphasize the effort they put into achieving actual service performance levels. When end-users take consideration of the effort put into a service by a service provider, they are likely to perceive the actual service more favorable (Parasuraman et al., 1985).

Considering the cases, GAP4 can have several causes. When marketing their services, providers should not only emphasize the selling points (low costs, high bandwidth, etc.) but also mention the limitations (in busy areas available bandwidth will be limited).Service providers should ensure that end-users are aware of the limitations of the service when they sign a sales contract—e.g. “please note that WCN currently has outdoor coverage only and is in that sense not comparably to UMTS networks”. Furthermore, when service providers emphasize that the services provided are innovative and the network is the first to provide the service, end-users will be more likely to perceive the service in a more favorable manner (external communications positively influencing the perceived service). Both causes seem to be valid for contributing to GAP4 in WG. First, communications regarding network performance towards end-users can be considered optimistic. Also the service concepts developed by service providers focus more on the opportunities and advantages of the wireless technology (high bandwidth, low costs, etc.) and little consideration is given to the consequences of interference. Both examples potentially contribute to GAP4. On the other side, service providers in the WG project emphasize that the network is the first city-wide Wi-Fi network in the Netherlands. This contributes to the extent in which it is perceived as an innovative initiative. Therefore end-users will perceive its performance in a more favorable way, decreasing GAP4. In the case of WW external communication is straightforward and open. Service providers provide their end-users with the opportunity to test the service. Thereby they provide the information that service levels may not be as advertized, depending on the end-user’s location. When the end-user perceives the service level as insufficient, the contract can be cancelled without additional costs. By this means, the service provider makes sure that external communications is consistent with actual service delivery, thereby reducing GAP4.

6.2 Operator – Service Provider 6.2.1 SQG The relationship between the network operator and the service providers is different to the former in the sense that it is a B2B relationship. This has implications on how expectations from a buyer’s perspective are established. There will be certain requirements in order to create business value—the personal needs of the service provider—and the buying party will focus on how this business value can be achieved. The buying decision is a multi-step process, involving many people, and will be based on an assessment of the capabilities of the operator. The decision will be mostly fact-based andfocused on creating value on the long-term. Therefore it is argued that word-of-mouth communications and past experiences will be less relevant in the establishment of expectations in the service provider – operator relationship. For this reasons, it is argued that discrepancies in expectations and service delivery (SQG) is less likely to occur in comparison to the service provider – end-user relationship. Still there are discrepancies which can lead to the SQG (see Figure 21).

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Figure 21: SERVQUAL gap model applied to Operator - Service Provider relationship

Next, these discrepancies (GAP1-4) contributing SQQ are discussed.

6.2.2 GAP1 In comparison to the former relationship, GAP1 deals more with technical requirements: technical possibilities of what the operator can offer and technical needs of the service providers. For instance, a service provider can have the following expectation: “we require an uptime of 99.8 percent in order to provide the requirement availability level demanded by our customers”. The management of the operator will need to take consideration of such an expectation and collaborate with service providers to determine appropriate performance levels.

In many cases the set of service providers’ expectations will be complex and there will be several levels of priorities. Key task of the management is to take consideration of these priorities. For instance a service provider will expect to get “high availability levels” as well as “high throughput rates”; however in some case it can be the service provider’s perception that the availability is an absolute necessity, and high throughput rates are “nice to have”. When there are deficiencies in the consideration of such expectations and associated priorities, it may be the case the management perceptions of service provider expectations are not consistent with reality and consequently GAP1 will occur.

In the WG project this is taken into account well as research is performed to determine the exact requirements of each service provider including the priorities of the several requirements. The operator was involved when determining these requirements. On the testing environment, which was rolled out by the operator as well, the service providers had the opportunity to evaluate the possibilities of the WG infrastructure. As a result of these tests, requirements where established. Therefore GAP1 is not likely to occur in the WG case. In the WW case, the role of service provider and operator is fulfilled by the same party. Management perceptions at a provider’s level and expectations at a buyer’s level are therefore the same in this case and GAP1 will not occur.

6.2.3 GAP2 With the management perceptions of the required quality levels in place, the perceptions need to be translated into actual service quality specifications. This process involves the operator translating the expectations of the service provider into actual quality specifications such as (taken the example used in the former paragraph) “a 99.8% uptime” or “a minimum throughput rate of 100Mbps”. For these

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specifications to be defined in consistency with buyer expectations, management perceptions of required service quality must be well-defined and made explicit (Palaima & Banyté, 2006). Also, resources need to be allocated to this process in terms of e.g. technical know-how in order to accurately translate such a perception into adequate specifications from a technical perspective. The examples mentioned are simple, however in real situations such specifications can grow complex. For instance, when defining technical quality specifications for real-time applications such as VoIP and video streaming, considerations need to be made regarding levels of latency in a meshed network environment. According to Tanenbaum (2003) this can be challenging due to the fact that the actual delay depends on the position of the user relative to the closed node connected to the backbone infrastructure: when the user is close to a node connected to the backhaul, little (or no) “hops” have to be made. When the user is further from a node connected to the backbone infrastructure, more hops have to be made which adds to the delay in the connection. Also, since the network operates in an LE band, consideration needs to be made of the occurrence of interference, thereby adding to the complexity of quality specifications—multiple “scenario’s” need to be taken into account, and network capacity has to plan for a dynamic environment (level of interference, level of congestion, etc.). In other words, the environment of a WCN is dynamic, containing many variables, which makes formulating specifications in line with expectations a complex task.

In the WG case, it can be derived from the response on the RFP issued by SDG (Unwired, 2009) that the operator carefully evaluated each requirement of the service providers individually. On each requirement, a comprehensive solution is proposed which includes in many cases multiple scenarios. Considering the amount of technical details, it can be concluded that the operator has an appropriate level of technical know-how in order to fulfill the demands of the service providers. It is therefore concluded that GAP2 is not likely to occur in this case.

6.2.4 GAP3 The next process addressed on the operator level is the actual service delivery according to the service quality specifications. This involves the roll out and operation of the WCN. When a discrepancy exists between service quality specifications and the actual service production and delivery GAP3 occurs. On occurrence of this gap, the level of service delivery will be lower as specified , which will affect the perceived level of service by the buyer (see Figure 21). By this means GAP3 will directly contribute to the extent in which the SQG occurs. Examples of GAP3 are the following:

- The operator fails to meet the agreed area of coverage within time.

- Throughput rates are below the level agreed with service providers.

- The operator fails to meet the minimum level of uptime agreed with the service provider (e.g. 99.8% was agreed, 99.2% was realized).

The extent in which this gap exists depends on the ability of the operator to translate quality specifications into a functional network performing consistent with these quality specifications. The following aspects are of importance:

- The operator’s resources in terms of technical know-how. Therefore, adequate HR and recruitment policies are needed.

- The access of the operator to technology; advanced technologies enable higher quality in service delivery. Therefore an adequate network of suppliers is needed.

- The ability of the operator to match supply and demand. There will be demand peaks for network capacity—from a geographic perspective (e.g. city centers will have more demand for network capacity than suburban areas) as well as demand fluctuating during the time of day. Also, on the long term demand may increase.

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- When used technology and systems not facilitate performance according to specifications, GAP3 can occur. This may be due higher levels of interference than anticipated.

From the findings in the WG case it can be derived that the operator has an adequate level of technical know-how, has appropriate access to suppliers and has solutions in order to match supply and demand. In the response to the RFP (Unwired, 2009) the operator proposes solutions with comprehensive technical details, indicating that levels of know-how are adequate. Also, the fact that the operator proposes solutions based on products developed by several manufacturers indicates that the operator has an adequate network of suppliers. Finally, derived from the fact that the operator has developed a solution to deploy fluctuating demand (by ad-hoc placement of nodes) it is derived that the operator is able to match supply and demand. For the final aspect however, the operator hardly mentions that interference is an environmental variable which has to be taken into account and solutions are not proposed. In the WW case, several quality problems due to interference have been encountered. This resulted in end-users not being able to connect to the network. In the WR case little anecdotal evidence for interference problems have been yielded from the test yet. However there has been one incident where a citizen reported connection problems caused by interference.

From this it can be concluded that interference is an aspect hindering service delivery consistent with quality specifications therefore GAP3 is likely to occur.

6.2.5 GAP4 As argued, GAP4 is less likely to occur in a B2B relationship than in a B2C relationship (see section 4.3). In the case of a WCN this is due to the fact that the service provider is likely to be familiar with technical requirements regarding network performance because they employ people with a background in ICT and networking. Because of this, it is assumed that service providers are able to assess service levels and to a lesser extent depend on external communications by the operator to form their expectations. Moreover, as the operator collaborates with service providers closely, communications is already more integrated in the relationship.

In the WG case these statements are confirmed by the fact that service providers (RUG, HG, municipality and PDG) have thoroughly assessed the capabilities of the operator on a technical level as well as the future plans of the operator in terms of scalability and vision. This was achieved by involving the service providers in the tendering procedure of selecting the operator (Stichting Draadloos Groningen, 2008b). In the WW case, the role of service provider and operator are fulfilled by the same party therefore this relationship is not applicable. In the WR case, little information is available because the project is in a testing phase. However, R. van der Bolt (Bolt van der, 2009) confirms that pilots are being set up in close collaboration with the operator. Considering this, GAP4 is not likely to occur in the cases and it is considered not to be a cause of degraded service quality on a service provider’s level.

6.3 Supplier – Operator 6.3.1 SQG The operator of a WCN has relationships with several suppliers in order to be able to deploy a network infrastructure. These suppliers can be equipment manufacturers, maintenance and installation service providers, system administrators, etc. Similar to the former, the supplier – operator is a B2B relationship. Consequently, many findings in section 6.2 are applicable to this relationship as well. Even more than in a service provider – operator relationship, involved parties are likely to closely collaborate. The long-term planning of an operator to roll out a network will be for a large extent based on the commitment of suppliers. Suppliers are selected carefully by expert personnel. Therefore it is argued that the SQG is less likely to occur than in a service provider – end-user relationship. However, the occurrence of the SQG, implicating that an operator is dealing with suppliers not performing as

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expected, can have severe impact on the continuity of the network. Each potential discrepancy (GAP1-4) on a supplier’s level is addressed in the following paragraphs.

Figure 22: SERVQUAL gap model applied to Supplier - Operator relationship

6.3.2 GAP1 A supplier has to map the requirements of the operator which are a result of the demands of the service provider regarding network performance. According to Palaima & Banyté (2006), inadequate market research orientation is a critical factor of this gap. Considering the nature of this relationship this is argued not to be an issue. The relationship will be long-term and intensive. Long-term because of the lifecycle of equipment and the initial investments involved in establishing service and maintenance contracts. The relationship is considered intensive because parties are closely involved due to the need of constant adjustments. This also relates to the relationship focus required to prevent this gap to occur.

In the case of WG, it can be derived from the response on the RFP (Unwired, 2009) that the operator is closely involved with suppliers. In the proposed solutions, the associated suppliers are mentioned; implicating that information regarding these solutions has already been exchanged. Also, the operator of WG has several other similar projects in which they collaborate with the same suppliers, indicating that these are long-term relationships. In WR, less information is available. However, in this project the same operator is involved and therefore the same conclusions can be drawn. In WW the situation is somewhat different. The operator consists out of a group of individuals that have developed their own software largely build of open-source components. The hardware used is much simpler compared to the other cases (off-the-shelf components) and is maintained in-house. Considering this, the operator depends for a lesser extent on the supplier relationship regarding network performance.

It can be concluded that GAP1 is not likely to occur in the supplier – operator relationship. The primary reason is that the relationship involves long-term commitment and is intensive.

6.3.3 GAP2 GAP2 is caused by the involved supplier not able to translate management perceptions into service quality specifications. As mentioned (see section 6.2) this can be caused by perceptions not being made explicit and lack of technical know-how. Since suppliers are specialized companies and are selected by the operator based on their competences, it is not likely that this gap will occur. However,

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the used technology in WCNs is relatively new and is constantly developing. This adds to the complexity for suppliers to formulate quality specifications consistent with management perceptions.

No evidence in the cases is founded to support the occurrence of this gap. In WG and WR, the suppliers involved are focused specific on providing solutions for WCN operators, and have a broad portfolio of experience in similar projects. Therefore, there is no reason to assume that these companies are not able to translate management perceptions into specifications. Regarding the WW case, the situation is much more simplified compared to WG and WR. Considering the basic, off-the-shelf technology involved, there is no reason to assume that suppliers involved will experience difficulties in formulating specifications.

6.3.4 GAP3 The service delivery gap occurs when actual production and delivery of service is not consistent with specifications. In the supplier – operator relationship, this involves the performance of network equipment and supporting services. Taken the problem area of this research, network equipment subject to interference is an aspect of importance. Equipment operating in LE bands is subject to interference, and it is a challenge for equipment manufacturers to design equipment to be interference-tolerant or at least generate warning signals when performance is affected by interference which eventually contributes to the predictability of service quality on an end-user level. This is not only applicable to professional network equipment but also consumer electronics. When the aspect of interference is not taken into account sufficiently, technology may not facilitate performance according specifications which is mentioned by Palaima & Banyté (2006) as a key factor driving GAP3.

In all cases described, Wi-Fi technology is used which is to some extent interference tolerant in the sense that it used modulation technologies that can handle ambient noise (e.g. spread spectrum modulation techniques). However, as mentioned in section 1 it can be assumed that interference will affect performance of Wi-Fi equipment. In the WG case, the operator mentions the problem of interference, and proposes to handle accordingly by placing more network nodes. Other than the supplier providing these additional nodes, no specific action for the equipment supplier is mentioned. Also in the WR and WW, no evidence is found indicating that suppliers are putting effort in the development of equipment to be more interference-tolerant or to incorporate mechanisms to inform users on inference levels.

From the former it can be concluded that GAP3, in this case network equipment not performing according to specifications due to interference, may occur. It is argued that the problem of interference is not properly addressed yet by equipment suppliers.

6.3.5 GAP4 GAP4 involves the external communications of the supplier not being consistent with the actual service delivery to the operator. As mentioned in the introduction of this section, it is argued that this gap is not likely to occur since operator and supplier are engaged in a long-term relationship and are collaborating closely. Suppliers are selected by the operator based on their capabilities by expert personnel. It can be assumed that extensive assessments of capabilities of the supplier are taken in consideration.

In the cases described, there is also no evidence found for this gap. It can even be argued that the propositions of suppliers are a result of collaborations with the operator. For instance, solutions offered by Strix Systems are a result of pilots tested in an infrastructure owned by the operator.

Considering this, in a supplier – operator relationship it is not likely that GAP4 occurs and contributes to the degradation of service quality (SQG).

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6.4 Conclusion From the analysis two major gaps have become evident. These gaps are argued to affect service levels throughout the relationships in the Service Quality Chain in WCNs (see Figure 10) by widening the SQG.

First, interference is a potential cause of problems which occurs in GAP3 in all relationships. Interference potentially affects service delivery which directly affects the perceived service on the buyer’s side. Degradation of perceived service widens the SQG. From the cases it appeared that involved parties do not pay enough attention to interference.

Second, GAP4 occurs in the Service Provider – End-user relationship. From the cases it is concluded that external communications of the service provider to the end-user lead to overestimation regarding actual service delivery. Building on the definition of service quality in section 3.1.1, service quality is negatively affected by high expectations on the buyer’s side. In the remaining relationships (Operator – Service Provider and Supplier – Operator) this is not the case since parties are more closely collaborating and more information is available, indicating that expectations will be more closely aligned with actual performance.

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7 Elements of Risk Management As concluded in the former chapter, there are discrepancies in the processes of stakeholders in the Service Quality Chain potentially leading to degraded service quality. This chapter proposes elements that work towards closing these gaps, thereby providing an answer to RQ3. For each solution the potential role of Agentschap Telecom is emphasized.

7.1 Technology As concluded in section 6.4, interference negatively affects service delivery for all stakeholders in the Service Quality Chain (GAP3). This is due to the fact that interference leads to degradation of network performance in terms of available bandwidth and levels of latency. As discussed, WCNs operate in LE bands. Consequently, it is not the spectrum regulator that can protect these infrastructures from interference. Rather, stakeholders in WCNs (suppliers, operators, service providers and end-users) have to develop means to limit interference. Opportunities for equipment suppliers and operators are discussed in this section.

7.1.1 Cognitive radio Applications in WCNs require significant bandwidth. Even when there will be substantial investment in WCNs infrastructure (as is the case in WG), the radio spectrum available for WCNs will be limited. Moreover, WCNs are vulnerable for interference (as discussed in chapter 1) therefore the real available spectrum bandwidth may be substantially smaller than anticipated. These circumstances, as well as the increasing scarcity of radio spectrum in general, give rise to the exploration of means to use the available spectrum more efficiently. Solutions can be found in moving away from fixed bands assigned to technologies and users and to allocate spectrum dynamically. A concept that can achieve this is cognitive radio (CR). Incorporating CR concepts in network equipment provides opportunities for suppliers in WCNs. CR can be discussed in technical detail; however this is beyond the scope of this research. Rather the basic thought is addressed thereby focusing on the implications for WCNs.

The concept of CR builds upon software defined radio (SDR)15 and is developed by Mitola III (2001). CR moves away from the current means of static allocation of frequencies, and employs model-based reasoning to enable much more effective use of spectrum bandwidth. Using this method, interference with other users can be avoided. CR includes a system that senses the spectrum environment, a cognitive engine that processes the information yielded from the environment and a system implementing SDR to adjust the communication parameters accordingly. Two models representing such a cognitive engine are discussed.

The cognition cycle proposed by Mitola III (2001) defines the steps in which the system learns about and reacts to its environment (see Figure 23). The system first receives information from the outside worlds (Observe stage), and then evaluates it to determine its importance (Orient stage). Based on the evaluation, the system determines its options (Plan stage) and chooses an alternative that improves the previous carried out evaluation if necessary (Decide stage). In the case adjustment is needed, the radio implements the alternative (Act). This change in signal subsequently is reflected in the interference profile represented in the outside world. Throughout hits process, the radio uses its observations and decisions to improve its own operation (Learn stage).

15 SDR is a new type of radio communication system where components that have typically been implemented in hardware (amplifiers, filters, detectors, etc.) are instead implemented using software.

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Figure 23: CR – Cognition cycle as proposed by Mitola III (2001)

The cognition cycle as defined by Akyildiz et al. (2006) includes three processes (see Figure 24). Spectrum sensing includes monitoring the spectrum and identifying spectrum holes. Spectrum analysis involves analysis of the characteristics of these spectrum holes and spectrum decision involves the determination of communication parameters after which the appropriate spectrum is chosen according to spectrum characteristics and user requirements.

Figure 24: CR – Cognition cycle as proposed by Akylidiz et al. (2006)

CR on this level is not realistic to be implemented in WCNs on the short-term. First, the technology hasn’t yet reached desired level of maturity yet. Second, which is also associated with the former, the technology is not yet economically feasible (Roke Manor Research for Ofcom, 2006). Furthermore, to be able to implement CR in this form, significant change in policy of spectrum regulators is needed. However, CR-like concepts can be incorporated in current equipment to increase its efficiency of spectrum usage. This is already the case to some extent: 802.11x standards incorporate CR-like features such as transmitter power control (TPC) and dynamic frequency selection (DFS). TPC

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enables devices to dynamically switch between several transmission power levels in the data transmission process thereby facilitating the sharing of frequency bandwidth between various services. DFS was developed to avoid interference with radar and satellite systems on the same band. DFS ensures uniform channel loading across the frequency bands which helps mitigating the chances of interference in the band. Also, DFS checks for specific signals (originating from radar and satellite systems), and then moves off the channel to avoid interference (Jing, Mau, Raychaudhuri, & Matyas, 2005).

It is argued that opportunities for equipment manufacturers exists to further elaborate on CR-like concepts and develop technology that focuses on interference tolerance and on taking advantage on alternative frequency bands if possible. The study on utilization of Wi-Fi bands carried out by Mass Consultants for Ofcom (2009) concludes that many connection problems in LE bands are due to configuration errors regarding channel selection. This finding identifies an opportunity for manufacturers to develop equipment that is able to select the appropriate channel automatically. Moving beyond channel selection, manufacturers can develop equipment that is able to operate on multiple frequency bands, and automatically selects the band with the lowest level of interference. Equipment using two bands (2,4GHz and 5GHz) already exists (dual-band). When more LE bands become available in the future, this concept can be further elaborated.

7.1.2 Polite protocols In telecommunication a protocol is referred to as a set of rules and agreements regarding the representation of data, signaling, authentication and error detection, needed to transmit information over a medium (Tanenbaum, 2003). The environment of WCNs follows the model of “spectrum commons” and is based on spectrum as a shared resource. Protocols play a key role herein to avoid interference, as they can be developed such that they facilitate spectrum sharing and coexistence of devices. The concept described in the former section is also a protocol but also moves beyond that. CR represents a new approach to spectrum allocation. This section considers a set of protocols that can be fitted into the current environment of spectrum management and still provide opportunities to user spectrum more efficiently.

A study conducted by Roke Manor Research for Ofcom (2006) recognizes the need of new “polite” protocols enabling efficient spectrum usage and carries out an exploration. A polite protocol is defined as “a simple, economic, common and open protocol that promotes efficient use of spectrum by allowing heterogeneous systems to operate in common spectrum with minimized probability of interference and that supports a wide range of data rates and traffic models.” A protocol is considered polite when it conforms to the following criteria:

- The protocol should provide a substantial reduction in the probability of interference between co-existing systems.

- The protocol should seek to promote realization of high-speed communications while attempting not to foreclose low speed communications.

- The protocol should not have a major negative impact on the economic feasibility of systems.

- The protocol should provide for the diverse needs of both continuous-connection and burst mode systems.

- In portions of the band where the protocol applies, a single, common protocol should be used.

- The protocol must be kept simple. To this end, effectiveness may be traded off for simplicity. The protocol must use as few layers as possible in the standard OSI stack.

- The protocol must promote efficient use of the spectrum.

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- The protocol must be open and non-proprietary; it must have an openly available set of procedures.

Exploration based on these criteria results in a set of candidate “polite protocols” (see Appendix 5) that are evaluated based on their technical and net economic benefit. Based on the evaluation, the TARB protocol is selected as the most promising protocol for the 2.4GHz band. Based on the capabilities of the protocol and the projected costs for implementation, significant economic benefit was identified. An overview in time of economic benefits relative to the CSMA protocol (already incorporated in 802.11x equipment) is shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25: Benefits TARB protocol (Roke Manor Research for Ofcom, 2006)

Considering the technical feasibility and economic benefits identified, incorporating concepts of polite protocols and TARB in particular provides opportunities for equipment suppliers and operators in MWNs. Improved protocols regarding spectrum efficiency will reduce the probability of interference, thereby reducing GAP3. Development obviously will incur significant costs; however it is expected that these will be covered immediately considering the increasing demand in frequency bandwidth.

7.1.3 Admission strategies This section moves away from the discussion on spectrum usage of Wi-Fi equipment and protocols. Rather, network capacity is considered as-is and means are discussed to utilize the capacity in a way that it best matches end-user needs. The strategies adopted by operators and service providers to allocate network capacity among end-users are defined here as admission strategies. Two strategies—which are not mutually exclusive—are discussed here.

Priority based admission control

As described, a WCN is build up of various Wi-Fi nodes or access points. Due to the random access nature of Wi-Fi technology, if the number of users connected to the same access point increases, the QoS experiences may quickly degrade. This effect is strengthened by interference in the way that bandwidth will be reduced even more resulting in users experiencing more QoS degradation.

In the reviewed WCN cases, several stakeholders are involved which serve a general interest. For instance in the case of WG, the PDG aims to use the infrastructure to facilitate its services to improve public safety. Such stakeholders may demand excessive levels of bandwidth in case of emergency situations. Considering the interests of such stakeholders, it is evident that they need to maintain strict priority over others. Therefore means of flexible allocation of network capacity is needed to ensure that

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appropriate levels of network performance are available for critical stakeholders in case of emergency situations. This allocation should take place at the expense of stakeholder serving a less critical interest.

Hinton et al. (2005) propose a system to manage different applications while respecting prioritizations. Two types of services are distinguished; emergency services (EMS-services) and municipal and ‘civic’ services (MUNI-services). Herein EMS-services have strict priority over MUNI-services. In this system, QoS needs are determined real-time and network capacity is allocated accordingly. A simplified version of this system is presented and made specific for MWNs. For each application in the system, four QoS parameters are associated:

- The preferred QoS (QoSPREF), which is the ideal level of service for a given application

- The required QoS (QoSREQ), which is the minimum level of service required for the application to function properly

- The target QoS (QoSTARGET), which is the level of service that the resource allocation algorithms aims to achieve

- The priority QoS, which is a measure of the relative importance and urgency of the different applications and users

The difference between the preferred and the required QoS is an important one. When an application’s preferred QoS is larger than its required QoS, the application has soft constraints. This means that the content delivery of the application can be adjusted to the channel conditions without hampering the functionality of the application. For example, a real-time video application can deliver black and white images in low resolution or colored images in high resolution. While colored images in high resolution may be preferred, the application will still function when it delivers black and white images in low resolutions. This situation creates room for QoS negotiations. The following paragraphs describe the negotiation procedures through which this concept of dynamic QoS negotiation is implemented.

Initially, all applications have their QoS targets set to the preferred values. If the resource allocation algorithm is not constrained and the network is not overloaded, the performance meets or exceeds the target QoS. However, depending on the need of high-priority services (EMS-services), the system may become overloaded, making it impossible to achieve all QoS targets. In line with the higher priorities assigned to EMS-services, the procedure renegotiates the QoS targets of the MUNI-services and consequently reduces the resources allocated to MUNI-services. By this means, more resources are available for EMS-services thereby ensuring that EMS QoS targets can be achieved. It is desirable to allocate appropriate capacity for EMS-services while facilitating MUNI-services as much as possible. Therefore the algorithm first measure the level to which the network is overloaded and handles accordingly. Three levels of overload are distinguished:

- Severe overload: in this case there is the highest need for resources and a subset of MUNI-services is dropped from the system and all new MUNI services requests are rejected. It remains determined how the subset of MUNI-services that is dropped from the system is selected.

- Moderate overload: in this case the QoS targets of a subset of MUNI services are decreased to their minimum required QoS to free up necessary resources for EMS services. Until all EMS applications have reached their preferred QoS targets, the procedure continues the process of adjusting QoS targets.

- Small overload: in this case the network overload condition is a result of a small increase in EMS needs and therefore a corresponding small change in the resource allocation for the MUNI-services can be sufficient to free up resources in order to satisfy EMS demands. A

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subset of MUNI-services is renegotiated and since the overload is small, it is expected that the MUNI-services can be supported at a QoS level larger than their minimum required QoS.

A flow chart outlining the procedure for QoS negotiation as described above is shown in Figure 26. Important to note is that after an overload smaller than severe, the procedure first checks if there are any MUNI QoS targets above the required QoS. If this not the case, the system proceeds with dropping a subset of MUNI users since there will be no MUNI QoS targets available to be reduced. If there are MUNI Qos targets larger than required, the process proceeds either by reducing a subset of MUNI users to the minimum required QoS or, if there is only a small overload, a subset of MUNI QoS targets are decreased only gradually. In the last case it is expected that MUNI QoS targets stay above the required level.

Figure 26: Procedure for QoS renegotiation

As can be derived from Figure 26, the procedure prescribes that when no QoS violation regarding EMS services is identified, MUNI resources are increased. This situation occurs when EMS demands return to normal levels. MUNI QoS targets consequently can be increased up to preferred levels and new MUNI users can be allowed on the network. Essential in this process is that EMS QoS targets are respected. A flow chart for the procedure to increase QoS parameters is shown in Figure 27.

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Figure 27: Procedure for increasing QoS parameters

The process probes the system for unutilized capacity. If capacity comes available the process incrementally scales up the QoS targets of those applications whose QoS targets are lower than preferred. While doing this, the procedure makes sure that the QoS targets of EMS-services are not violated. If the increase of QoS targets causes a violation of the QoS target of any application, the applications in the selected subset are restored to their previous QoS targets, and the percentage by which the QoS targets are increased is reduced. This process is iterated until the appropriate percentage is found. If QoS targets are increased successfully, the procedure again probes for unutilized capacity. When the system is not constrained QoS targets eventually will reach preferred levels and the procedure is finished.

It is argued that such a system can be implemented in WCNs infrastructures and enable operators and service providers to better match supply and demand, thus reducing GAP3. The system presented here is simplified and only considers two priority levels: EMS users and MUNI users. In reality, many priority levels can be adopted. By this means, supply to several end-user groups can be adequately matched with demand. Various priority levels will add to complexity however the basic procedures of the system (see Figure 26 & Figure 27) will remain the same. Furthermore, designing services so they can handle different levels of QoS provides an opportunity for service providers to design services that are interference-tolerant.

Price based congestion control

Rather than to statically assign priorities to end-users, these can also be determined real-time based on an associated payment. This concept is referred to as price-based congestion control (PCC) and provides a way for users to indicate their interests by their willingness to pay for a relatively high level of QoS (Battiti et al., 2003; Bouch & Sasse, 2000). By adopting a dynamic rather than a flat-free

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pricing scheme, service providers and operators can enable their users to adjust QoS levels according to demands. The process is similar to the former; a user with a high priority is allocated increased levels of QoS at the expense of users with a low priority. In this case however, the priority of the user is based on the level of payment. For example, an end-user connected to an access point who is performing a business-critical tasks (e.g. video conferencing with collogues) can express the willingness to pay more to the service provider, thereby increasing QoS levels at the expense of other end-users connected to that access point who are paying less. Furthermore, operators and service providers can control the loading on access points by determining the transmission costs as a function of the current load on the access point. By increasing the price, end-users are discouraged to connect to the access point and vice versa. Battiti et. al. (2003) have developed a theoretical framework to compute the access costs to maintain the access point in its optimal operating point for any load condition. This involves a system that periodically determines the price for transmission based on the amount of users currently connected to the access point. The system operates in two steps. First, it identifies the desired percentage increase/decrease in the number of users in the access point to drive the system to the optimal operating point. Second, the price level is identified to achieve the desired increase/decrease in amount of users. Herein assumptions are made to model user behavior. This is expressed as the probability P that a user will ‘give up’ as a function of the transmission costs. When transmission costs increase, the probability that users disconnect from the access point increases. The system estimates P from the system history by observing the users’ reaction to the changes in price level. Based on a simulation, Battiti et al. (2003) conclude that such a policy is effective. However, this concept may be unrealistic at this time. Operators and service providers need to develop sophisticated allocation and billing systems in order to facilitate this concept and has several technical challenges have to be tackled (e.g. determining per-packet transmission costs). Moreover, development of such systems will generate significant costs and potentially will generate substantial network overhead.

Still such pricing schemes are argued to provide opportunities for operators and service providers in WCNs to match supply and demand effectively. End-user can be empowered to control their required levels of QoS by expressing the willingness to pay more. Also, dynamic pricing schemes such as described can be used to balance the load of access points. By this means GAP3 can be reduced. Furthermore, when a direct relationship between performance and price is communicated to end-users, it is likely that expectations will be more aligned with perceived service (end-users are aware of the situation where less payment means lower service levels and vice versa) thereby reducing the SQG directly.

7.1.4 Role of Agentschap Telecom Regarding the solutions described in the former sections, two potential roles for Agentschap Telecom can be identified. First, in the process of developing CR-like concept and polite protocols and incorporating them in network equipment, regulatory activities have to be carried out. Spectrum has to be allocated to facilitate new radio techniques. Additional spectrum space has to be identified as a result of evaluation of current frequency mapping. Important aspect herein is to respect the functioning of other technologies in order to avoid interference problems. Also, new concepts have to be communicated throughout regulatory bodies internationally in order to create support in order to reach levels of standardization. Standardization is essential for the success of new technologies since this determines the degree of compatibility of devices. Furthermore, newly developed equipment has to be tested against (international) guidelines such as EMC and R&TTE (see section 2.1.2) . Based on this, the regulator decides whether equipment is approved to be released on the market or not. The research carried out by Roke Manor Research for Ofcom (2006), estimates are given regarding the time span of such processes. These are shown in (see Figure 28).

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Figure 28: Steps towards implementing Polite Protocols (Roke Manor Research, 2006)

Considering admission strategies, Agentschap Telecom can fulfill a consulting role. Most likely they are involved in establishing prioritization schemes. As they are responsible for the availability and reliability of communication networks and in particular telecommunication networks used by (public) agencies fulfilling tasks with societal importance (public safety, healthcare, etc.), they can assist in establishing performance requirements of those agencies and defining prioritization levels accordingly. More generally, Agentschap Telecom can fulfill a consulting role in estimating the probability of interference problems. By monitoring the frequency spectrum, they have insight in spectrum usage. Agentschap Telecom can use this information to play a pro-active role in identifying ‘problematic’ areas regarding interference.

7.2 Managing expectations The former section focuses on directions to improve situations where discrepancies in quality specifications and service delivery exist (GAP3). This section is concerned with managing expectations. As the SERVQUAL gap model automatically implies, the gap between expected and perceived service (SQG) can be reduced by adjusting buyer expectations. Moreover, this assumption is endorsed by the work by Bouch & Sasse (2000) who conducted research to identify the effect of user expectations on the perceived service quality. Their statistical analysis shows that lowering customer’s expectations will improve the way in which network performance is perceived (see Figure 5). Moreover, the work of Bouch & Sasse (2000) proves that the assumption made in the SERVQUAL model actually applies to telecommunication services. Considering this it is argued that it is of importance for providers in MWNs to restrain buyer expectations and to ensure proper alignment with actual service delivery. To achieve this, a provider has to take a pro-active role in managing expectations and ensuring that external communications reflect the actual situation. In the following sections means are proposed to improve the situation.

7.2.1 Service level agreements A service level agreement (SLA) is a formal definition of the relationship between a buyer and a provider. An SLA can be defined and used in the context of any industry and is used to specify what the buyer could expect from the provider. This includes the obligations of the buyer as well as the provider, performance, availability, and security objectives of the service, as well as the procedures to be followed to ensure compliance with the SLA (Sahai et al., 2002). The use of SLAs improves communication between the two involved parties (Karten, 2003; Dinesh, 2004). In general it creates an

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improved understanding between provider and buyer, contributes to the sharing of important information, provides feedback about problems and needs, and reduces the number and intensity of complaints. Regarding the management of expectations SLAs contribute to clarifying the scope of services and the division of responsibilities, provides a context for realistic and reasonable expectations, creates a shared language, and establishes priorities and service levels. In this way a SLA can serve as a tool for a provider to manage buyer expectations. This aspect in particular is relevant here and the means in which a SLA can be used to manage expectations throughout the relationship in the Service Quality Chain in MWNs (see Figure 10) is addressed in this section.

In theory the concept of an SLA exists in every provider – buyer relationship. The challenge however is to make explicit usage of SLAs in early stages of the relationship and to use it as an expectation management tool. The objective is to create a process of establishing an SLA which facilitates the identification and discussion of expectations. As a result of this process, the two parties achieve shared expectations about services and service delivery. To outline this process for relationships in WCNs, the first step is to define the components that should be included. The work by Dinesh (2004) gives an overview of the components of an SLA that should be included in IP networks. Since a WCN is in fact an IP network these components are applicable. The components are:

1. A description of the nature of the service to be provided. It includes the type of service to be provided and any qualifications of the type of service to be provided. In the context of MWNs, the type of service may specify the maintenance of network connectivity and additional elements specific for the type of service.

2. The expected performance level of the service, specifically its reliability and responsiveness. Reliability includes availability requirements: when is the service available, and what are the bounds on service outages that may be expected. Responsiveness includes how soon the service would be performed in the normal course of operations.

3. The procedure for reporting problems with the service. This includes information about the person to be contacted for problem resolution, the format in which complaints have to be filed, and the steps to be undertaken in order to quickly resolve the problem. The agreement would also typically describe a time limit by which a reported problem would be responded to (someone start to work on the problem) as well as how soon the problem would be resolved.

4. The time frame for response and problem resolution. This specifies a time limit by which someone would start investigating a problem that was reported. The start of the investigation is typically marked by a representative of the provider contacting the buyer who reported the problem initially. There may also be a time limit by which the problem would be resolved. An SLA may specify that performance problems would be addressed within 24 hours.

5. The process for monitoring and reporting the service level. This describes how performance levels are monitored and reported, i.e., who will do the monitoring, what types of statistics will be collected, and how statistics are accessed. Some providers may allow the customer to directly access part of the network through a network management tool. The customer would be typically provided access to monitoring and statistics information, but may not be allowed to modify the configuration or operation of the network.

6. The consequences for the provider not meeting its obligations. Usually, some credits are provided to customers when the service expectations are not met. Other consequences of not meeting the obligation may include the ability of the customer to terminate its relationship or to ask for reimbursement of part of the revenues lost due to degraded service quality. The consequences of not meeting the SLA may vary depending on the nature of the relationship between the buyer and the provider.

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7. Escape clauses and constraints. Escape clauses are conditions under which the service level does not apply or under which it would be considered unreasonable to meet the SLAs, e.g., when the service provider’s equipment have been damaged by flood, fire, or war. They often also impose some constraints on the behaviour by the buyer. An operator may void the SLA if the customer is attempting to breach the security of the network.

Not all these components may be present in each contract but a good SLA would provide an overview of the different aspects that can go wrong with the provided service and attempt to cover those situations as a part of the agreement. Each component (1-7) as defined by Dinesh (2004) is made specific for stakeholders in WCNs. This is shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Key aspects in SLAs for stakeholders in WCNs

Relationship

Component #

Supplier – Operator Operator – Service Provider

Service Provider – End-user

1 The nature of service is uniform.

Nature of service should address potential interference problems.

Nature of services highly varies with type of service provider.

Nature should address interest and associated risks.

Nature of service is uniform for all end-users.

Nature should address interest and associated risks.

2 Can be expressed in technical terms. Standards should be used in defining performance levels.

Expected performance levels vary per service provider depending on nature of service.

Expected performance level determined by nature of service.

Service providers should ensure realistic performance levels are communicated.

3 Supplier and operator are closely involved. Procedure for problem reporting should be responsive.

Problems should be addressed timely since network performance depends on functioning of equipment.

Procedure same for all service providers.

Time limit may vary depending on nature of service.

Procedure for problem reporting should be accessible, well-defined and highly responsive.

Service provider must engage in identifying the cause problems and determine the responsible stakeholder accordingly.

4 Failure of equipment often is root cause of network problems. Therefore time limit for resolution should be stringent.

Value of relationship heavily depends on timeliness of problem resolution.

A service more critical in nature require shorter time limit for problem resolution

Time limit for resolution determined according to nature of service.

5 Equipment should incorporate interfaces to read equipment status and performance levels.

Operator should have access to interfaces to be able to anticipate on network problems.

Monitoring is responsibility of operator.

Access to statistics provided to service provider depending on nature of service.

Service provider may engage in conducting surveys to gain insight in perceived service levels.

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Relationship

Component #

Supplier – Operator Operator – Service Provider

Service Provider – End-user

6 Operator carries significant risk regarding network failure. Part of this risk can be assigned to supplier when equipment does not function according to specifications.

The more critical a service in nature, the more stringent the consequences for the operator not meeting its obligations.

The more critical a service in nature, the more stringent the consequences for the service provider not meeting its obligations.

7 Equipment should be robust, however supplier can include clauses, e.g. when equipment is not used according to terms or when equipment is damaged by vandalism.

Operator may determine an interference level above which normal operation is not ensured.

Excessive network loads may hamper service provider to deliver normal levels. Service provider may include clauses which determine maximum network load where normal operation is ensured.

Dinesh (2004) describes three approaches to support the appropriate level of performance and availability specified in SLAs. The appropriate approach depends on the nature of the relationship. Throughout the Service Quality Chain in WCNs, stakeholder relationships differ in nature and therefore require different approaches to support SLAs. According to the guidelines provided by Dinesh (2004) it is argued that the service provider – end-user relationship requires an insurance approach, the operator – service provider relationship requires a provisioning approach and the supplier – operator relationship requires an adaptive approach.

In the assurance approach toward supporting SLAs, the provider makes its bets attempt to satisfy the performance, availability and responsiveness objectives that are specified in the SLA according to its normal operating procedures (Dinesh, 2004). In this approach the same level of performance is offered to all buyers. Since it is assumed that a service provider in a WCN provides a singular type of service to all its end-users (see Table 4), this approach is applicable to this relationship. Supporting an SLA according to this approach the following steps must be taken:

1. Identify service objectives in terms of performance, availability and responsiveness.

2. Monitor agreed upon objectives (conduct surveys of perceived service levels).

3. Issue SLA reports and include meetings with buyers to gain insight in status of SLA compliance.

4. Provide appropriate credits to buyer if service levels are not satisfied.

5. Periodically modify service level objectives to lower the probability of violating performance levels and associated impact.

In the provisioning approach, the provider signs different types of service objectives with different buyers (Dinesh, 2004). The provider would allocate the resources within the environment (in this case capacity within the network) to each buyer differently in order to be able to support different service levels. The operator in a WCN deals with various service providers which demand different services in terms of interests and priorities (see Table 4). Because of this, the provisioning approach is applicable to the operator – service provider relationship. In this approach, the main challenge is to determine the configuration of the system to support all service levels demanded by buyers. The following steps must be taken:

1. Identify service objectives in terms of performance, availability and responsiveness.

2. Determine the right system configuration to be used for each of the buyers.

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3. Monitor agreed upon objectives (using network monitoring tools).

4. Issue SLA reports and include meetings with buyers to gain insight in status of SLA compliance.

5. Provide appropriate credits to buyer if service levels are not satisfied.

Section 7.1.3 proposes a procedure to determine the appropriate system configuration (step 2). As discussed, such systems can grow rather complex, since many different stakeholders with associated interests are involved.

The relationship between an operator and its suppliers is important, since the performance of network equipment determines the quality for all service providers and end-users. Furthermore, the environment in which the network operates is subject to external factors. The main external factor addressed in this research is interference. Because of interference it may be the case that network equipment has to be modified, supplemented and replaced in order to maintain agreed performance levels. This implies that the SLA must be adaptive in nature therefore the adaptive approach is most appropriate. The adaptive approach differs from the former in the sense that it addresses adaptive configurations in SLAs (Dinesh, 2004). The approach includes the following steps:

1. Identify service objectives in terms of performance, availability and responsiveness.

2. Determine the right system configuration to be used for the operator.

3. Monitor agreed upon objectives (suppliers incorporate interface to monitor equipment status).

4. If monitoring indicates potential violation of agreed performance levels, the configuration is reconfigured to better serve the operator (modify, supplement and replace equipment).

5. Issue SLA reports and include meetings with buyers to gain insight in status of SLA compliance.

6. Provide appropriate credits to buyer if service levels are not satisfied.

When stakeholders in WCNs take the proposed approaches in SLA support and put sufficient effort in formulating SLAs, thereby using it as an expectation management tool, the situation is improved in two ways. First, the management perceptions regarding quality will be better aligned with buyer expectations (GAP1). Second, external communications of the provider will better reflect the actual service delivery (GAP4). The SERVQUAL gap model automatically implies that closing GAP1 and GAP4 will lead to improved levels of perceived quality (SQG).

7.2.2 Service Design The final aspect addressed here is the way in which service providers can design their services so they anticipate on situation where high levels of interference exist. A service provider may not be able to influence the degradation of service levels as a consequence of interference but software can be designed so that it detects interference levels and handles accordingly. Means for this are already described in section 7.1.3. By creating a margin between required QoS and preferred QoS, margins are created to negotiate QoS levels depending on levels of interference and network congestions. Additionally, software can be designed to provide means for end-users to adjust their expectations depending on the level of interference.

Concretely, service providers can design sservices so that they generate alerts in case of interference which gives end-users the opportunity to handle accordingly (e.g. switch to alternative networks). Ideally, end-users should be given some time to take action. Interference should be detected pro-actively, and service levels should be gradually diminished (“smooth degradation”). Several indicators such as sounds and visuals can be used to inform the user of this process. This is a way a service

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provider can adjust its external communications dynamically to ensure it reflects the actual situation (GAP4). Thereby the user will be able to adjust its expectations and the SQG will be reduced.

7.2.3 Role of Agentschap Telecom Agentschap Telecom can fulfill several roles in managing expectations in WCNs. This can take form in playing a consulting and mediating role between stakeholders when formulating SLAs. SLA management involves the procedure of signing SLAs thus creating binding contracts, monitoring their compliance and taking control actions to enable compliance (Sahai et al., 2002). SLAs are difficult to specify in a clear and unambiguous manner. Because Agentschap Telecom has an independent position, involved parties are ensured of objective judgment. Especially in the relationship operator – service provider, where many different buyers with different interests are involved, Agentschap Telecom can support the procedure of signing SLAs to reduce complexity. Furthermore, since Agentschap Telecom has insight in the status of spectrum usage with associated probability of interference and congestion, they can assess the feasibility of performance objectives.

Furthermore, Agentschap Telecom can fulfill a regulating role in the field of advertising by service providers in WCNs. When the service levels advertized by service providers appear to be unrealistic, Agentschap Telecom can intervene by forcing the service provider to adjust their external communications. Also, in general Agentschap Telecom can fulfill an informative role by creating an awareness of potential difficulties in service delivery in WCNs. Currently, Agentschap Telecom already has informative as well as regulating tasks and these can be further elaborated by taking the discussed aspects into account.

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8 Conclusion and Further Research 8.1 Answer to the Main Research Question This chapter provides an answer to the Main Research Question:

What elements of risk management can be identified for stakeholders in Wireless City Networks in order to reduce the gap between expected service and perceived service?

The answer aims to fulfill the following objective:

Establish means for stakeholders in Wireless City Networks to improve risk management in order to reduce the gap between expected and perceived service.

An answer to the Main Research Question is provided by the results of three sub questions (RQ1-3).

RQ1 “Which stakeholders are involved in WCNs and what are their interests, roles, responsibilities and associated risks?” is aimed at providing an overview of the parties involved. To provide an answer, a stakeholder framework is developed that outlines the various stakeholder roles (see Figure 9). Furthermore, the Service Quality Chain is developed that outlines the relationships involved in the service delivery process (see Figure 10) in WCNs. These are the Supplier – Operator relationship, the Operator – Service Provider relationship and the Service Provider – End-user relationship. Next, each application type in WCNs is assessed thereby identifying the associated risks (see Figure 11). Subsequently, three cases of WCNs in the Netherlands are described. The description of each case is build upon the stakeholder framework, the Service Quality Chain and the associated risks identified per service type.

RQ2 “Which causes of the gap between expected service and perceived service in WCNs–leading to degradation of service quality–can be identified?” is aimed at the identification of discrepancies in processes which lead to risks for stakeholders. Using the assumption made in the SERVQUAL gap model, situations found in the cases are analyzed to identify discrepancies in processes that potentially lead to degraded service quality. Two gaps are argued to negatively affect service quality in WCNs. First, the discrepancy between quality specifications and actual service delivery (GAP3) prevails in WCNs since service delivery is subject to interference. In all three cases interference problems are recognized, however these problems are not being addressed adequately by stakeholders. Next, discrepancy between the external communications by providers and actual service delivery (GAP4) exists. External communications of providers to end-users tend to be optimistic and therefore the situation can occur where expectations are not aligned with actual service delivery.

RQ3 “What means are available to reduce this gap and how can they be applied in WCNs in order to manage risks?” aims to directly provide an answer to the main question by presenting means to cope with interference and to manage risks. Based on the gaps identified, two directions are proposed to improve the situation. The first direction involves development of technology including Cognitive Radio concepts, Polite Protocols and Admission Strategies to dynamically negotiate QoS. These concepts are argued to provide means to reduce the gap between quality specifications and service delivery (GAP3). The second direction involves management of expectations by using the process of establishing SLAs as a communication tool as well as means to design services so they play an active role in managing end-user expectations. SLAs can be used to reduce GAP1 as well as GAP3. Software design guidelines can be used to reduce GAP3. For each direction, potential roles for Agentschap Telecom are elaborated. An overview of proposed solutions is given in Table 5.

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Table 5: Overview of proposed solutions

Direction

Stakeholder

Technology Expectation mgt.

Supplier Incorporate CR concepts in network equipment. Engage in research regarding polite protocols to develop equipment that uses frequency spectrum more efficiently and enables interference-tolerant operation.

The performance of suppliers for a large extent determines the quality that is achieved throughout the network. Due to increased levels of interference it may be the case that network equipment has to be modified, supplemented and replaced in order to maintain agreed performance levels. An adaptive approach in SLA support therefore must be taken. Requirements should be monitored constantly and objectives have to be adjusted accordingly. By using an adaptive approach to support an SLA parties will be involved closely thereby GAP4 is reduced. Also the suppliers’ management perceptions will be better aligned with the operator’s expectations thereby GAP1 will be reduced.

Operator Implement admission strategies and systems to dynamically negotiate QoS to enable allocation of capacity to best serve end-user interests and requirements. By this means supply and demand of network capacity can be matched more accurately thereby reducing GAP3.

An operator deals with several service providers and these have different interests and demands. Also, certain service providers must be assigned strict priority over others. A provisioning approach should be taken in supporting the array of different SLAs. Herein the system configuration for each stakeholder should be determined carefully. An SLA should be used in earlier stages of the relationship to recognize variety in interests and ensure alignment of expectations. Meetings should be included with service providers to monitor the compliance of SLAs. Based on this configuration should be adjusted periodically.

Service provider Service providers should design their service so that they can handle different levels of QoS. By this means a margin between preferred QoS and required QoS is created. When sufficient levels of QoS are available the application can deliver high quality content but when lower levels of QoS are available, an application should be able to switch back to a lower quality while retaining its functionality.

A service provider typically deals with one type of end-user in terms of interest and requirements. An assurance approach should be taken in supporting SLAs. Service objectives have to be identified and the compliance has to be monitored by end-user surveys. Appropriate credit should be provided when objectives are not met. Objectives have to be adjusted periodically to lower the probability of violation.By involving end-users in formulating SLAs and monitoring compliance, expectations are aligned with performance thereby GAP4 will be reduced.

Furthermore, service providers should design services so that they pro-actively inform users of expected performance in which a certain timeframe must be provided to enable end-users to anticipate on degraded service levels. Hereby expectations will be aligned with performance thereby reducing GAP4.

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Direction

Stakeholder

Technology Expectation mgt.

Agentschap Telecom Spectrum has to be allocated to facilitate new radio techniques including CR concepts. Herein additional spectrum space has to be identified as a result of evaluation of the current frequency mapping. New technologies have to be communicated throughout regulatory bodies internationally in order to reach levels of standardization. Furthermore, newly developed equipment has to be tested against international guidelines.

Agentschap Telecom can fulfill a consulting and mediating role between stakeholders when formulating SLAs. SLAs are difficult to specify in a clear and unambiguous manner and herein Agentschap Telecom can support the procedure to reduce complexity. Since Agentschap Telecom has insight in the status of spectrum usage with associated probability of interference and congestion, they can assess the feasibility of performance objectives. The independent position of Agentschap Telecom ensures objective judgment for stakeholders.

Furthermore, Agentschap Telecom can fulfill a regulating role in the field of advertising. When advertized service levels appear to be unrealistic, Agentschap Telecom can intervene or fulfill an informative role to create awareness of potential difficulties in service delivery in WCNs.

The means presented in Table 5 are argued to contribute to closing the Service Quality Gap therefore these means can be considered elements to improve risk management in WCNs.

8.2 Reflection This section aims to evaluate the research design and the way in which the research was executed. This is done by formulating strengths and weaknesses.

8.2.1 Strengths - The research takes a pluralist approach by taking all stakeholders involved in WCNs into

account. This provides a holistic view of the problem area.

- Most research in the field of telecommunication networks takes a technical approach to problem solving. In this research, quality is defined from a business perspective. Thereby aspects other than solely technical are considered.

- Although gaps are identified based on abstract models, solutions to these gaps are made specific for stakeholders and are thereby considered pragmatic.

8.2.2 Weaknesses - No quantitative data was acquired on the effect of interference on service quality in WCNs.

This makes it difficult to indicate the severity of quality problems due to interference. However, quantitative research is referenced (Mass Consultants for Ofcom, 2009) that can be considered applicable to WCN cases.

- The stakeholders argued to contribute directly to service delivery where discussed in detail. However, it can be argued that there are other stakeholders not addressed in this research that fulfill a significant role in service delivery in WCNs.

- Not all technical requirements where accurately mapped according to service concepts. This is primary because many services in the cases are in conceptual phases; therefore not all functional requirements are made explicit. Furthermore, low-level technical requirements may require technical expertise that is beyond the scope of this research.

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8.3 Further Research Based on the outcomes of this research, the following areas are considered relevant for further research:

- The identification of potential causes of degraded service quality in WCNs in this research is build upon the SERVQUAL gap model. Although the author provides a line of reasoning based on literature concluding that the model is applicable in this context, it needs to be validated using empirical research.

- This research assumes that end-users do not consider underlying technical details when using services. This assumption makes the case for vulnerability of WCNs—users assume a level of reliability which does not reflect the actual situation. This assumption needs to be validated using empirical research.

- As mentioned, an opportunity for service providers is to design service so that are enabled to operate tolerant of interference. To achieve this, a margin has to be created between minimal operation and preferred operations (a margin between minimal QoS and preferred QoS). Further research may involve the design of mobile services following this guideline.

- In this thesis a system is proposed for dynamic QoS negotiation. Using this system, available network capacity can be allocated according to end-user priorities or to associated payments. Further research may involve the feasibility as well as further development of such a system. This involves low-level network protocol design as well as the design of billing systems.

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Appendix 1 Interference background

Wireless transmission of information such as video, voice and other forms of data is achieved using radio waves. Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation (see Figure 29). Electromagnetic radiation is unique in the sense that it does not need a medium to propagate (in contrast with mechanic waves such as sound, vibration, etc.).

Figure 29: Electromagnetic spectrum (Tanenbaum, 2003)

The amount of data a radio wave can carry is determined by its frequency (in general the higher the frequency the more information it can carry) and the bandwidth. The bandwidth is the referred to as the area a radio wave occupies in the spectrum (Tanenbaum, 2003). The wider the band, the more date the radio wave can carry and the higher the data rate. Frequency also determines the way in which radio waves propagate. Low frequencies tend to bend following the shape of the earth. High frequencies on the other hand do not bend but tend to bounce back off the ionosphere (see Figure 30).

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Figure 30: Bending and reflecting of radio waves (Tanenbaum, 2003)

The frequency of a radio wave and its associated characteristics determines for what type of application it can be used. Since some applications are more useful than others, this results in an ‘unequal’ occupation of the frequency spectrum. An overview of the various applications per frequency band is given in Table 6.

Table 6: Applications per frequency band (Tanenbaum, 2003)

Band Abbreviations Wavelength Applications

Extremely Low Frequency ELF 3-30 Hz

100.000 km – 10.000 km

Super Low Frequency SLF 3-30 Hz Submarine communications

Ultra Low Frequency ULF 300-3000 Hz

1000 km – 100 km

Very low frequency VLF 3-30 kHz

100 km – 10 km

Military communications, wireless heartbeatmonitors

Low frequency LF 30-300 kHz

10 km – 1 km

Navigation, AM-radio

Medium frequency MF 300-3000 kHz

1 km – 100 meter

Amateur radio

High frequency HF 3 - 30 MHz

100 m – 10 m

FM-radio and television

Very high frequency VHF 30 – 300 MHz

10 m – 1 m

FM-radio and television

Ultra High Frequency UHF 300 – 3000 MHz

1 m – 100 mm

Television, cellphones, wireless LAN, Bluetooth

Super High Frequency SHF 3 – 30 GHz

100 mm – 10 mm

Cellphones, wireless LAN, radar

Extremely High Frequency EHF 30 – 300 GHz

10 mm – 1 mm

93

Interference is the joint working of multiple waves in the same place and on the same time. Herein an interference pattern occurs. When waves have the same phase amplification occurs and when they are in opposite phase the waves are weakened (see Figure 31).

Figure 31: Interference

Telecommunication is subject to interference since radio waves serve as carrier of information. This situation results in limitation regarding frequency usage. When too many devices transmitting the same frequency are used on the same location, these devices will influence each other and transmission becomes difficult if not impossible. As mentioned, certain frequencies are more demanded than others, resulting in ‘congested’ frequencies on busy locations. For this reasons, interference forms a potential problem in telecommunications.

94

Appendix 2 Graphical representation of frequency mapping in the Netherlands

95

96

Wi-Fi

97

Appendix 3 Stakeholder roles in WCNs identified in literature

Kramer, Lopez & Koonen (2006) describe three Wireless City Network initiatives in the Netherlands: Kenniswijk, OnsNet Neunen and Wireless Leiden. The study contains a general description of each of these initiatives including the rationale for the development, funding and services. Table 7 shows the stakeholders derived from the general description of two cases.

Stakeholder Role

Case 1: Eindhoven region

Kenniswijk Initiator

Kenniswijk was funded by 27 parties Sponsors

Municipalities of Helmond and Eindhoven Initiator, public site owner

NEM Neunen BV Supplier, operator

Residents of region Eindhoven Citizens

KPN, Planet Internet, 2MySpace, OntdekNet Service Providers

Case 2: Leiden

Leiden residents Initiator, end-user, citizens

Several companies, schools, libraries, social & health care centers

Service Providers

Individuals, companies and other organizations Sponsors

Dell, Novell Suppliers, Sponsors

Municipality of Leiden Public site owner

Demon Service Provider, operator

Wireless Leiden, Jabber Operator

Table 7: Stakeholders identified by Kramer, Lopez and Koonen (2006)

The feasibility study performed by Stratix Consulting (2006) includes an exploration of current WCN initiatives and services, as well as stakeholder analysis and identification of typical roles in the WCNs. Table 8 shows the stakeholders filtered from the case description.

98

Stakeholder Role

Case: Utrecht

SURFnet Initiator, operator

Local government, local educational organizations Public site owner

Higher education and research institutions, stakeholders with innovation interest

Sponsors

Local government, home care organizations, local businesses Service providers

Table 8: Stakeholders identified by Stratix Consulting (2006)

Mandviwalla et al. (2006) state that there is little research-based guidance available on the core issues and challenges that needs to be addressed by a community during the process of implementing a Wireless City Network. Therefore the authors performed an extensive study on 25 Wireless City Network initiatives including an analysis of over 110 stakeholder expectations and requirements and provide guidelines for Wireless City Network implementation. The identified stakeholders and their roles are provided in Table 9.

Stakeholder Role

State of city government Service provider

Municipal services Service provider

Underserved/disadvantaged individuals End-users

Local tourist industry Service provider

Small and startup businesses Service provider, end-users

Large and mid-sized corporations Service provider

Telecoms and ISPs Supplier

Non-profit and community groups End-users

Utility/transportation/healthcare Service provider

Higher educations Service provider

Public schools Service provider, end-users

Table 9: Stakeholders identified by Mandviwalla et al. (2006)

99

App

endi

x 4

Serv

ice

conc

epts

for W

G d

evel

oped

by

HG

(Zw

etsl

oot,

2008

)

Lect

orat

e C

once

pt

Nur

sing

inno

vatio

n an

d po

sitio

ning

Take

sur

veys

wire

less

ly—

take

sur

veys

in

the

city

of

Gro

ning

en f

rom

stu

dent

s, p

atie

nts

and

nurs

es.

Opp

ortu

nitie

s ar

e se

en in

han

dlin

g th

is d

igita

lly.

O

bser

vatio

nal s

tudy

usi

ng v

ideo

cam

eras

—ob

serv

atio

nal s

tudy

in h

ospi

tals

whe

re n

otes

are

mad

e on

ce

rtain

act

s. W

ith s

tream

ing

vide

o th

is c

an b

e do

ne re

mot

ely.

E

stab

lishi

ng a

n e-

lear

ning

por

tal.

Inte

grat

ed y

outh

pol

icy

P

erfo

rm r

esea

rch

in t

he f

ield

—at

clie

nts

at h

ome—

and

dire

ctly

sub

mit

resu

lts u

sing

the

wire

less

in

frast

ruct

ure.

E

stab

lish

vide

o ca

mer

as o

n ke

y lo

catio

ns s

o re

sear

cher

s ca

n m

onito

r cer

tain

loca

tions

rem

otel

y.

Empl

oym

ent

W

hen

visi

ting

prob

lem

atic

ally

rep

ositi

onab

le c

lient

s, u

se w

irele

ss t

echn

olog

y to

acc

ess

reco

rds

and

upda

te th

ese

reco

rds

real

-tim

e.

S

ervi

ces

to s

uppo

rt th

e es

tabl

ishm

ent o

f sm

all b

usin

ess

cent

ers.

Bio

info

rmat

ics

E

xist

ing

mob

ile D

NA

lab

can

be e

quip

ped

with

wire

less

tech

nolo

gy to

sub

mit

DN

A te

st re

sults

in re

al-ti

me

and

proc

ess

them

.

Cen

ter o

f Exc

elle

nce

for I

ntel

ligen

t Sen

sor I

nnov

atio

n (C

ENSI

)

Mon

itorin

g se

nsor

s at

targ

et g

roup

“IQ

40-

80”

M

onito

ring

targ

et g

roup

“mot

hers

with

Dow

n sy

ndro

me”

M

onito

ring

targ

et g

roup

“co

mpu

lsiv

e st

ress

syn

drom

e”—

use

sens

ors

to p

redi

ct a

nd a

nnou

nce

the

occu

rrenc

e of

an

atta

ck.

W

irele

ss s

enso

rs f

or p

redi

ctio

n of

hea

rt fa

ilure

. Th

is p

roje

ct i

s es

tabl

ishe

d in

coo

pera

tion

with

Mar

tini

hosp

ital G

roni

ngen

. Mon

itorin

g of

hea

rt pa

tient

s ca

n fu

lfill

an im

porta

nt ro

le in

reco

very

.

U

sage

of “

smar

t dus

t” se

nsor

s—sm

all s

enso

rs th

at c

olla

bora

te to

form

an

inte

lligen

t sen

sor n

etw

ork

that

ca

n pe

rform

var

ious

type

s of

mea

sure

men

ts (m

ovem

ent,

soun

d, e

tc.).

Can

be

used

for m

easu

rem

ents

in

traffi

c, a

tmos

pher

e, e

tc.

100

Lect

orat

e C

once

pt

Cre

ativ

e bu

sine

ss

- C

ombi

ne t

he c

urre

nt e

duca

tiona

l en

viro

nmen

t w

ith 3

D o

n th

e in

tern

et a

nd “

Sec

ond

Life

” th

ereb

y co

mbi

ning

the

real

wor

ld w

ith v

irtua

l wor

lds.

- C

reat

e an

sup

porti

ve e

nviro

nmen

t for

sta

rtups

—e.

g. a

cces

s to

inte

rnet

and

a s

uppo

rtive

por

tal.

Wire

less

co

nnec

tivity

can

con

tribu

te to

this

env

ironm

ent.

Ener

gy tr

ansi

tion

- E

lect

roni

c m

obilit

y—bu

fferin

g en

ergy

usi

ng L

I-ON

bat

terie

s fro

m h

ybrid

car

s an

d el

ectro

nic

scoo

ters

. W

irele

ss c

onne

ctiv

ity c

an p

lay

a ke

y-ro

le in

det

ectio

ns o

f veh

icle

s at

term

inal

s.

Ener

gy a

pplic

atio

ns

- P

rovi

de s

uppo

rt fo

r th

e “fl

exib

le e

nerg

y hu

b”—

esta

blis

h A

MR

sys

tem

s us

ing

smar

t m

eter

s. T

here

is a

tre

men

dous

eco

nom

ical

inte

rest

in le

velin

g en

ergy

con

sum

ptio

n an

d st

orin

g of

exc

ess

ener

gy. N

etw

orks

of

wire

less

met

ers

can

prov

ide

the

info

rmat

ion

to a

chie

ve th

is.

- W

irele

ss d

etec

tion

of e

nerg

y us

er’s

pre

senc

e—an

d ha

ndle

acc

ordi

ngly

by

turn

ing

off

equi

pmen

t (e

.g.

light

ning

).

- M

easu

ring

ener

gy u

sage

with

wire

less

sen

sors

(“sm

art d

ust”

sens

ors)

.

- M

easu

rem

ents

of e

mis

sion

s th

roug

hout

the

city

usi

ng A

MR

net

wor

ks—

also

see

CE

NS

I.

- W

ork

tow

ards

a h

ighe

r oc

cupa

ncy

of c

ars—

one

of t

he f

ew f

acto

r in

ene

rgy

usag

e th

at c

an b

e m

oder

ated

—by

usi

ng w

irele

ss re

gist

ratio

ns o

f car

pool

app

oint

men

ts.

Com

mun

icat

ions

and

med

ia: s

ubje

ct g

ame

desi

gn a

nd d

evel

opm

ent

- C

ombi

ning

the

web

with

mob

ile a

pplic

atio

ns—

conc

ept d

evel

opm

ent.

Exa

mpl

e of

a c

once

pt d

evel

oped

by

stud

ents

: MyL

ocat

or.

- G

ame:

Mas

term

ind

with

loca

tions

.

- A

ugm

ente

d re

ality

: city

tour

with

ove

rlay

whi

ch re

spon

ds to

mov

emen

t of t

he h

andh

eld

devi

ce.

Inte

rnat

iona

l bus

ines

s: s

ubje

ct to

uris

m

- E

stab

lish

a po

rtal

to b

undl

e th

e va

rious

ini

tiativ

es i

n th

e fie

ld o

f to

uris

m a

nd i

nter

net

in t

he c

ity o

f G

roni

ngen

. Wire

less

acc

ess

this

por

tal w

ill in

crea

se p

oten

tial.

- W

irele

ss a

dver

tisem

ent f

or p

ublic

tran

spor

t com

pani

es in

Gro

ning

en. T

his

can

prov

ide

mea

ns o

f fle

xibl

e an

d co

ntex

t-aw

are

adve

rtise

men

t in

buss

es.

- C

ity to

urs

and

othe

r tou

rism

rela

ted

info

rmat

ion

can

be p

erso

naliz

ed a

nd b

e pr

ovid

ed c

onte

xt-a

war

e.

Inte

rnat

iona

l com

mun

icat

ion

- In

tern

et a

cces

s on

loca

tion.

Pro

vide

lect

urer

s w

ith in

tern

et a

cces

s on

loca

tion

so th

ey c

an s

how

vid

eos

and

use

web

bro

wsi

ng.

101

Lect

orat

e C

once

pt

Life

long

lear

ning

for m

usic

ians

-

Ser

vice

s to

rea

ch a

bro

ader

aud

ienc

e fo

r tra

ditio

nal

way

s of

mak

ing

mus

ic—

this

via

the

int

erne

t an

d w

irele

ss c

onne

ctiv

ity w

ill in

crea

se p

oten

tial.

- U

se o

f wire

less

tech

nolo

gy a

t eve

nts

and

fest

ival

—e.

g. u

se w

irele

ss c

onne

ctiv

ity fo

r bro

adca

stin

g (P

eter

de

Gro

otfe

stiv

al, N

oord

ersl

ag, e

tc.).

Reh

abili

tatio

n -

Dire

ctio

ns (

Tom

Tom

lik

e) f

or p

eopl

e w

ith d

isab

ilitie

s. S

uppo

rt in

fin

ding

dire

ctio

ns t

o w

ork

as w

ell

as

supp

ort f

or d

isab

led

peop

le p

erfo

rmin

g ce

rtain

jobs

(e.g

. del

iver

ing

mai

l).

- Tr

acki

ng o

f fam

ily m

embe

rs s

uffe

ring

from

dem

entia

.

- A

pplic

atio

ns fo

r st

uden

ts w

ith s

enso

ry li

mita

tions

. App

licat

ions

for

stud

ents

with

psy

chol

ogic

al p

robl

ems

(e-th

erap

y).

Proj

ect “

Spac

e fo

r Bet

a”

- S

ervi

ces

to e

nabl

e us

age

of o

utdo

or l

ocat

ion

in e

ngin

eerin

g ed

ucat

ion

in p

rimar

y sc

hool

—pe

rform

ex

perim

ents

and

test

s on

-site

.

- S

ervi

ce t

o en

able

to

usag

e of

vid

eo a

nd p

hoto

grap

hy w

hen

perfo

rmin

g as

sign

men

ts—

enab

ling

dire

ct

feed

back

on

expe

rimen

ts a

nd le

arni

ng e

xper

ienc

es.

Spat

ial t

rans

form

atio

ns

- S

ervi

ces

to s

uppo

rt ex

plor

atio

n of

loca

tions

—re

cord

cha

ract

eris

tics

etc.

—an

d to

sup

port

esta

blis

hmen

t of

hous

ing

inve

ntor

y.

Tran

spar

ence

in h

ealth

care

-

Hea

lthca

re fo

r eld

erly

with

use

of s

enso

rs to

det

ect t

he o

ccur

renc

e of

fallin

g an

d w

ande

ring.

- R

emot

e m

ovem

ent r

esea

rch.

- M

easu

rem

ent o

f effi

cien

cy o

f hea

lthca

re w

orke

rs.

- R

esea

rch

on m

onito

ring

drug

usa

ge re

mot

ely.

Det

ectin

g th

e us

age

of d

rugs

and

tim

es o

f int

ake

etc.

- R

emot

e co

nsul

tatio

n of

pat

ient

s by

usi

ng v

ideo

and

aud

io c

onne

ctio

ns.

- R

emot

ely

acce

ssin

g pa

tient

reco

rds.

Han

zeco

nnec

t res

earc

h -

Use

wire

less

dev

ices

to

mea

sure

and

inv

estig

ate

visi

tor

flow

s th

roug

hout

the

city

. Th

is t

o id

entif

y bo

ttlen

ecks

. O

ppor

tuni

ties

are

seen

whe

n m

easu

rem

ents

can

be

pers

onal

ized

: “w

hat

are

the

lines

of

mov

emen

t of v

isito

rs w

ith c

ultu

ral i

nter

ests

?”—

rel

evan

t for

city

mar

kete

ers,

e.g

. are

ann

ounc

emen

ts o

f m

useu

ms

plac

ed o

n th

e rig

ht s

pot?

102

App

endi

x 5

"Pol

ice

car o

f the

futu

re"

(de

Jong

e, 2

008)

103

App

endi

x 6

Can

dida

te “

Polit

e Pr

otoc

ols”

(Rok

e M

anor

Res

earc

h fo

r Ofc

om, 2

006)

# Pr

otoc

ol n

ame

Nov

el (r

esea

rch

stag

e)

Cos

t C

entr

alis

ed

Co-

oper

ativ

e Sy

stem

s im

plem

ente

d

1 D

uty

Cyc

le

Yes

Lo

w

No

No

Unk

now

n

2 U

nsyn

chro

nise

d Ti

me

Sha

ring

(UTS

) an

d if

sync

hron

isat

ion

is

used

th

en

Syn

chro

nise

d Ti

me

Sha

ring

(STS

)

Yes

Lo

w

No

Yes

N

ovel

3 P

ollin

g Y

es

Med

N

o Y

es

Nov

el

4 C

entra

lised

Pol

ling

No

Low

Y

es

No

802.

11

5 D

istri

bute

d P

ollin

g N

o Lo

w

Yes

N

o U

nkno

wn

6 Ti

me

Spr

ead

Mul

tiple

Acc

ess

(TSM

A)

Yes

Lo

w

No

Yes

U

nkno

wn

7 R

ecei

ver B

eaco

ns

Yes

M

ed

No

Yes

N

ovel

8 C

arrie

r Sen

se M

ultip

le A

cces

s / C

ollis

ion

Avo

idan

ce (C

SM

A/C

A)

No

Low

N

o Y

es

802.

11, H

iper

LAN

, Zig

bee

9 R

eque

st

to

Sen

d /

Cle

ar

to

Sen

d (R

TS/C

TS )

No

Low

N

o Y

es

802.

11

10

Not

Cle

ar to

Sen

d (N

CTS

) Y

es

Med

N

o Y

es

Nov

el

11

Tran

smis

sion

s as

R

ecei

ver

Bea

cons

(T

AR

B)

Yes

Lo

w

No

Yes

N

ovel

12

Free

Cha

nnel

Sea

rch

(FC

S)

No

Low

N

o Y

es

DE

CT

13

Dyn

amic

Cha

nnel

Allo

catio

n (D

CA)

N

o Lo

w

Yes

N

o U

nkno

wn