With the move towards converged all-IP wireless network environments, managing end-user Quality of Experience (QoE) poses a challenging task, aimed at meeting high user expectations and requirements regarding reliable and cost-effective communication, access to any service, anytime and anywhere, and across multiple operator domains. In this paper, we give a survey of state-of-the-art research activities addressing the field of QoE management, focusing in particular on the domain of wireless networks and addressing three management aspects: QoE modeling, monitoring and measurement, and adaptation and optimization. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the key aspects and challenges that need to be considered when conducting research in this area.

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E-Health services comprise a broad range of healthcare services delivered by using information and communication technology. In order to support existing as well as emerging e-Health services over converged next generation network (NGN) architectures, there is a need for network QoS control mechanisms that meet the often stringent requirements of such services. In this paper, we evaluate the QoS support for e-Health services in the context of the Evolved Packet System (EPS), specified by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a multi-access all-IP NGN. We classify heterogeneous e-Health services based on context and network QoS requirements and propose a mapping to existing 3GPP QoS Class Identifiers (QCIs) that serve as a basis for the class-based QoS concept of the EPS. The proposed mapping aims to provide network operators with guidelines for meeting heterogeneous e-Health service requirements. As an example, we present the QoS requirements for a prototype e-Health service supporting tele-consultation between a patient and a doctor and illustrate the use of the proposed mapping to QCIs in standardized QoS control procedures.

Quality of Experience (QoE) has received much attention over the past years and has become a prominent issue for delivering services and applications. A significant amount of research has been devoted to understanding, measuring, and modelling QoE for a variety of media services. The next logical step is to actively exploit that accumulated knowledge to improve and manage the quality of multimedia services, while at the same time ensuring efficient and cost-effective network operations. Moreover, with many different players involved in the end-to-end service delivery chain, identifying the root causes of QoE impairments and finding effective solutions for meeting the end users’ requirements and expectations in terms of service quality is a challenging and complex problem. In this article, we survey state-of-the-art findings and present emerging concepts and challenges related to managing QoE for networked multimedia services. Going beyond a number of previously published survey articles addressing the topic of QoE management, we address QoE management in the context of ongoing developments, such as the move to softwarized networks, the exploitation of big data analytics and machine learning, and the steady rise of new and immersive services (e.g., augmented and virtual reality). We address the implications of such paradigm shifts in terms of new approaches in QoE modeling and the need for novel QoE monitoring and management infrastructures.

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