Performance Evaluation of Service Connectivity in Mobile Augmented Reality

Abstract

The number of different networks available in the future and the ubiquitous nature of services will pose stringent requirements for interoperability and service connectivity. An architecture for mobile AR with service connectivity support will be needed to enable smooth operation of large-scale mobile AR services. One important ability of this type of architecture is the ability to switch networks without losing the service in inter-technology handoffs. This can be implemented in various ways, but many of these options cause significant delays of over three seconds, which is unacceptable in most mobile AR applications. Our approach is to manage service connectivity in the upper protocol layers, which results in significantly shorter delays in intertechnology handoffs and service provider changes. In this article, we will describe the key performance issues of an IP-based service connectivity architecture for mobile AR, present an approach for implementing intertechnology handoffs, describe an experimental system used for measuring the performance of a system based on this approach, and present and analyze the principles of service connectivity performance. The analysis will show our approach to be good for realizing large-scale mobile AR services as well as other mobile multimedia services that need to utilize several different wireless networks for connecting to services.