An analytical model for delivery evaluation of multimodal contents in pervasive computing

Recent advance of mobile and interactive devices, such as smart phones, PDAs, and handheld computers, enables to deliver multimodal contents based on users and their environments. In pervasive computing, multimodal contents are mainly composed of multiple components which are often delivered from distributed multiple sources. Therefore, how appropriate contents can be provided to users and how computing resources can be effectively exploited are critical issues. In this paper, an analytical model for multimodal contents is developed based on a queueing theory for the purpose of delivery evaluation of the contents. The model can be applied to estimate how delivery parameters of multimodal contents, such as arrival rates, drop rates, and the number of packets, can impact overall the quality of services in terms of temporal aspects. A numerical example of weather information delivery is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.