Towards sustained multi media experience in the Future Mobile Internet

High quality and sustained multi media experience is expected to be a major feature of the Future Mobile Internet (FMI). Currently deployed novel mobile network technologies such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) make use of the Internet and its best-effort TCP/IP protocol stack to enable applications. The orientation towards TCP/IP is logical due to the success of the Internet. However, TCP/IP still provides almost no support for Quality of Service (QoS). Hence, it seams to be a contradiction that high quality services can be reached by TCP/IP. In this contribution, we discuss recent advances for sustained high quality multi media experience in FMI. Therefore, we first cast some new lights on the achievement in video streaming. We review the LTE and EPS (Evolved Packet System) architecture of the anticipated FMI, and discuss particularly the concept of bearers, which is also used an abstraction for QoS support. Subsequently, we introduce new network concepts which might contribute to improved QoS and performance management in the FMI such as flow-based QoS enforcement in routers, Network Virtualization, and Network Federation. Based on this analysis, we develop an initial service for supporting improved flow management for video streaming service in the FMI. Finally, we outline how flow management can improve the quality of videos, but outline also what happens if inappropriate flow switching mechanisms are applied.