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CWIS
29,5

Mobile applications and 4G

wireless networks: a framework
for analysis

344

Samuel C. Yang
Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences,
California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, California, USA
Abstract
Purpose The use of mobile wireless data services continues to increase worldwide. New
fourth-generation (4G) wireless networks can deliver data rates exceeding 2 Mbps. The purpose of this
paper is to develop a framework of 4G mobile applications that utilize such high data rates and run on
small form-factor devices.
Design/methodology/approach The author reviews existing literature of mobile applications
development and proposes using network-related characteristics to create a conceptual framework of
these applications.
Findings Combining traffic symmetry and latency yields a 2  3 framework with six categories that
characterize current and emerging 4G mobile applications, such as augmented reality, mobile social
networking and m-health.
Research limitations/implications With the advent of high-speed 4G networks, completely new
mobile applications can be developed to leverage such high data rates, and a framework of such
development efforts is highly desirable.
Originality/value The framework is developed based on a perspective of technical characteristics
because these characteristics intrinsically constrain the kinds of broadband mobile applications that
can be developed. The framework should be useful in exploring opportunities of mobile application
development and guiding future research in this area.
Keywords Mobile technology, Mobile networks, Mobile applications, 4G applications,
Application framework, Mobile business, Wireless networks, M-commerce
Paper type Research paper

Campus-Wide Information Systems

Vol. 29 No. 5, 2012
pp. 344-357
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1065-0741
DOI 10.1108/10650741211275107

1. Introduction
The adoption of mobile wireless data services is expected to grow in the foreseeable
future. According to Ovum, mobile data revenue will grow at a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2 percent from 2011 to 2016 to reach $419 billion in 2016, but
total mobile service revenue, including both voice and data, will only grow at a CAGR
of 1.9 percent from 2011 and 2016 to reach $1,047 billion in 2016. At the same time,
mobile voice revenue will drop from $658 billion to $628 billion from 2011 to 2016
(Obiodu, 2011). In addition, worldwide mobile connections will grow from 5 billion
connections in 2010 to 7.4 billion in 2015 (Gartner Inc, 2011) a 48 percent increase. It is
also estimated that, by 2013, mobile devices will overtake PCs as the most common
devices for accessing the web (Gartner Inc, 2010).
These growths in wireless data services have placed higher demands on mobile
wireless networks, and in response wireless carriers are upgrading their networks to
offer faster data rates (Gartner Inc, 2011). Existing third-generation (3G) cellular
networks can deliver data rates of up to 2 megabits per second (Mbps) (International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), 1997) over a wide area (as opposed to a local area with
Wi-Fi). More recently, wireless carriers have begun to deploy new, fourth-generation
(4G) cellular networks that can deliver even higher data rates 42 Mbps

(assuming 40 MHz of radio frequency (RF) bandwidth and 25 users per cell) (ITU, 2008;
Yang, 2010). The speed test of an early 4G smartphone shows data rates of 12.6 Mbps
downstream and 4.7 Mbps upstream (Mossberg, 2011). The higher 4G data rates are
available in those areas with 4G cellular service (i.e. not limited to a local hot spot).
Such high data rates over a wide area raise the interesting question of what types
of emerging networked mobile applications are possible on 4G mobile devices, such
as smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices. To address that question, this study
develops a conceptual framework of emerging mobile applications that leverage high
data rates permitted by 4G wireless networks, as well as small form factor enabled
by powerful microprocessors and high-density memory. The research synthesizes
network-related factors to generate the framework from a technology perspective.
Then it applies the framework to examine different types of broadband mobile
applications that require high data rates deliverable by 4G networks. It is expected that
the resulting framework can be used to guide future research and development of 4G
mobile applications.
2. Literature review and motivation for framework
In reviewing the literature, this study takes an approach similar to the structured
review process used by Chen et al. (2009). First, a search of abstracts of journal articles
using the keywords mobile applications, framework, and model is conducted on
the following databases: ABI/INFORM, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Explore,
ScienceDirect, and Emerald Fulltext. Second, the titles and abstracts of retrieve
articles are examined to select those relevant to mobile application frameworks
and high-speed wireless wide-area networks. Third, for those selected articles, their
cited references are searched to select additional articles relevant to mobile application
frameworks. Lastly, the full texts of the selected articles are reviewed.
Given the growth of mobile applications and 4G wireless networks, there is
surprisingly little research in the literature on conceptual frameworks of mobile
applications as related to high-speed, wireless wide-area networks. The said literature
review process identified just 14 articles in this area. Senn (2000) stated that
m-commerce applications fall into three categories: transaction management, digital
content delivery, and telemetry services, and this study is unique in that it specifically
called out telemetry which generates mostly upstream traffic. Varshney and Vetter
(2002) proposed different groups of m-commerce applications, including financial
applications, advertising, inventory management, product location/search, service
management, wireless business reengineering, auction, entertainment/games, mobile
office, distance education, and wireless data center. Coursaris and Hassanein (2002)
suggested four types of mobile applications based on consumer needs: communication,
information, entertainment, and commerce. Buellingen and Woerter (2004) described
the diffusion of mobile services in terms of communication, information,
transaction, and interaction, and Dholakia and Dholakia (2004) grouped m-commerce
applications in terms of entertainment, productivity, convenience, and efficiency.
Chen and Nath (2004) proposed seven variables: time, mobility, relationship, and
location (along the impact dimension), and efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation
(along the value dimension) to identify m-business applications. To design
high-speed mobile applications, Gerstheimer and Lupp (2004) proposed using four
broad categories of requirements: user, place, time, and process. For consumer mobile
applications, Leem et al. (2004) proposed a classification scheme consisting of
commerce, intermediary, and information categories.

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Later, Ahluwalia and Varshney (2005) put forth a grouping of mobile applications
including mobile transactions (e.g. buying an airline ticket), information retrieval
(e.g. searching), and messaging (e.g. short message service). In explaining intention to
use different mobile services, Nysveen et al. (2005) used the interactivity type
dimension of machine interactivity and person interactivity and the process
characteristics dimension of goal-directed process and experiential process to identify
different mobile services. Heinonen and Pura (2006) approached mobile services from
a service marketing perspective and proposed four separate models based on
consumption types, temporal/spatial criticality, social setting, and relationship. In their
literature review of m-commerce applications (not frameworks), Ngai and Gunasekaran
(2007) found articles on six different m-commerce applications: location-based services,
advertising, entertainment/games, financial applications, product locating/searching,
and wireless reengineering. Unhelkar and Murugesan (2010) focussed on enterprise
mobile applications and classified them into five categories: m-broadcast, m-information,
m-transaction, m-operation, and m-collaboration. Petrova and Wang (2011) examined
specifically mobile location-based services and stated that such services can be
categorized as: emergency, navigation, information or information/entertainment,
advertising, tracking, billing. Table I summarizes the results of these studies for
reference.
The review of the literature has identified a major issue: existing studies
proposed various frameworks with different categories. But most of them did not
consider factors of technology. Subramanya and Yi (2006) identified two issues of
mobile systems from which the present studys motivation is based: communications
related (e.g. data rate) and device related (e.g. form factor). In terms of data rate,
past studies (e.g. Hung et al., 2012; Buellingen and Woerter, 2004) have acknowledged
the importance of transmission rate to the development of mobile applications.
In terms of form factor, it has an effect on how the mobile device is used. In this
study, large form factor refers to laptops and netbooks device that typically
has a prominent mechanical keyboard attached. Small form factor refers to
smaller mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and emerging wearable
devices. Utilizing form factors and data rates, Figure 1 shows an initial 2  2 model
that highlights the need for this research. The four combinations of the initial 2  2
model are:
.

Large form factor with low data rates: this combination produces an experience
that emulates working on a desktop connected to a dial-up line. Such modality
allows basic e-mail and some limited web surfing on a larger screen.

Small form factor with low data rates: this combination produces an experience
that was common on WAP-based cellphones that provide limited text-centric
web surfing. The speed is typically slow, and the web experience is mostly
limited to scrollable text on a smaller screen.

Large form factor with high data rates: this combination essentially replicates
the experience of a desktop connected to a wireline broadband network (e.g. DSL
or cable modem).

Little work has been done on the modality combining small form factor and high
data rates. This modality goes beyond simply replicating the desktop experience
and highlights the need for a new framework that can be used to guide the
development of mobile applications that take advantage of high data rates and small

Authors

Model of mobile applications

Senn (2000)
Varshney and Vetter (2002)

Transaction management, digital content delivery, telemetry

Entertainment/games, financial, advertising, auction, product
location/search, service management, inventory management,
wireless business reengineering, mobile office, distance
education, wireless data center
Entertainment, communication, information, commerce
Transaction, communication, information, interaction
Impact (time, mobility, relationship, and location); value
(efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation)
Entertainment, productivity, efficiency, convenience
Process, user, place, time
Commerce, information, intermediary
Mobile transactions, information retrieval, messaging
Interactivity type (machine interactivity, person interactivity);
process characteristics (goal-direct process, experiential
process)
Consumption type model: utilitarian use (low to high); hedonic
use (low to high)
Temporal/spatial criticality model: spatial criticality (low to
high); temporal criticality (low to high)
Social setting model: social environment (alone to in-group);
social interaction (low to high)
Relationship model: customer relationship (discrete to
continuous); frequency of use (spontaneous to analytic)
Location-based services, advertising, entertainment/games,
financial applications, product locating/searching, and wireless
reengineering
M-transaction, m-information, m-broadcast, m-operation,
m-collaboration
Emergency, navigation, information or information/
entertainment, advertising, tracking, billing

Coursaris and Hassanein (2002)

Buellingen and Woerter (2004)
Chen and Nath (2004)
Dholakia and Dholakia (2004)
Gerstheimer and Lupp (2004)
Leem et al. (2004)
Ahluwalia and Varshney (2005)
Nysveen et al. (2005)
Heinonen and Pura (2006)

Ngai and Gunasekaran (2007)

Unhelkar and Murugesan
(2010)
Petrova and Wang (2011)

Small form factor

(e.g. smartphone)

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Table I.
Summary of past
literature on frameworks
of mobile applications

Text-based
cellphone
experience

Large form factor Slow desktop

experience
(e.g. laptop)

Low
data rate

Fast desktop
experience

High
data rate

form factor the focus of this study. Therefore, instead of proposing an overarching
framework covering a wide swatch of mobile applications, this study develops a
parsimonious model for those applications requiring high data rates (deliverable by
wide-area 4G networks) and running on small form-factor devices.

Figure 1.
Initial 2  2 model of
mobile applications

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3. Framework of mobile applications: a network perspective

Using technology-related factors, the present study develops a conceptual framework
from a different perspective than those in past studies. It suggests that with higher
and higher data rates offered by emerging 4G networks, technical characteristics of the
network can increasingly drive the types of mobile applications possible. Thus this
study takes a bottom-up approach to examine the possible 4G mobile applications
based on technical characteristics of the network. This approach makes sense because
ITU an agency of the United Nations specifies 4G requirements in terms of
technical performance of the network (ITU, 2008), and a fundamental understanding
of the system of mobile communication is required to design services and applications
in this context (Gerstheimer and Lupp, 2004, p. 1410). In addition, applications need
to fully exploit the constantly growing potential of the underlying infrastructure [y]
(Houssos et al., 2004, p. 192). All in all, a conceptual framework based on technology
factors related to network is needed because for broadband mobile applications,
the technical characteristics of the underlying network intrinsically constrain the kinds
of applications that can be supported.
The official 4G requirements set and published by ITU (2008) specifies eight 4G
requirements that can be grouped into five types: data rates (i.e. cell spectral efficiency,
peak spectral efficiency, cell-edge user spectral efficiency, mobility data rates), latency,
handover interruption time, RF bandwidth, and number of active voice-over-internet
protocol users. The last three requirements are not directly related to the research
question considered by this study. However, in the context of mobile applications, the
first two groups of requirements (i.e. data rates and latency) are important. In addition,
Hung et al. (2012) also agrees that latency and data rates are important to delivering
satisfactory user experiences (p. 574). For latency, it is a standalone factor that affects
the operation of mobile applications. For data rates, ITU (2008) specifies separate data
rates for upstream and downstream traffic. Because this study only considers mobile
applications that run on 4G networks, data rates available to those applications are
already high. Thus a new factor traffic symmetry is used to characterize relative
data rates for upstream and downstream. Accordingly, the two factors adopted by
the conceptual framework are:
.

Traffic symmetry or the amount of downstream traffic compared to that of

upstream traffic. Web surfing generates mostly downstream traffic, whereas
mobile sensors generate traffic flowing mostly upstream.

Latency or the time delay data packets experience as they travel through
the network. Real-time, interactive applications require lower latency, whereas
non-real-time applications can tolerate higher latency.

Requiring lower latency means that any noticeable delay in the response of an
application can degrade the user experience or service. Such requirement typically
means that immediate feedback is needed from the other direction. On the other hand,
tolerating higher latency means that an otherwise perceptible delay has minimal effect
on the operation of the application and user experience. An application that can
tolerate higher latency typically does not require immediate feedback in the opposite
direction.
The resulting framework shown in Figure 2 is derived using two ranges of latency
(higher latency and lower latency) and three ranges of traffic symmetric (mostly
downstream, symmetric, and mostly upstream). This 2  3 framework assumes that

Higher
latency

Content consumption
VOD
Mobile TV
Web surfing
Video-based marketing
P2P file sharing

Lower
latency

Virtual reality
Virtual tour
Mobile gaming (touch
feedback)
M-learning (text/voice
feedback)
VPN
Mostly
downstream

Social networking

Content production
Video blogging
Lifecasting
Video/data archiving
M-health (for collection)
P2P file sharing

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HD video conferencing
(multi-participant)
Mobile gaming (image/
videofeedback)
M-learning (video
feedback)

Augmented reality
Tour guide
Video/data monitoring
M-health (for monitoring)

Symmetric

Mostly
upstream

the required data rate is already high for either upstream or downstream, or both, to
take advantage of the capabilities of 4G networks. Also, given that many mobile
devices today can determine its own location through GPS and/or signal
triangulation it is assumed that a mobile device already has location awareness
(Ficco et al., 2010; Simon et al., 2007) and can make available its location information.
The resulting six categories of mobile applications are:
.

Mostly downstream traffic/lower latency: in the near term, many mobile

applications should still have traffic flowing mostly downstream. In fact, ITUs
4G requirements indicate peak, downstream data rates that are higher than
peak, upstream data rates (ITU, 2008). Applications that have traffic flowing
mostly downstream and require lower latency include those requiring more
bandwidth-demanding, real-time delivery of information to the mobile device
and less bandwidth-demanding, real-time feedback from the device.

Mostly downstream traffic/higher latency: applications that have traffic

flowing mostly downstream and can tolerate higher latency include buffered
streaming video that does not have a real-time requirement and web surfing of
multimedia-rich pages.

Mostly upstream traffic/lower latency: applications that have traffic flowing

mostly upstream and require lower latency include real-time medical telemetry,
real-time sensor data, and other applications that require live and more
bandwidth-demanding feedback from the device.

Mostly upstream traffic/higher latency: applications such as non-real-time

medical telemetry and non-real-time sensor data have traffic flowing mostly
upstream and can tolerate higher latency.

Symmetric traffic/lower latency: applications that have symmetric traffic

flows include live, high-definition video conferencing which requires low
latency.

Symmetric traffic/higher latency: applications that have symmetric traffic flows

but can tolerate higher latency include those related to mobile social networking
that can share, in both directions, multimedia-rich information.

Figure 2.
Framework of broadband
mobile applications based
on network-related factors

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4. Results and discussion

Applying the 2  3 framework (shown in Figure 2), this section explores specific
applications that are possible in the resulting six categories.
4.1 Mostly downstream traffic/lower latency
Faster wireless wide-area networks have enabled applications to deliver mobilemediated virtual experiences. Hyun et al. (2009) proposed a typology of mobilemediated virtual experiences along two dimensions: vividness and interactivity,
and those applications with high vividness and interactivity (which can be supported
by 4G networks) include virtual reality similar to Second Life, mobile gaming (e.g. 3D
games), and virtual tour (Hyun et al., 2009).
Mobile virtual reality applications (similar to Second Life) attempt to place users
in an artificially generated environment the perspectives of which may be altered
depending on continuous feedback from the user (e.g. touches and swipes). It is
assumed that the mobile device has limited processing power, memory space, and
battery life, thus it needs a more powerful backend server to process graphic/
video-intensive information, generate the simulation, and transmit it to the mobile
device for display. Such transmission requires heavy downstream traffic. If user
feedback is mostly touch based, then upstream traffic is lighter. At the same time,
allowing users to manipulate the virtual environment in real time requires quick
response feedback and consequently low latency.
In addition, 4G platforms can support high-quality multimedia and live multiplayer
mobile gaming (Soh and Tan, 2008), which can be graphic/video intensive and
generates heavy downstream traffic. Because gaming feedback is also mostly touch
based and requires quick response, light upstream traffic, and low latency are needed.
Similarly, in virtual tour, a mobile user can preview a presentation of a tour destination
(Hyun et al., 2009) and through user feedback, change details of such presentation and
the resulting virtual experience.
Other applications that utilize heavy, real-time downstream video and light,
real-time upstream traffic include mobile learning (m-learning) suites that transmit
live class video and allow learners to respond via text or voice chat. Mobile virtual
private network (VPN) (Signorini, 2007) is another type of applications that require
heavy downstream traffic, light upstream traffic, and low latency. Mobile VPN allows a
mobile user to remotely access a desktop in the office or an assigned virtualized
desktop in a server. The downstream traffic consists of continuous screenshots of the
desktop, whereas the upstream traffic consists of keystrokes and touch/swipe
movements, and the delay in both directions needs to be low to emulate the virtual
desktop experience.
4.2 Mostly downstream traffic/higher latency
Buffered video applications such as movie on-demand or video on-demand (VOD)
transmit video mostly downstream. For example, the US wireless carrier Verizon
Wireless currently offers VCAST, which is a mobile VOD service. Although mobile TV
implies live TV, sending multicast traffic downstream to mobile devices does not
require video to be sent in real time, hence mobile TV can tolerate a higher latency.
Buchinger et al. (2011) described that when there is insufficient bandwidth,
the transmitted video has reduced picture quality. This is because the original,
high-quality video has to be transcoded to one of lower quality to fit the bandwidth
limitation. In 4G, high downstream data rates should enable high-definition video

content in its original form to be sent to users. These applications support content
consumption as described by Subramanya and Yi (2006).
Similarly, mobile marketing such as video advertisements embedded in another
mobile application can utilize buffered video. Of course, web surfing of sites with
a lot of multimedia contents generates heavy traffic downstream but can tolerate
latency higher than that required by real-time video conferencing. Mobile peer-to-peer
(P2P) file sharing is a distributed network for users to share files without a central
coordinator (Hung et al., 2012); P2P file sharing can accept higher latency,
and it generates heavy traffic downstream, or upstream, but typically not at the
same time.
4.3 Mostly upstream traffic/lower latency
Mostly upstream traffic flowing at high speed and with low latency makes mobile
augmented reality possible. Whereas virtual reality seeks to immerse users in an
artificially generated world, augmented reality applications augments the sense
of reality by superimposing virtual objects and cues upon the real world in real time
(Carmigniani et al., 2011, p. 342), and a real-world setting or set of objects is
augmented by a computer-generated overlay (Kroeker, 2010, p. 19). For example,
a smartphone can be converted [y] into a virtual mouse that you can use to
click on the real world [y] So, if you point the device at a hospital building, the term
Hospital appears superimposed over the video image in real time (Wright, 2009,
p. 15). In augmented reality, real-time video of the devices environment, along
with detailed information reported by mobile devices physical sensors such
as GPS, accelerometer, light sensor, and magnetic compass, can be sent to a backend
server. Such transmission requires heavy upstream traffic. The server processes
the rich context data and produces informational cue about the mobile devices location
(or about the environment or object at which the mobile device points). Such
informational cue flowing back to the mobile may contain text (e.g. object labels)
and simple graphics (e.g. object outlines) and thus require light downstream traffic.
Because the user needs the superimposed cues in real time, these applications require
low latency.
Supporting mostly upstream traffic with low latency allows rich context data
(e.g. upstream video) to flow to a backend server to be processed. This is necessary
because augmented reality systems require powerful CPU and considerable amount of
RAM to process camera images, (Carmigniani et al., 2011, p. 350) and the mobile
device may not be powerful enough to process context data and generate augmented
reality information in real time. In addition, emerging augmented reality applications
that support multiuser collaboration and run in real time with many users also require
a backend server (Wagner and Schmalstieg, 2009).
Operating in a similar way as augmented reality, a tour guide application on
a mobile device can send real-time video of a tourists surroundings and context data
(e.g. GPS coordinates) over the network to a backend server, which processes the
image, extracts (tour) information about the object/landmark of interest, and sends
the results back to the mobile device (e.g. Fritz et al., 2004). In addition, a tour guide
application can also work with a human guide by sending real-time video of a tourists
surroundings to a remote human tour guide, and the guide can then provide tour
information (e.g. low-bandwidth text or voice downstream) based on what the tourist
actually sees, rather than based on just the tourists location. Receiving high-fidelity,
real-time context data such as video (instead of just longitude and latitude) upstream,

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a remote tour guide can provide the user with more relevant tour information
downstream. Such context data is more important in indoor areas where location
data (e.g. GPS) can become inaccurate or non-existent. Moreover, field personnel
(e.g. law enforcement) may also use wearable devices to perform video/data
monitoring that sends live upstream video about the environment requiring
real-time monitoring by analysts.
Other applications that generate mostly upstream traffic and require low latency
include mobile health (m-health) applications, which can run on wearable devices
that gather and transmit patients real-time vitals data to be monitored. The upstream
data rate has been a major challenge for different wireless multimedia telemedical
systems (Istepanian et al., 2009, p. 566). Because telemetered medical data may be
voluminous and need to be relayed regardless of the location of the patient, 4G
networks providing high upstream data rates and wide-area coverage are well suited
for bandwidth-intensive m-health applications producing data that require real-time
monitoring. For example, Kyriacou et al. (2009) demonstrated a system that
continuously gathers electrocardiogram readings from the patient and sends them
back to a central monitoring system; the goal is to monitor children with suspected
cardiac arrhythmias. M-health monitoring can lower the number of readmissions,
lower the long-term cost of healthcare, and result in increased productivity of
healthcare providers (Varshney, 2007).
4.4 Mostly upstream traffic/higher latency
Buffered video applications such as video blogging transmit collected video back to a
repository for distribution, as demonstrators in the 2011 popular uprising in Middle
East and North Africa have utilized. A related example would be lifecasting where
users record their daily activities and upload them for sharing (Chen and Yang, 2008).
These applications support content production as described by Subramanya and
Yi (2006) and user-driven multimedia content generation that is attributed to [y]
a new generation of handheld devices that enable to easily create contents, and to
access them from any location at any time (Blanco-Fernandez et al., 2011, p. 5289).
In addition, video/data archiving include those applications that continuously send
video or bandwidth-intensive data back to a central repository for immediate storage
(instead of storing recorded video/data on mobile storage to be retrieved later). For
example, operational video from a peace officers wearable device (with limited
memory) can be sent back to the headquarters storage server for archiving. A network
of distributed sensors (with limited memory) can collect non-real-time, bandwidthintensive sensor data and return them wirelessly instead of storing data in the sensors.
Similarly, m-health applications can send collected video- or image-based medical
data back to a repository for later assessment. Here it is assumed that real-time
analysis or monitoring of data by software or human clinician is not required, hence
medical data can be streamed back in a time-insensitive fashion. A common
characteristic underlying these applications is that data are not stored in a mobile drive
and offloaded later. Instead, data can flow back to a central repository continuously,
although not in real time.
4.5 Symmetric traffic/lower latency
High-definition video conferencing with multiple participants would be an example
of applications that require real-time symmetric traffic where live videos flow in both
directions at the same time. While existing 3G networks may support mobile video

conferencing, high-definition mobile video conferencing with multiple participants

would require 4G networks. This type of video conferencing not only allows
collaboration anyplace anytime, but also permits the detection of visual cues (e.g. facial
expressions) necessary for much richer communications. M-learning can also take
advantage of such video conferencing to afford media-rich exchanges between the
teacher and the learner(s).
In addition, advanced live mobile gaming where the players feedback is through
whole/partial-body gesture, image, and video (similar to those used by Xbox 360
Kinect) requires feedback information to flow upstream and video information to flow
downstream. Because the mobile device has less memory and less powerful processors,
more gesture/image/video information needs to flow back to the backend game server,
which processes the feedback, generates scenario responses, and transmits responses
back to the mobile user.
4.6 Symmetric traffic/higher latency
P2P, multimedia social networking applications that are time and place shifted require
the transmission of bandwidth-intensive multimedia information but can tolerate
latency. Mobile social networking applications support mobile communities which,
through mobile devices, share and explore interests and activities; these mobile
applications help users to explore, share, manage, select, and compile videos (Gou et al.,
2009) and other multimedia contents, thus they take advantage of high data rates
in both downstream and upstream directions. Using mobile social networking
applications, users can share these contents in a mobile environment through social
relationships (Kayastha et al., 2011). comScore reported that in August 2011, the
number of people in the US accessing social networking sites on mobile devices
was 72.2 million, representing an increase of 37 percent over the previous year
(comScore, 2011). The idea that mobile devices can reinvent social networks by sharing
more real-time contents has, in part, attracted venture capital to mobile social
networking start-ups (Fowler, 2011).
5. Conclusions
With the proposed conceptual framework, this study suggests that mobile applications
can be examined based on technical factors of latency requirement and traffic
symmetry. A premise underlying the present discussion of 4G mobile applications is
that most of the computational processing takes place at a backend server away from
the mobile device itself. Similar to the trend taking place in desktop PCs that pushes
processing out of PCs and unto remote servers (e.g. cloud computing), mobile devices
will likely become more reliant on processing performed remotely. This finding is
consistent with the current development toward mobile cloud computing, which
uses resources in the cloud for processing and storage of data for mobile devices
(Guan et al., 2011). Visiongain forecasts that mobile cloud revenues will grow from
2011 at a CAGR of 55.18 percent to $45 billion in 2016 (Visiongain, 2011; Joosting,
2012). Such growth in mobile cloud computing is due in part to the fact that mobile
devices are even more limited in processing power, memory size, and battery life
than desktop PCs and laptops, thus the network linking the mobile device and
the server becomes ever more important. In fact, the increasing availability and use
of 4G networks (e.g. long-term evolution) has been specifically cited as a factor
contributing to the growth of mobile cloud computing (Cox, 2011; Visiongain, 2011;

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Joosting, 2012), which has started to show its effects with many seemingly innovative
smartphone applications and cloud services surfacing in the market today (Hung
et al., 2012, p. 573).
A known limitation of this study is that the framework is developed from a
technical perspective and places less emphasis on the business models or needs that
can drive the development of mobile applications. Yet, this study has two important
strengths: first, the framework provides a perspective from a technology point of
view the approach is applicable because network characteristics can constrain the
kinds of broadband mobile applications that can be developed. Second, whereas all
but three reviewed studies proposed one-dimensional categories to conceptualize
mobile applications, the present research develops a two-dimensional (2  3)
framework that provides a deeper insight into the kinds of mobile applications
possible on 4G networks. Thus, the proposed framework can be an additional tool used
by researchers and practitioners to analyze and identify mobile applications that
more fully match the characteristics of the underlying infrastructure. It then follows
that one potential area of future research is to develop a framework that combines
both traditional factors (Table I) and technology factors (present research) to analyze
and identify mobile applications.
4G networks make it possible for completely new classes of mobile applications to
be developed to take advantage of such high data rates, and a framework describing
such applications is highly desirable. For researchers, the proposed framework
can be used to guide future research in mobile applications running on emerging
high-speed wireless networks and small form-factor devices. For practitioners, the
same framework can be used to suggest opportunities for developing future 4G mobile
applications on these devices.
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About the author

Samuel C. Yang is Professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at California State
University, Fullerton, where he was named the 2006 Outstanding Faculty by his college for
research, teaching, and service. He holds a PhD in Management of Information Systems from
Claremont Graduate University. He also has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University
and two graduate degrees from Stanford University, all in Electrical Engineering. Prior to
entering academia, he spent 14 years in the telecommunications industry, including Verizon
Wireless and Hughes Space and Communications (now Boeing Satellite Systems), in both
managerial and professional capacities. He has published articles in refereed journals and
conference proceedings and is the author of three books on wireless communications. His current
interests are in telecommunications management, business data communications, and enterprise
wireless networks. Samuel C. Yang can be contacted at: syang@fullerton.edu

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