FROM WIDE- TO SHORT-RANGE COMMUNICATIONS: USING HUMAN INTERACTIONS TO DESIGN NEW MOBILE SYSTEMS AND SERVICES

The widespread diffusion of mobile devices has radically changed the way people interact with each other and with object of their daily life. In particular, modern mobile devices are equipped with multiple radio interfaces allowing users to interact at different spatial granularities according to the various radio technology they use. The research community is progressively moving to heterogeneous network solutions which include many different wireless technologies seamlessly integrated to address a wide variety of use cases and requirements. In 5th- Generation (5G) of mobile network we can find multiple network typology such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicular networks, machine-to-machine(M2M), and more, which are integrated in the existing mobile-broadband technology such as LTE and its future evolutions. In this complex and rich scenario, many issues and challenges are still open from a technological, architectural, and mobile services and applications points of view. In this work we provide network solutions, mobile services, and applications consistent with the 5G mobile network vision by using users interactions as a common starting point. We focus on three different spatial granularities, long, medium/short, and micro mediated by cellular network, Wi-Fi, and NFC radio technologies, respectively. We deal with various kinds of issues and challenges according to the distinct spatial granularity we consider. We start with an user centric approach based on the analysis of the characteristics and the peculiarities of each kind of interaction. Following this path, we provide contributions to support the design of new network architectures, and the development of novel mobile services and applications.