User-in-the-loop
User-in-the-Loop (UIL) refers to the notion that a technology (e.g., network) can improve a performance objective by engaging its human users (Layer 8).
Both elements of smart decision-making and observed values can help towards improving the bigger objective.
The input values are meant to encourage/discourage human users to behave in certain ways that improve the overall performance of the system.
This price chart differentiates the values of electricity based on off-peak, mid-peak and on-peak periods, for instance.
It aims for avoiding a location of bad link adaptation or excess use during the busy hour.
Independent of the various ways of giving incentives and penalties the outcome of the user block is either a spatial, temporal or no reaction at all.
Spatial UIL means the user changes location to a better one (like the common practice in WiFi networks).
Besides, the average signal quality and/or the spectral efficiency are known for all locations of the network from a database of previous measurements.
A more elaborate solution, usage based pricing, is suggested in the literature, but on its own it does not solve the congestion problem in the busy hours.
As a result, the pricing method will change the user behavior and the traffic as in electricity tariffs and smart-grid applications and even better than there, because of the immediate feedback and latency in the order of seconds, which allows for best response and training.
User-in-the-Loop applications are possible in all fields where limited resources are consumed and where a negative impact for society or environment must be avoided, e.g., excessive consumption of energy and fossil fuel.
The traditional approach to oversize capacity in order to carry all traffic will become harder as 4G, 5G and beyond can never keep up with demand at this rate of increase.
Information is simply the knowledge that a change of the user output would be beneficial (for the system, community, society).
However, an extra incentive may be required in most cases to make the user really change his default behavior, because altruism is not far-reaching enough and people tend to prefer selfish strategies in free societies (see game theory).
Incentives can be by financial aspects (cheaper rate for usage) or other beneficial bonuses which may be convertible into money or not.
Wireless cellular networks consume 0.5% of the world total electricity which is approximately 20 PWh in 2010.
