{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,28]],"date-time":"2025-10-28T03:19:49Z","timestamp":1761621589779,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":61,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,7]],"date-time":"2021-07-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1625616000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The forthcoming 6G will attempt to rewrite the communication networks\u2019 perspective focusing on a shift in paradigm in the way technologies and services are conceived, integrated and used. In this viewpoint, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) represents a merger of medical devices and health applications that are connected through networks, introducing an important change in managing the disease, treatments and diagnosis, reducing costs and faults. In 6G, the edge intelligence moves the innovative abilities from the central cloud to the edge and jointly with the complex systems approach will enable the development of a new category of lightweight applications as microservices. It requires edge intelligence also for the service evaluation in order to introduce the same degree of adaptability. We propose a new evaluation model, called CoKnowEMe (context knowledge evaluation model), by introducing an architectural and analytical scheme, modeled following a complex and dynamical approach, consisting of three inter-operable level and different networked attributes, to quantify the quality of IoMT microservices depending on a changeable context of use. We conduct simulations to display and quantify the structural complex properties and performance statistical estimators. We select and classify suitable attributes through a further detailed procedure in a supplementary information document.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi13070177","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,7]],"date-time":"2021-07-07T12:31:25Z","timestamp":1625661085000},"page":"177","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["CoKnowEMe: An Edge Evaluation Scheme for QoS of IoMT Microservices in 6G Scenario"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4974-6172","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Grazia Veronica","family":"Aiosa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Elettronica ed Informatica (DIEEI), Universit\u00e1 di Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8558-2094","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Barbara","family":"Attanasio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Elettronica ed Informatica (DIEEI), Universit\u00e1 di Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0370-7717","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aurelio","family":"La Corte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Elettronica ed Informatica (DIEEI), Universit\u00e1 di Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marialisa","family":"Scat\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Elettronica ed Informatica (DIEEI), Universit\u00e1 di Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"28","DOI":"10.1109\/MVT.2019.2921208","article-title":"6G wireless networks: Vision, requirements, architecture and key technologies","volume":"14","author":"Zhang","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Veh. Technol. Mag."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101975","DOI":"10.1016\/j.telpol.2020.101975","article-title":"Forming a 5G strategy for developing countries: A note for policy makers","volume":"44","author":"Forge","year":"2020","journal-title":"Telecommun. Policy"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Mcketta, I. (2021, July 02). Massive Expansions and Huge Improvements in Speed: The Worldwide Growth of 5G in 2020. Available online: https:\/\/www.speedtest.net\/insights\/blog\/world-5g-report-2020."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"(2021, July 02). OOKLA 5G MAP. Available online: https:\/\/www.speedtest.net\/ookla-5g-map."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"KNOEMA (2021, July 02). Status of 5G Commercial Deployment in OECD Countries. Available online: https:\/\/knoema.com\/uhgjnwd\/status-of-5g-commercial-deployment-in-oecd-countries\/."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Bank, E.I. (2021, July 02). Accelerating the 5G Transition in Europe: How to Boost Investments in Transformative 5G Solutions Main Report. Available online: https:\/\/op.europa.eu\/en\/publication-detail\/-\/publication\/85f94ef8-86d0-11eb-ac4c-01aa75ed71a1\/language-en."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"(2021, July 02). Ericsson Mobility Report: More than Half a Billion 5G Subscriptions by the End of 2021. Available online: https:\/\/www.ericsson.com\/en\/mobility-report\/reports\/june-2021."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"957","DOI":"10.1109\/OJCOMS.2020.3010270","article-title":"6G wireless communication systems: Applications, requirements, technologies, challenges and research directions","volume":"1","author":"Chowdhury","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Open J. Commun. Soc."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"55","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.001.1900411","article-title":"Toward 6G networks: Use cases and technologies","volume":"58","author":"Giordani","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"89007","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.2993527","article-title":"Complex Systems: A Communication Networks Perspective Towards 6G","volume":"8","author":"Sergiou","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"134","DOI":"10.1109\/MNET.001.1900287","article-title":"A vision of 6G wireless systems: Applications, trends, technologies, and open research problems","volume":"34","author":"Saad","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Netw."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"133995","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3010896","article-title":"6G and beyond: The future of wireless communications systems","volume":"8","author":"Akyildiz","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2","DOI":"10.4108\/eai.17-8-2020.166293","article-title":"A Vision on Intelligent Medical Service for Emergency on 5G and 6G Communication Era","volume":"6","author":"Nayak","year":"2020","journal-title":"EAI Endorsed Trans. Internet Things"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"189203","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3031014","article-title":"The Dynamical Interplay of Collective Attention, Awareness and Epidemics Spreading in the Multiplex Social Networks During COVID-19","volume":"8","author":"Attanasio","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3810","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2018.2849014","article-title":"Internet of medical things: A review of recent contributions dealing with cyber-physical systems in medicine","volume":"5","author":"Gatouillat","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Peltonen, E., Bennis, M., Capobianco, M., Debbah, M., Ding, A., Gil-Casti\u00f1eira, F., Jurmu, M., Karvonen, T., Kelanti, M., and Kliks, A. (2020). 6G white paper on edge intelligence. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"34","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.001.2000388","article-title":"Toward Self-Learning Edge Intelligence in 6G","volume":"58","author":"Xiao","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103521","DOI":"10.1016\/j.csi.2021.103521","article-title":"6G-enabled Edge Intelligence for Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Applications: Vision and Mission","volume":"77","author":"Gupta","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Stand. Interfaces"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107112","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3000322","article-title":"An effective training scheme for deep neural network in edge computing enabled Internet of medical things (IoMT) systems","volume":"8","author":"Pustokhina","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1597","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSM.2020.3005307","article-title":"Allocation of Resources in SAaaS Clouds Managing Thing Mashups","volume":"17","author":"Guerreiro","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Netw. Serv. Manag."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Fern\u00e1ndez-Villamor, J.I., Iglesias, C.A., and Garijo, M. (2010, January 22\u201324). Microservices-Lightweight Service Descriptions for REST Architectural Style. Proceedings of the ICAART, Valencia, Spain."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"173508","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3025032","article-title":"6G architecture to connect the worlds","volume":"8","author":"Ziegler","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Moloja, D., Mpekoa, N., and Van Greunen, D. (2020, January 24\u201325). Evaluating two security systems for mobile voting fortification. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Intelligent and Innovative Computing Applications, Plaine Magnien, Mauritius.","DOI":"10.1145\/3415088.3415109"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bevan, N., Carter, J., and Harker, S. (2015). ISO 9241-11 revised: What have we learnt about usability since 1998?. International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-20901-2_13"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jordan, P.W. (2020). An Introduction to Usability, CRC Press.","DOI":"10.1201\/9781003062769"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/2194-0827-1-1","article-title":"Usability of mobile applications: Literature review and rationale for a new usability model","volume":"1","author":"Harrison","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Interact. Sci."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Saleh, A., Ismail, R., and Fabil, N. (2017, January 12\u201313). Evaluating usability for mobile application: A MAUEM approach. Proceedings of the 2017 International Conference on Software and e-Business, Essen, Germany.","DOI":"10.1145\/3178212.3178232"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101212","DOI":"10.1016\/j.techsoc.2019.101212","article-title":"Investigating acceptance of telemedicine services through an extended technology acceptance model (TAM)","volume":"60","author":"Kamal","year":"2020","journal-title":"Technol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alexandru, A., Coardos, D., and Tudora, E. (2019, January 27\u201329). Acceptance of the technologies deployed for the development of online public services and systems used by elderly. Proceedings of the IEEE 2019 11th International Conference on Electronics, Computers and Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), Pitesti, Romania.","DOI":"10.1109\/ECAI46879.2019.9042058"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tang, P., Dong, Y., Chen, Y., Mao, S., and Halgamuge, S. (2021). QoE-aware Traffic Aggregation Using Preference Logic for Edge Intelligence. IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun.","DOI":"10.1109\/TWC.2021.3071745"},{"key":"ref_31","first-page":"3","article-title":"Optimization of weighted aggregated sum product assessment","volume":"122","author":"Zavadskas","year":"2012","journal-title":"Elektron. Elektrotechnika"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kaiser, M.S., Zenia, N., Tabassum, F., Al Mamun, S., Rahman, M.A., Islam, M.S., and Mahmud, M. (2021, January 21). 6G Access Network for Intelligent Internet of Healthcare Things: Opportunity, Challenges and Research Directions. Proceedings of the International Conference on Trends in Computational and Cognitive Engineering, Parit Raja, Malaysia.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-981-33-4673-4_25"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"138","DOI":"10.1016\/j.icte.2021.05.006","article-title":"Evolutionary dynamics of MEC\u2019s organization in a 6G scenario through EGT and temporal multiplex social network","volume":"7","author":"Attanasio","year":"2021","journal-title":"ICT Express"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bevan, N., Carter, J., Earthy, J., Geis, T., and Harker, S. (2016, January 17\u201322). New ISO standards for usability, usability reports and usability measures. Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Toronto, ON, Canada.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-39510-4_25"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wardhana, S., Sabariah, M.K., Effendy, V., and Kusumo, D.S. (2017, January 17\u201319). User interface design model for parental control application on mobile smartphone using user centered design method. Proceedings of the IEEE 2017 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICoIC7), Melaka, Malaysia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICoICT.2017.8074715"},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tan, J., R\u00f6nkk\u00f6, K., and Gencel, C. (2013, January 23\u201326). A framework for software usability and user experience measurement in mobile industry. Proceedings of the IEEE 2013 Joint Conference of the 23rd International Workshop on Software Measurement and the 8th International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement, Ankara, Turkey.","DOI":"10.1109\/IWSM-Mensura.2013.31"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rahman, M.A., and Hossain, M.S. (2021). An internet of medical things-enabled edge computing framework for tackling COVID-19. IEEE Internet Things J.","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2021.3051080"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4625","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2019.2958375","article-title":"A Distributed CoRE-Based Resource Synchronization Mechanism","volume":"7","author":"Mazayev","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bucchiarone, A., Dragoni, N., Dustdar, S., Lago, P., Mazzara, M., Rivera, V., and Sadovykh, A. (2020). Microservices. Science and Engineering, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-31646-4"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"925","DOI":"10.1103\/RevModPhys.87.925","article-title":"Epidemic processes in complex networks","volume":"87","author":"Castellano","year":"2015","journal-title":"Rev. Mod. Phys."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3747","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0400087101","article-title":"The architecture of complex weighted networks","volume":"101","author":"Barrat","year":"2004","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Menichetti, G., Remondini, D., Panzarasa, P., Mondrag\u00f3n, R.J., and Bianconi, G. (2014). Weighted multiplex networks. PLoS ONE, 9.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0097857"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"203","DOI":"10.1093\/comnet\/cnu016","article-title":"Multilayer networks","volume":"2","author":"Arenas","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Complex Netw."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106227","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2019.106227","article-title":"How acceptable is this? How user experience factors can broaden our understanding of the acceptance of privacy trade-offs","volume":"106","author":"Distler","year":"2020","journal-title":"Comput. Hum. Behav."},{"key":"ref_45","first-page":"4","article-title":"Factors influencing the adoption of mobile phones among the farmers in Bangladesh: Theories and practices","volume":"4","author":"Islam","year":"2011","journal-title":"ICTer"},{"key":"ref_46","first-page":"882","article-title":"Expanding the technology acceptance model with the inclusion of trust, social influence and health valuation to determine the predictors of German users\u2019 willingness to continue using a fitness app: A structural equation modeling approach","volume":"34","author":"Beldad","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Hum. Interact."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"55563","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.2981892","article-title":"Usability of mobile applications: A systematic literature study","volume":"8","author":"Weichbroth","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hussain, A., and Kutar, M. (2009, January 22\u201323). Usability metric framework for mobile phone application. Proceedings of the 10th Annual PostGraduate Symposium on The Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, Liverpool, UK.","DOI":"10.1145\/1497308.1497412"},{"key":"ref_49","first-page":"i-105","article-title":"Usability Testing: A Practitioner\u2019s Guide to Evaluating the User Experience","volume":"13","author":"Hertzum","year":"2020","journal-title":"Synth. Lect. Hum. Cent. Inform."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mashapa, J., and van Greunen, D. (2010, January 11\u201313). User experience evaluation metrics for usable accounting tools. Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, Bela Bela, South Africa.","DOI":"10.1145\/1899503.1899522"},{"key":"ref_51","unstructured":"Helff, F., Gruenwald, L., and d\u2019Orazio, L. (2016, January 15). Weighted Sum Model for Multi-Objective Query Optimization for Mobile-Cloud Database Environments. Proceedings of the EDBT\/ICDT Workshops, Bordeaux, France."},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3309","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ins.2009.05.018","article-title":"An optimal QoS-based Web service selection scheme","volume":"179","author":"Huang","year":"2009","journal-title":"Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kohar, R. (2018). Optimal Web Service Selection Model using Fuzzy Extended AHP and Weighted Sum Method. J. Digit. Inf. Manag., 16.","DOI":"10.6025\/jdim\/2018\/16\/4\/157-168"},{"key":"ref_54","first-page":"499","article-title":"Server selection by using weighted sum and revised weighted sum decision models","volume":"2","author":"Sarika","year":"2012","journal-title":"IJICTR J."},{"key":"ref_55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"131461","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3009079","article-title":"A taxonomy of quality metrics for cloud services","volume":"8","author":"Guerron","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Krzewi\u0144ska, J., Indyka-Piasecka, A., Kopel, M., Kukla, E., Telec, Z., and Trawi\u0144ski, B. (2018, January 19\u201321). Usability testing of a responsive web system for a school for disabled children. Proceedings of the Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems, Dong Hoi City, Vietnam.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-75417-8_66"},{"key":"ref_57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"116145","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2019.2910778","article-title":"Set of usability heuristics for quality assessment of mobile applications on smartphones","volume":"7","author":"Canedo","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_58","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kabir, M.A., Salem, O.A., and Rehman, M.U. (2017, January 24\u201326). Discovering knowledge from mobile application users for usability improvement: A fuzzy association rule mining approach. Proceedings of the 2017 8th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering and Service Science (ICSESS), Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSESS.2017.8342879"},{"key":"ref_59","first-page":"4929","article-title":"Automated User Experience Tool Development for Mobile Application","volume":"29","author":"Saleh","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_60","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Vermeeren, A.P., Law, E.L.C., Roto, V., Obrist, M., Hoonhout, J., and V\u00e4\u00e4n\u00e4nen-Vainio-Mattila, K. (2010, January 16\u201320). User experience evaluation methods: Current state and development needs. Proceedings of the 6th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Extending Boundaries, Reykjavik, Iceland.","DOI":"10.1145\/1868914.1868973"},{"key":"ref_61","unstructured":"International Organization for Standardization ISO:9241-11:2018 (2018). Ergonomics of Human-System Interaction Part 11: Usability: Definitions and Concepts, International Organization for Standardization."}],"container-title":["Future Internet"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/13\/7\/177\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T06:27:16Z","timestamp":1760164036000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/13\/7\/177"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,7]]},"references-count":61,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7]]}},"alternative-id":["fi13070177"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/fi13070177","relation":{},"ISSN":["1999-5903"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1999-5903"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,7]]}}}