• 지능정보연구
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.191-207
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• 2021

오늘날 이동통신은 급증하는 데이터 수요에 대응하기 위해서 주로 속도 향상에 초점을 맞추어 발전해 왔다. 그리고 5G 시대가 시작되면서 IoT, V2X, 로봇, 인공지능, 증강 가상현실, 스마트시티 등을 비롯하여 다양한 서비스를 고객들에게 제공하기위한 노력들이 진행되고 있고 이는 우리의 삶의 터전과 산업 전반에 대한 환경을 바꿀 것으로 예상되고 되고 있다. 이러한 서비스를 제공하기위해서 고속 데이터 속도 외에도, 실시간 서비스를 위한 지연 감소 그리고 신뢰도 등이 매우 중요한데 5G에서는 최대 속도 20Gbps, 지연 1ms, 연결 기기 106/㎢를 제공함으로써 서비스 제공할 수 있는 기반을 마련하였다. 하지만 5G는 고주파 대역인 3.5Ghz, 28Ghz의 높은 주파수를 사용함으로써 높은 직진성의 빠른 속도를 제공할 수 있으나, 짧은 파장을 가지고 있어 도달할 수 있는 거리가 짧고, 회절 각도가 작아서 건물 등을 투과하지 못해 실내 이용에서 제약이 따른다. 따라서 기존의 통신망으로 이러한 제약을 벗어나기가 어렵고, 기반 구조인 중앙 집중식 SDN 또한 많은 노드와의 통신으로 인해 처리 능력에 과도한 부하가 발생하기 때문에 지연에 민감한 서비스 제공에 어려움이 있다. 그래서 자율 주행 중 긴급 상황이 발생할 경우 사용 가능한 지연 관련 트리 구조의 제어 기능이 필요하다. 이러한 시나리오에서 차량 내 정보를 처리하는 네트워크 아키텍처는 지연의 주요 변수이다. 일반적인 중앙 집중 구조의 SDN에서는 원하는 지연 수준을 충족하기가 어렵기 때문에 정보 처리를 위한 SDN의 최적 크기에 대한 연구가 이루어져야 한다. 그러므로 SDN이 일정 규모로 분리하여 새로운 형태의 망을 구성 해야하며 이러한 새로운 형태의 망 구조는 동적으로 변하는 트래픽에 효율적으로 대응하고 높은 품질의 유연성 있는 서비스를 제공할 수 있다. 이러한 SDN 구조 망에서 정보의 변경 주기, RTD(Round Trip Delay), SDN의 데이터 처리 시간은 지연과 매우 밀접한 상관관계를 가진다. 이 중 RDT는 속도는 충분하고 지연은 1ms 이하이기에 유의미한 영향을 주는 요인은 아니지만 정보 변경 주기와 SDN의 데이터 처리 시간은 지연에 크게 영향을 주는 요인이다. 특히, 5G의 다양한 응용분야 중에서 지연과 신뢰도가 가장 중요한 분야인 지능형 교통 시스템과 연계된 자율주행 환경의 응급상황에서는 정보 전송은 매우 짧은 시간 안에 전송 및 처리돼야 하는 상황이기때문에 지연이라는 요인이 매우 민감하게 작용하는 조건의 대표적인 사례라고 볼 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 자율 주행 시 응급상황에서 SDN 아키텍처를 연구하고, 정보 흐름(셀 반경, 차량의 속도 및 SDN의 데이터 처리 시간의 변화)에 따라 차량이 관련정보를 요청해야 할 셀 계층과의 상관관계에 대하여 시뮬레이션을 통하여 분석을 진행하였다.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.