A throughput of information received from an access node at an application running on a wireless device is determined, and a modulation and coding scheme assigned to the wireless device to communicate with the access node is identified. The processor measures the azimuth of the pen at a sampling rate during writing by the pen on a surface printed with tags and estimates the orientation of the digital ink using the measured azimuth of the pen at the sampled points. The measurement system has a first sensor aligned along a second axis and is configured to detect scattered light in the sample volume. A positioning device may be a balloon, a sponge, andor an expansible cage. The connections may include anti-friction surfaces.