Interworking Techniques and Architectures

for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

 

Karl Andersson

 

Pervasive and Mobile Computing Laboratory

Luleå University of Technology

SE-931 87 Skellefteå, Sweden

karl.andersson@ltu.se

Tel: +46-0910-585364

 

 

Abstract

 

Fourth generation (4G) wireless systems targeting 100 Mb/s for highly mobile scenarios and 1 Gb/s

for low mobility communication are soon to be deployed on a broad basis with LTE-Advanced

and IEEE 802.16m as the two candidate systems. Traditional applications spanning everything from

voice, video, and data to new machine-to-machine (M2M) applications with billions of connected devices

transmitting sensor data will in a soon future use these networks. Still, interworking solutions

integrating those new 4G networks with existing legacy wireless networks are important building

blocks in order to achieve cost-efficient solutions, offer smooth migration paths from legacy systems,

and to provide means for load balancing among different radio access technologies.

This article categorizes and analyzes different interworking solutions for heterogeneous wireless

networks and provides suggestions for further research.

 

Keywords: Heterogeneous Wireless Networks, Interworking Techniques and Architectures,
Tight Coupling, Loose Coupling

 

Journal of Internet Services and Information Security (JISIS), 2(1/2): 22-48, February 2012 [pdf]