3GPP-WLAN Interworking using a Novel Access Control Mechanism

The integration of WLANs and 3G networks has recently attracted much attention. To support seamless service between 3G and WLAN networks, low latency access control mechanisms of the two networks are highly required. This work presents a novel access control mechanism, which aims to support seamless services for an integrated 3G-WLAN network. The proposed method, based on a loose coupling architecture, employs a single set of procedures to authenticate the access to both WLAN and 3GPP, and ensures a low latency of the network access control procedures regardless of the traffic load of 3G and WLAN networks. It not only inherits the flexibility of a loose coupling approach, but also takes the advantage of a single method for controlling access to WLAN and 3GPP, based on tight coupling concept. Simulation results reveal that the proposed method can achieve a relative low WLAN attachment/re-attachment latency compared with existing methods.