An Analysis of Prioritized Hybrid Interworking Requirements in Next-Generation Wireless Networks

The growing demands for ubiquitous high-speed data services require hybrid interworking in NextGeneration (NG) wireless networks. Handover management is important in providing seamless roaming when User Equipments (UE) are moving across boundaries of radio coverage areas provided by different networking technologies. Handover mechanisms have been well studied in homogeneous circuit-switched networks, such as GSM and IS-41, and have also began to be implemented in NG wireless data networks, e.g. UMTS and 802.11 Wireless LAN (WLAN). Hybrid interworking of NG wireless data networks has to address more issues, such as user context, signaling process, traffic routing and Quality of Service (QoS) so as to perform the challenging tasks in dealing with the heterogeneities of networking technologies. In this paper, we investigate handover mechanisms in current homogeneous data networks, and present four roaming scenarios for hybrid interworking, in which handover is assigned different levels of weight. The prioritized requirements for hybrid interworking scenarios will be analyzed, and compared.