A Novel and Seamless Approach for Vertical Handover Using Agent-Based Middleware in 4G

The telecommunications industry has witnessed an ever accelerated growth of the usage of mobile communications. The first generation (1G) was voice-centric and used analog signaling, while real revolution began with the birth of second-generation (2G) technologies in which the systems are digital with 10 kbps data transfer rate. Later on 2G was enhanced to 2.5G which provided Global Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution (EDGE) packet switching technologies. Further, considering the heavy demand of high-bandwidth multimedia applications, third-generation (3G) was designed to support integrated services, such as video, audio, high speed internet connection, and video conferencing etc. Further works are going on in the direction of enhancing 3G to 4G as the present age communication infrastructure involves systems such as GSM, CDMA, Wireless LAN, etc., which are used to provide different services, and the desire is to integrate all existing and newly developed wireless communication systems instead of developing new uniform standard to replace existing technologies. Such a network shall promise seamless handover and best connected service, combining multiple radio access interfaces (such as WLAN, Bluetooth, GPRS, UMTS, WiMAX, CDMA) into a single network that subscribers may use.