Private Synchronization Technique for

Horizontal developments in communication systems have led to the emergence of new wireless technologies like WiMAX, 3G and 4G. These expansions can provide new opportunities for further advances and exciting applications in particular if we can integrate different technology standards into heterogeneous wireless networks. WiMAX and WiFi wireless networks are two examples of different standard technologies that cannot communicate with each other using existing protocols. These two standards differ in frequency, protocol and management mechanisms, and hence to construct a heterogeneous network using WiFi and WiMAX devices these differences need to be harmonised and resolved. Synchronization is the first step towards in such a process. In this paper we propose a private synchronization technique that enables WiFi and WiMAX devices to communicate with each other. Precise time synchronization in the micro second resolution range is required. The CPU clock is used as a reference for this private synchronization. Our private synchronization solution is based on interposing an extra thin layer between MAC and PHY layers in both WiFi and WiMAX. This extra thin layer will assign alternate synchronization and other duties to the two systems. Keyword list: Heterogeneous, WiMAX, WiFi, Convergence, Synchronization, DL-MAP, UL-MAP