Wireless Beyond 3G: Managing Services and Network Resources

W ireless systems continue to attract immense research and development effort. Recent years have seen major technological advances, including the rollout of 2.5G and 3G cellular infrastructures as well as the advent of broadband fixed-wireless access (BFWA) systems and digital video broadcasting (DVB). “Wireless beyond 3G” is a new concept that envisions cellular, BFWA, and DVB systems cooperating in a composite radio infrastructure. In this scheme, instead of rejecting users or degrading their quality of service levels, a network provider can direct them to an alternate radio technology that meets certain environmental, cost, and QoS criteria. To achieve such a system requires upgrading service and network resource management (SNRM). We present work areas for a new SNRM approach that comprises the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), high-performance wireless local area network (HiperLAN 2) technology, and terrestrial DVB (DVB-T) systems. ARCHITECTURE Two main factors influence wireless systems’ success: the cost-effective provision of new services at appropriate QoS levels, and the efficient handling of versatile service area conditions— for example, hot spots caused by timevariant traffic loads and mobility. To operate in a composite radio infrastructure, an SNRM system must