A Multi-link Mechanism for Heterogeneous Radio Networks

Nowadays, smart mobile devices drive the mobile traffic growth rapidly. Most smart mobile devices are equipped with multiple radio network interfaces, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and Wi-Fi. Therefore, integration of multiple networks is a viable solution to fulfill traffic offloading and the Quality-ofService (QoS) requirement of data usage for mobile users. In this paper, we propose a multilink mechanism to handle the radio network selection and switching between LTE and WiFi networks. A Multi-Link Adaptor (MLA) and a Multi-Connection Manager (MCM) are proposed for the User Equipment (UE) and the core network, respectively, to handle the multi-link mechanism. The applications executed in the UEs do not need to be modified under the proposed approach. The MLA maintains a QoS class table and a routing table for the network selection procedure and uses the GPRS Tunneling Protocol-Control plane (GTP-C) control messages to execute network switching. In the future, we will measure the throughput of the multi-link network and the switch delay between the heterogeneous radio networks. S.-N. Yang (B) · Y.-C. Lin · C.-H. Gan Information and Communications Research Laboratories, ITRI, Rm.505, Bldg.51, No.195, Sec.4, Chung Hsing Rd., Chutung, Hsinchu 31040, Taiwan, ROC e-mail: [email protected] Y.-C. Lin e-mail: [email protected] C.-H. Gan e-mail: [email protected] S.-N. Yang · Y.-B. Lin · C.-T. Wu Department of Computer Science, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan, ROC e-mail: [email protected] Y.-B. Lin e-mail: [email protected] C.-T. Wu e-mail: [email protected]