Abstract
Today’s mobile devices are equipped with multiple wirelesses and wired
network interfaces. Their increasing use by multimedia applications over
networks in unison with great mobility challenges conventional mobility
managers in their effort to deliver the specified Quality of Service
requirements. In the next generation network (4G) communication we face the
situation of, not only roaming between base stations of the same access
technology, but also spanning different access technologies during the use of
network services in a seamless manner. As networks become more heterogeneous,
the goal is to make the user experience flawless while hiding all
complexities.
The IEEE 802.21 working group is drafting on a standard to facilitate the
handling of proliferation of overlapping networks by providing a framework for
efficiently discovering networks in range, and executing intelligent
heterogeneous handovers between them, based on their respective capabilities
and information about current link conditions. This thesis presents a
prototype implementation of the upcoming IEEE 802.21 standard and testbed
results showing how multimedia applications can benefit from its services.
Previous publicly available studies of IEEE 802.21 are focused solely on
improving handover efficiency. In contrast, this thesis concentrates on using
the prototype implementation for traffic and network application adaptation
beyond handovers, based on both dynamic and static link
information available via IEEE 802.21.
Relating to the IEEE 802.21 prototype, this thesis evaluates VoIP aggregation
and Robust Header Compression as two promising schemes that can significantly
improve the utilization of wireless broadband networks. Besides presenting an
empirical investigation based on thorough testbed measurements, this thesis
also explores how VoIP aggregation and ROHC can be initiated using IEEE 802.21
services, in an effort to maximize network resource utilization.
Original language | English |
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Qualification | Master Degree |
Awarding Institution |
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Place of Publication | Oulu |
Publisher | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
MoE publication type | G2 Master's thesis, polytechnic Master's thesis |