A Novel Architecture for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks with Multi-mode Terminal and

Multi-Service
A. Introduction
Recent advances in communication and computing technologies clearly indicate that future wireless networking
environments will be heterogeneous in terms of networks, devices and applications. While some wireless technologies
are already part of our everyday lives, such as Wireless WANs (e.g., 2G, 2.5G and 3G cellular systems), Wireless
MANs (e.g., IEEE 802.16), WLANs (e.g., IEEE 802.11a/b/e/g), and Wireless PANs (e.g., Bluetooth); High-Rate/Low-
Rate IEEE 802.15.3/4 WPANs, and the IEEE 802.22) are expected to provide even more exciting and efficient services.
Such technology diversity is also impacting the design of mobile computing devices, which are now being equipped
with multiple communication interfaces, for instance, multi-mode devices with WLAN and/or WPAN access
capabilities in addition to the traditional cellular mode. Furthermore, advances in the Software Defined Radio (SDR)
technology [1] are also making multi-mode terminal a commonplace. Availability of a multitude of wireless
technologies has motivated research efforts towards the next generation of wireless and mobile communication
systems, usually called “Beyond 3G” (B3G) or “4G” networks that are expected to have integrated heterogeneous
wireless networks that would enable users equipped with either multi-interface or SD-based wireless devices to use the
appropriate network that meet their service levels and cost requirements, in a transparent and seamless way. Although
people have different visions of next generation B3G and 4G networks [2] [3] [4], we identify the three key
characteristics of future wireless networking environments and are illustrated in Figure 1:
1 Multi-Service: Users must be able to access a wide range of services with seamless mobility and Quality of
Service (QoS) guarantees [35, 42]. The available services would include voice, multimedia, messaging, e-
mail, information services (e.g., news, stocks, weather, and travel), M-commerce, entertainment, location-
based public utility and health-care services, and so on.
2 Multi-Network: The cooperation and integration of networks distinguished by characteristics such as data
transmission rate, delay, coverage range, mobility and price, are of paramount importance in supporting
multiple services with different QoS requirements. Legacy (e.g., cellular or WLAN single-hop networks) and
new network paradigms, such as the Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) [5] and Wireless Wide Area
Network (WWAN) [6] are also expected to coexist and converge. Moreover, heterogeneous wireless networks
must cooperate to provide an underlying “data transport service” that is transparent `to the applications and
hence the users [3].
3 Multi-Mode Terminal: Multiple communication capabilities (e.g., connecting to two or more different access
networks simultaneously) must be opportunistically exploited to ensure the user always have “the best
connectivity” [2] at any given time and location for each type of service. Multi-mode terminals may include
WWAN, WLAN, WMAN, WPAN, and so on. As pointed out in [12], multi-mode or multi-interface terminals
are expected to play a fundamental role in future wireless network.
We call this networking environment integrating multi-service, multi-network, and multi-mode terminal as
Heterogeneous Wireless Networks (HWNs). As shown in Figure 1, the core goal of such a HWN is to exploit multi-
network and multi-mode terminal to provide multi-service with QoS support and seamless mobility. A multi-mode
terminal can simultaneously access different networks, with one more independent interface. Different networks have
distinctive underlying features, for example, WLAN provides higher bandwidth. On the contrary, the cellular system
can only support low bandwidth. However, the cellular network can cover larger area, and can possibly provide
worldwide seamless connection.

Figure 1: Heterogeneous Wireless Networks.

It is easy to envision application scenarios that could take advantage of HWNs and explore the use of a multi­
mode terminal to access various services provided by the Internet or other networks. Currently, a variety of applications

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(e.g., data and multimedia services) that are common in the wired networks, are simply limited in wireless networks
due to the restrictions on wireless capacity and limited accessibility. By overlaying various networks in an area (e.g. ,
hot spot) and integrating these wireless networks deploying different spectrums can increase the network capacity and
can add to the diversity of services.   Under the coverage of multitude wireless networks, a multi­mode terminal has
better chances of obtaining service from these networks, with QoS guaranteed, especially higher bandwidth. As for a
single mode terminal, if its correspondent network is not available, the terminal definitely cannot obtain any service
from the Internet even if there are other networks available. On the contrary, with a multi­mode terminal, a user can
access the Internet with one of the available networks. At the same time, multiple applications can be simultaneously
serviced with one or multiple radio interfaces without interruption, and the applications can be serviced form any
available networks. While running an application requiring a data service (e.g., checking email, news, and even a
multimedia service) by connecting to the Internet with a radio interface, a multi­mode terminal may simultaneously
start another application, e.g., receiving a call from the cellular network through cellular interface. Moreover, while
moving, the multi­mode terminal can automatically hand over its applications from one network to another or from one
network domain to another.  The quality of a video conference (e.g., especially a group meeting), which may not be
satisfied with the speed rate of a single IEEE 802.11a/b interface, can be significantly improved by deploying multiple
connections. Under such a case, two or three IEEE 802.11 a/b/n interface cards may be equipped to a terminal and
operated by one application (i.e., video conference) to improve the bandwidth of wireless communication. Similar
applications with the requirement of higher speed includes entertainment (e.g., online movies), data transmission (e.g.,
uploading a file), telemedicine, etc.
In a HWN, many design and implementation issues should be reconsidered in support of a multi-mode
environment rather than only as an individual system such as a cellular network, a WLAN or a MANET. For instance, a
fundamental question is what technology to use in initiating a connection for a particular application. Another question
is when to switch over an ongoing connection from one network/interface to another (i.e., vertical handoff). Other
important issues include design of standard interfaces for connecting networks of different operators and technologies,
integrated routing, mobility management, QoS support, network management, load balancing, and security. We have
provided a detailed description of the main design issues for integration of HWNs in [12],. It is worth mentioning that
integrated architectures and protocols are expected not to require modifications at the underlying wireless technologies,
i.e., link and physical layer protocols, so that different wireless technologies can operate independently [7]. Therefore,
this project does not deal with integration of specific incompatibilities in physical, and data link layers of legacy
wireless systems, but it considers lower layers heterogeneity by using a cross-layer design approach to exploit multiple
communication capabilities and networks to support multi-service with QoS guarantees and seamless mobility.
Although a fair amount of research has been done to enable integration of heterogeneous networks, existing solutions
and related works are still far from resolving the challenges of QoS support and seamless mobility in the HWNs. In
fact, no prior research has undertaken such an end-to-end, multi-objective, comprehensive design, modeling and
analysis of HWN. The key research challenges considered in this problem and the expected contributions are as
follows:
1 The first step is to look at the traditional IP-based protocol stack model, so as to introduce new cross-layer features
that allow multi-mode devices to opportunistically exploit the multi-network available. These new features may
include a network availability detection, network state estimation, network selection, horizontal and vertical
handoff decisions, and connection management. The main idea behind these features is to use information from
different layers, in order to decide which connectivity alternative best matches the requirements of an
application. This may involve selecting one specific communication interface or even combine multiple
interfaces.
2 The second step to our envisioned HWN is to identify the main architectural components required to enable
convergence of heterogeneous networks, such as WWAN, WMANs, WLANs, and WPANs. This task would
require the extension of existing standard solutions with additional components to support multi-service with
QoS guarantees and seamless mobility. It is important to note that, in order to enable realistic and practical
solutions, one of our goals is to consider existing standard solutions (e.g., the 3GPP/WLAN internetworking
architectures [11]) as the basis for developing the solutions for HWNs, and then introduce new components as
needed. Nevertheless, completely innovative approaches may also be required for supporting integration
scenarios not yet considered in current architectures. For instance, new approaches must be explored to
opportunistically exploit multi-mode devices and constitute a significant portion of this project.
3 Another important novelty of this project is the construction of an experimental testbed that allows effective
evaluation of proposed integrated solution. Most of the existing work addresses the evaluation of integrated
heterogeneous networks through simulations as well as analytical models. Obviously, the evident complexity and
resource constraints avoid the set up of large-scale experiments, including many available wireless technologies.
However, experiments involving different flavors of WLANs and WPANs and multi-interface devices (e.g.,
WWAN + WLAN) are feasible to build and can provide valuable information to drive the design of future
HWNs.

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 The rest of this proposal is organized as follows. Next, Section B describes the related research pertaining to the
topics discussed in this project. In Section C, we elaborate on our proposed approaches, describe our past contributions
in the area of integration of HWNs and identify the open issues and possible solution approaches. Section D discusses
the significance of research and broader impacts. Section E summarizes our plan of work, while section E gives a brief
description of results from prior NSF support.

B. Related Research
This section discusses the research work related to the integration of cellular, WLAN and MANET in terms of
three aspects: network architecture, cross-layer design and mobility management.
Integration of multi-network with multi-mode terminals has been receiving increased attention in the last few
years, and several architectures and network protocols have been proposed to integrate cellular networks and WLANs
in both single-hop mode (infrastructure-based) and multi-hop (MANET) mode (infrastructureless). The architectures
and network protocols discussed in this section include A-GSM [13], 1-hop and 2-hops Direct Transmission [22], iCAR
[15], HWN [21], MIRAI [23], MCN [14], UCAN [17], ODMA [18], Two-Hop-Relay [20], CAMA [33], SOPRANO
[19] and MADF [16]. For example, the A-GSM, ODMA and iCAR proposals introduce the ad hoc mode (MANET) in a
cellular system by exploiting the dual-mode terminal capabilities, but they do not consider the possibility of integrating
WLAN Access Points (APs). On the other hand, 1-hop and 2-hop direct transmission protocols are especially designed
to integrate infrastructure and MANET mode in WLANs. A detailed survey and comparisons of these approaches is
given in [12].
In summary, the general aim is to enhance users’ throughput and improve the overall system performance, but to
the best of our knowledge, no proposed architecture allows concurrent multi-network accessibility with a multi-mode
terminal for multiple services [37, 38, 40]. In all the above proposed architectures, at a given instant, a terminal, even a
multi-mode terminal, can only access one single wireless network [34, 35]. If the QoS for a specific service can not be
satisfied by one interface, the above network protocols can not service the demand by using multiple connections, even
if the networks have extra bandwidth available on the interface. Without a flexible connection management, these
integration architectures only incrementally improve the network capacity as compared to individual WMAN, WLAN,
WWAN and MANET [46]. Rather than the integration of cellular/MANET or WLAN/MANET as the above proposed
approaches, the future wireless networks need a comprehensive solution that can accommodate all WMAN, WLAN,
WWAN, and MANET as well as other emerging wireless networks. For the purpose of accommodating services with
higher QoS guarantee, multiple connections with multi-network available at multi-mode terminal is the way to
significantly increase the network throughput for future services.
For the purpose of improving the QoS for a mobile terminal [48], many cross-layer design
proposals [47] are proposed in such a way that an individual layer, like one of the seven layers
in an open systems interconnect (OSI) model [39], can exchange information with another
layer to facilitate the protocol efficiency . Distinguishing from the traditional network
architecture, these cross-layer approaches improve the performance spanning different layers
of the protocol stack either in a cellular [51], WLAN [55] or MANET [50] protocol stack. For
example, a higher-layer (e.g., TCP in transport layer) may know the network condition from a lower layer (e.g., PHY
and MAC layer) at runtime for QoS purpose [44, 54]. On the other hand, the higher layer can provides information to a
lower layer for the purpose of coordination between different layers (e.g., PHY and MAC layer [50]). An excellent
investigation of a variety of approaches of cross-layer design is provided in [47]. In this
proposal, we suggest a framework of cross-layer design over multiple protocol stacks rather
than individual network protocol as the above described protocols in the literature. Our
proposed cross-layer manager between the application layer and the TCP layer has the
capability to maintain multiple connections (e.g., several TCP connections) and their mobility
management with QoS support. We highlight some open challenges and new opportunities for
cross-layer design to support multi-mode terminal with multiple connections to different
wireless networks.
Mobile IP [24] handles the mobility of terminals, but is inadequate for multi-hop HWN networks because of its
high update latency, large Internet signaling load, and lack of support for micro-mobility [25, 26]. Recently a variety of
enhancements [36] have been proposed to overcome the shortcoming of base mobile IP, e.g., MIP-RO, MIPv6,
HMIPv6, IDMP, HAWAII, TeleMIP, Cellular IP, Fast handoffs. For example, Cellular IP [27] and Multi-hop Cellular IP
[28, 29] differentiate the global domain and the local domain, and thus support micro-mobility. Also, the
Telecommunication Enhanced Mobile IP (TeleMIP) [30] is a scalable and hierarchical IP-based architecture that
provides lower latency and signaling overhead in comparison with the standard Mobile IP. In a dual-model terminal,
the service migration between two different radio interfaces, e.g., from a cellular interface to IEEE 802.11 interface, is
called vertical handoff. When a dual-model terminal communicates with a network using an air interface (address: IP1)
and detects another network in a new air interface (address: IP2) providing higher performance such as data rate and
lower power consumption, the vertical handoff [31, 32] redirects all packets from the interface with IP1 to the new
network with the new interface.
However, the above mobility management protocols cannot handle multiple connections for multi-mode terminal
in terms of location management and mobility handoff [36, 41]. It is necessary to develop a new scheme that allows a
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terminal to establish multiple connections for a single or multiple services and to maintain seamless mobility while
moving. The mobility management can handle the migration of multiple connections with QoS support. In our
approach, besides the traditional vertical and horizontal handoffs, two more types of handoff are identified in a multi-
network environment: activation of an interface, deactivation of an interface.
C. Proposed Research
C.1 A Heterogeneous Wireless Network (HWN)
A Heterogeneous Wireless Network (HWN) can be defined as a system that provides transparent and self-
configurable connectivity across different types of wireless networks such as WWANs, WMANs, WLANs and WPANs.
Figure 2 illustrates an example of a HWN. The mobile users will be equipped with multi-mode devices that can access
the network services through cellular BSs or WLAN APs, as well as they will be able to directly communicate using
MANET mode. In addition, different flavors of wireless technologies may coexist, i.e., different types of WLANs (e.g. ,
IEEE 802.11a/b/e/g, HiperLAN/2), WWANs (e.g., 2G, 2.5G, 3G, IEEE 802.20, etc.), and WPANs (e.g., IEEE
802.15.1 /Bluetooth, IEEE 802.15.3, and IEEE 802.15.4) could be able to interoperate.

IPv6 Network/Internet

GR

Cellular Network
GR GR

GR WPAN: GR
802.15.1/3/4

BS

In-building
or residential WLAN Hot-spot
WLAN: area: 802.11a
802.11b/g
MS T: M ulti-Service Terminal Multiple co-located
B S: Base Station wireless systems
MANET
GR: Gateway Ro uter MST

Figure 2: A Generic HWN.

As can be noted from Figure 2, a generic HWN can be an extremely complex to study, but some of the basic
components can be easily identified:
 Mobile User Stations (Terminals): Despite plethora of technology alternatives and future wireless devices, we
consider single-mode and multi-mode terminals. For instance, a single-mode terminal may have either cellular,
WMAN, WWAN, WLAN or WPAN capabilities, while a multi-mode terminal may have all these capabilities.
 Base Stations (BSs) and Access Points (APs): BSs and APs are fixed components that provide connectivity to
terminals. The BSs are connected to the cellular infrastructure network, while the APs may be part of a WMAN or
WLAN that are usually connected to the IP core network through Gateway Routers (GR).
 IP Core Network: As can be seen in Figure 2, the heterogeneous wireless networks are interconnected through an
existing IP backbone.
 Gateway Routers (GR): The GRs provide the interface between the cellular network and the IP core network, as
well as provides connectivity for the other Radio Access Networks (i.e. WMAN and WLAN APs) to the IP
network/Internet.
The revolutionary paradigm of HWNs is the capability of providing simultaneous multiple connections to wireless
networks for a multi-mode terminal. We consider a realistic representataion of each component as described in Figure 2
such as multi-mode terminal, BSs, APs, access routers, fixed network databases and registers (e.g. visiting location
register (VLR) and home location register (HLR) in the cellular networks). Figure 3 illustrates an example of the cross
layer design for a multi-mode terminal, in which multiple protocol stacks (e.g., cellular, IEEE 802.11) can coexisted to
create multiple physical connections. The integration of multiple interfaces and the cooperation between these prtocols
would require the modification of the protocol stacks of the terminals to include new functional blocks, such as
Connection and Mobility Management, and the Network Availability Detector. The multiple protocol stacks as shown
in Figure 3, may establish multiple TCP connections to various networks for one or multiple applications.
The design of such integrated solutions involves the following three fundamental research problems and the
developement of a practical testbed:
1 Problem 1: Network Selection and Connection Management;
2 Problem 2: QoS-based Mobility Management in HWNs;
3 Problem 3: Integration of HWNs with the 3GPP Infrastructure;
4 Problem 4: Test-bed Development for HWNs

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These are extremely complex problems and involve many other sub-issues, which will be addressed in the proposed
architecture. In our example architecture of a multi-mode terminal, different network protocol stacks can be attached to
the connection management below the application layer as shown in Figure 3. The connection manager includes three
components (i) network selection and connection management, (ii) multiplexing and traffic distributor, and (iii) cross
network mobility management. The functionality of connection manager requires network availability detection, link
quality estimation and mobility information from each network protocol stack. Figure 4 shows the basic modules of the
connection manager that summarize our proposed approach for enabling the practical realization of HWNs. As can be
seen in Figure 4, the central module is an integrated network selection and connection management mechanism in
which application QoS requirements, user preferences, mobility profiles and the network state (available network
resources) should be taken into account for interface selection and connection maintenance. While receiving a
connection request from the application layer, this integrated interface selection mechanism needs to explore the
connectivity opportunities available in a cross-layer manner as shown in Figure 3. In other words, it needs to efficiently
operate on top of different networking scenarios, including cellular networks, WMANs, WLANs, and WPANs, in
multi-mode terminals.

Figure 3: Cross Layer Architecture for a Multi-mode Terminal

Therefore, in Figure 4, the network selection module will need information from upper layers (e.g. , QoS
requirements, user preferences and mobility profiles), and lower layers in order to detect and estimate QoS levels
available for connectivity alternatives. In our proposed architecture, the network availability detector provides the
information about the connectivity alternatives, while the Cross Link-layer Quality Estimation module obtains quality
information from the lower layers through estimation mechanisms. In addition, a Mobility Management module is
required to provide location management and seamless handoffs for each connection. This module will also exploit
cross-layer link quality estimation mechanisms to decide when to switch a connection to a different interface or
network.

Application QoS Requirements (Traffic Classes) / User Preferences / Mobilty Profiles

Network Availability Network Selection

Detector And Mobility Management
Connection Management

Cross Link-layer Quality Estimation

Figure 4: Basic Modules for Connection manager in HWS

C.2 Problem 1: Network Selection and Connection Management in HWNs

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 In the proposed HWNs a mobile terminal can execute a single or multiple applications at a given time. The service
to applications  can  be  provided thorough a  single  or multiple  physical  wireless  network  connections.  In order  to
achieve this objective, the following three functionalities must be provided for HWNs:
 Network Selection Framework.
 Parameter Modeling for Network Selection using multi­mode and multi­connection communications.
 Connection Management Protocol using multiplexing over multi­network.
C.2.1 Network Selection Framework:
In order to provide a detailed discussion on the network selection protocol, let us consider a multi­mode terminal
with n (n ≥ 2) wireless interfaces, denoted by a set I = {I1, I2, ... , In}, where Ii is the i­th interface of the multi­mode
terminal.  The multiple wireless interfaces  may be integrated in a single wireless card,  or in a more flexible way,
multiple wireless interfaces may be separated in plug­in cards that can be easily inserted or removed from a multi­mode
terminal. At a given instant, some of the interfaces are located in the coverage of its correspondent wireless networks.
For example, a cellular interface is under the coverage of a cellular network while a WLAN interface is covered by a
WLAN network. We define three possible states on each wireless interface, namely, idle, dormant, and active. Since
each   network   BS   advertises   its   existence   by   periodically   broadcasting   beacon   messages,   the  physical  layer   of   a
corresponding interface Ii can detect the received signal strength RSS(Ii). If this received RSS(Ii) on an interface Ii for a
BS is lower than a threshold  RSSt(Ii)  defined for the interface, then the interface is in the  idle  state. Otherwise, the
interface may be dormant or active state, depending on whether it is actively receiving or sending data packets on that
interface. We define a variable  TRAN(Ii)  to represent  if packets are transmitted using I i  interface. The states of a
wireless interface on a terminal are represented by the following function:

 idle, if RSS ( I i )  RSS t ( I i ),


State   dormant, if RSS ( I i )  RSS ( I i ) and TRAN ( I i )  0, (1)
 active, if RSS ( I i )  RSS ( I i ) and TRAN ( I i )  1,

 

Figure 5: An Ns-2 Implemented Multi-mode Terminal with Three Wireless Interfaces

Figure  5  shows  the architecture  of our  NS­2 implemented [45]  multi­mode terminal in which three protocol
stacks in a terminal are coordinated with a connection manager. In this section, we illustrate the challenge of interface
selection by using an example in the event that a mobile terminal requests multiple applications to be executed. As
shown in Figure 5, the multi­mode terminal is equipped with three wireless interfaces, a cellular, an IEEE 802.11a and
an IEEE 802.11b interfaces by  I1, I2, I3  respectively. There are many methods to evaluate the  RSSt(Ii)  of a wireless
technology to indicate the necessary signal strength required for packet transmission on a wireless interface, depending
on receiver characteristics, and local interference space. In the physical layers of the terminal in Figure 5, each interface

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independently detects and measures the received signal RSS(Ii) from the network. For example, at a given location, the
interface (I1) in Figure  5  works is in the idle state because no signal is detected from any BS, and the other two
interfaces (I2, I3) are in their dormant states. However, when an application is requested from the application layer, a
real challenge is how to choose interfaces for packet transmission. The selection of interface for starting an application
cannot be independently decided by an interface due to the activity of multiple radio interfaces. In order to illustrate the
challenge in selecting interface, we assumes a scenario for the terminal in Figure 5 is starting two applications, an ftp
(e.g., downloading a song) and a voice conversation in this order. The ftp application of downloading a song is a non­
real­time   service   and   requires   a   higher   throughput,   low   monetary   cost,   an   appropriate   packet   delivery   fraction.
Meanwhile, the user can afford a longer packet delay. Based on this consideration, the ftp application should be severed
by WLAN interfaces which can satisfy the requirements given above. The ftp service QoS level can be improved if
multiple   WLAN   interfaces   are   active.   On   the   contrary,   if   the   ftp   is   started   at   cellular   interface   with   a   limited
throughput,   it   will   be   very   expensive   for   the   user.   While   the   terminal   is   running   the   ftp   application,   the   voice
conversation should be carried out on the cellular interface. The higher coverage of the cellular network guarantee user
can obtain stable service while the terminal is moving. Also, cellular network provides the user with the required
throughput, packet delivery rate, and delay. If the user is moving faster (e.g.,  driving), the WLAN interface cannot
provide reliable higher packet delivery rate for the user because its shorter coverage results in frequent handoff. In
addition to starting applications, interface selection for a terminal also is a key issue and should be considered during
the period of handoff (mobility management). As illustrated in the above scenarios, when the mobility becomes lower
after a while, the voice conversation may be migrated to a WLAN interface, which provides reliable service to user in
the lower mobility terminal. The migration has two benefits (i) low cost, and (ii) releasing the load on the cellular
network.  
C.2.2 Parameter Modeling for Network Selection using Multi-mode and Multi-Connection
Communications
It can be seen from the above scenarios that interface selection is a complicated issue that need to be planed using
three primary determining factors:
 User QoS: What is the QoS required by the application and the QoS levels provided on interfaces,
 Network QoS: What ’s impact on the network performance, and
 Stability of User QoS: The state and the quality of a QoS level on an interface can persist.

Application Layer

Network
Network 1: Service type (QoS info.)
Network condition Selection
Selection 2: Monetary cost
3: User mobility profiles
(availability + state)
Algorithm
Algorithm 4: User preferences
Link and MAC Application Layer
Layers

Network Layer : Topology information

Figure 6: Network Selection at Connection Manager in HWNs

Figure 6 illustrates the process of QoS-based network selection which is the core module of our proposed
HWN architecture, with our main goal to fully exploit all connectivity alternatives available while supporting the QoS
requirements for multiple services. This section provides an introduction of our multi-mode QoS-based approach , and
further discusses the challenging issues faced. As illustrated in Section C.2.1, an application obtains different
user QoS levels through different interfaces. Thus, the first open issue is how to evaluate the
potential QoS levels on available interfaces before starting an application with a specific QoS
requirement. The mechanism to evaluate QoS level is very important because it will
significantly affect the selected network. If the required application QoS over a single network
through an interface cannot be satisfied, the application may use two or more interfaces
simultaneously. In this case, it is necessary to evaluate the QoS levels provided by multiple
interfaces. This QoS must include the influence of performance such as congestion, data
transmission rate, etc. Furthermore, the QoS of an interface may be affected by the mobility of
a mobile terminal and QoS may vary according to the mobility. In the subsequent discussion,
we focus on the QoS prototype which mainly includes two sub-steps: (i) evaluating QoS levels
for all possible interfaces, and (ii) computing QoS satisfactory degrees.

7
 In our approach, every application has its QoS requirements that can be defined in
terms of bandwidth (bw), packet delivery fraction (pdf), packet delay (pd), charge rate (cr),
cost of power consumption (cpc) etc. Based on each of the above parameters, an application
can specify its QoS requirement on a parameter, e.g., QoSbw represents the QoS demand of
bandwidth. These parameters determine different aspects of application performance and
contribute to the overall performance. For example, bandwidth refers to the average data rate
(in bits per second), supported by one or more interfaces. For example, the bandwidth of 64
Kpbs is fine for a voice conversation over cellular. Thus, the QoSb for such a service can be
defined as a value that is larger than 64 pbs (QoSbw ≥ 64 Kpbs). Thus, according to these
parameters, the QoS requirement for an application can be decomposed into a set of key
parameters:
QoS demand  {QoS bw , QoS pdf , QoS pd , QoS cr , QoS cpc }(2)
It should be noted that other parameters, which are performance aspects and can be
independently evaluated, can also be added into the QoSdemand definition (Eq. (1)) for a specific
application. As for a possible connection alternative, it evaluates its realized QoS that can be
provided on a parameter, e.g., QoS’bw represents the QoS of bandwidth that can be provided
from the connection alternative. In accordance with the QoS requirement of each parameter,
we can further define the realized QoS with these performance parameters provided by one or
more interfaces, that is:
QoS real  {QoS ' bw , QoS ' pdf , QoS ' pd , QoS ' cr , QoS ' cpc }
(3)
The above defined QoS parameters may vary in accordance with mobility. If the network
coverage over an interface is too small and the mobile terminal is moving at a faster speed,
the QoS levels of above parameters may not be stable since coverage of the network may be
limited. The higher moving terminal, the less will be the stability of QoS because of frequent
handoff. For each parameter in the QoS definition, there is an associated weight for an
application based on its relative importance on the performance, e.g., wbw refers the
performance importance weight of bandwidth. This can be denoted by a weight vector, for
example, in the user-based QoS definition:

W  {wbw , w pdf , w pd , wcr , wcpc }, and w p  1, p  {bw, pdf , pd , cr, cpc} (4)

If the real QoS of a parameter is equal to or exceeds QoS demand, then the application
requirement is completely satisfied from the viewpoint of this parameter. Otherwise, the
service is unsatisfied in some degree based on the given parameters. Therefore, our approach
will model the degree of satisfaction as: the higher satisfactory degree, the closer the QoS for
that parameter is to 1, which is symbolized: Sd (0 ≤ Sd ≤ 1). Sd (Ii) means the Sd that can be
provided on interface Ii. The Sd for a parameter on an interface can be denoted as Sdbw (Ii);
where bw refers to the degree of satisfaction of bandwidth on interface Ii. It is a challenging
issue to provide mapping functions to model the degree of satisfaction for given parameters on
scale of 0 to 1. The functions should be developed with two important requirements: i) the
degree of satisfaction function for a parameter should accurately describe the characteristics
of that parameter ii) the degree of satisfaction function should be easy to calculate. The
terminal then calculates the weighted satisfactory degree (Sd(Ii)) on each interface (Ii), that is
Sd ( I i )  wbw Sd bw ( I i )  w pdf Sd pdf ( I i )  w pd Sd pd ( I i )  wcr Sd cr ( I i )  wcpc Sd cpc ( I i )
(5)
If Sd(Ii) of interface Ii is 1, the real QoS level of the interface completely satisfy the
required QoS with regard to all parameters. In this case, the interface Ii can be selected to
serve the application, without starting multiple interfaces. If Sd(Ii) > Sd(Ik), the provided QoS
level in interface Ii is better than that in Ik. If one interface is not enough for an application, it is
fundamental to accurately estimate QoS levels and satisfactory degree over multiple interfaces. As for a
example, the bandwidth QoS over multiple interface (Ii,…, In) can be evaluated as Eq.(6):
n
QoS 'bw ( I1 ,..., I n )   ri  QoS 'bw ( I i ) (6)
i 0
At first, Eq. (5) shows us that the traffic of an application will be distributed to n multiple
interfaces (n ≥ 2) according to their capability (i.e., QoS’bw (Ii)). Secondly, Eq. (5) gives us the
total bandwidth over multiple interfaces, and ri represents the efficiency of each interface.
Similar to Eq. (4), our approach can compute the degree of satisfaction over multiple
interfaces, donated as Sd(I1 ,…,In). If Sd(I1 ,…,In) of interface combination (I1 ,…, In) is 1, the real

8
QoS level of the interface completely satisfy the required QoS from the perspective of each
parameter. In this case, the interface combination (I1 ,…, In) can be selected to serve the
application. Otherwise we should select the interface combination (I1 ,…, In) has highest Sd(I1 ,…,
In):

Max Sd ( I1 ,..., I n ) (7)

( I1 ,..., I n )  all possible I i combinations

C.2.3 Adaptive Multiplexing Module for Traffic over Multiple Connections

In case the output of our network selection algorithm indicates that multiple connectivity options (C 1, C2, …, Ck) should
be used for supporting a single service, the connection manager as described in C.2.1 is able to open and manage the
multiple transport connections, one over each Cj (TRAN (Ii) = 1). When the traffic of a single application is transmitted
over multiple connections through different interfaces, an adaptive multiplexing module is needed in the cross layer
design with two main functionalities: (i) distributing data packets over the established connections at the sender, (ii)
resembling the data packets from various connections on the receiver. This adaptive multiplexing module can be a
software module located between the application layer and the transport layer as part of the cross layer connection
manager as shown in Figure 3.
This module includes two parts: an adaptive multiplexing policy maker (MCM), and multiplexing (MP). The
MCM adaptively make the policy of how to allocate the traffic to each transport connection. The MCM approach
considers current QoS’ (Ii) and its stability over each interfaces Ii through which connection is established.
Because the QoS’ (Ii) over each interface keeps on changing in real-time, and MCM adaptively allocates
traffic load over these connections to achieve the objective of distributing traffic over multiple interfaces with highest
QoS’ (I1 ,…, In). Then, based on the policy, the MP executes the process of distributing and encapsulating data packets.
This design would require minimal change to application layer. On the receiving side, the upcoming data packets are
reassembled at the mobile terminal in order and delivery the data packet up to the application layer.
C.3 Problem 2: QoS-based Mobility Management
In this section, we discussed mobility issues and design challenges of mobility management in HWNs. In the
traditional wireless networks, the mobility management protocol such as Mobile IP only considers a single connection,
including location management and handoff management. Mobile IP performs its location management for a
connection with two entities: home agent (HA) and foreign agent (FA). Each HA and FA advertise their existence by
periodically sending advertisement on the home network and foreign network, respectively. When a mobile terminal
visits a foreign network, it picks a care-of-address (CoA) from the beacon message advertised by the FA and initiates a
registration procedure by sending a registration request to FA. The FA then forwards the registration request to the HA.
After creating a mobility binding for the terminal, the HA responds to the FA with a registration reply message carrying
the registration result. Then, the FA forwards the registration result to the terminal so that the terminal can receive the
packets from the correspondent node (CN) via the HA, Internet, and the FA. Handoff management is the process by
which terminal keeps a connection active when it moves from one BS/AP to another. For a connection, a horizontal
handoff, a connection changes between homogeneous networks while a vertical handoff deals with the migration
between heterogeneous networks.
Due to multiple interfaces in a mobile terminal and multi-network, the mobility management for a multi-mode
terminal is a highly challenging issue. Let consider the example in Figure 5 in which the multi-mode terminal has one
cellular interface and two WLAN interfaces. Table 1 illustrates the complexity of mobility management for the mobile
terminal in Figure 5. As discussed in Section C.2.1, when terminal runs two applications, a voice conversation over
cellular interface (I1) and an ftp application over a WLAN interface (I 2) at the beginning as shown in Table 1. When the
terminal is moving, the WLAN interface (I3), which is in an idle state at the beginning, may detect the availability of a
network (RSS(I3) > RSSt(I3)). If the ftp application needs more bandwidth, the terminal renders TRAN(I3) to 1 and then
initiates a process of  mobility  update for interface  I3  with a CoA from the  I3’s network. After updating its location
information  and creating a mobility binding at the HA for interface  I3, a part of the ftp traffic can be  transmitted
through this network over interface I3. The distribution of traffic should achieve the goal of maximal QoS that can be
provided by all active interfaces (e.g., I2, and I3 in the example). This mobility causes activation of an Interface to meet
QoS requirement. The activation of an interface allows a terminal to improve the QoS of an application by adding one
more connections to the application and never been explored in the literature. After the activation of the interface  I3 for
the ftp application, the ftp application uses two interfaces (I2  and  I3), and the voice conversation continues on the
cellular interface as shown in Table 1. 

Table 1. Mobility Management Uses for the Multi­mode Terminal in Figure 5
Interface I3  moves Interface I2  moves Moving   speed Interface I3
to an AP from   an  AP1  to slows down moves   away

9
 another AP2 from an AP
Initial  Activation  Horizontal  Vertical  Deactivation 
Connection of interface (I3)  Handoff (I2) Handoff (I1­> I2) of interface (I3) 
voice : I1  voice : I1 voice : I1 voice : I2 voice : I2
 ftp: I2  ftp: I2 , I3  ftp: I2, I3  ftp: I2, I3  ftp: I2

Suppose the terminal keeps on moving and interface I2 is moving out of the range of an AP (e.g., AP 1), and it
is approaching a neighboring AP (e.g., AP2). In this case, the connection of interface I2 to AP1 will be broken, and a new
connection   to   AP2  will   be  established.   Thus,   the  interface  I2  updates   its   location   information   by   the   location
management with registration at AP 2. During the location management, the interface I2 updates its location information
at  its home network. Therefore,  the  HA knows that the interface  I2  has attached itself to a new AP (AP 2).   This
migration of interface I2 from AP1 to its neighboring AP2 is called horizontal handoff. The ftp application delivers data
packets   through   AP2.   The   data   packets   from   HA   can   be   forwarded   to   AP 2.   Three   critical   issues   for   QoS­based
horizontal handoff are (i) how mobility protocol can support horizontal handoff for a multi­mode terminal in which
multiple interfaces  (e.g.,  I1,  I2,  and I3) are  attached  to different  BSs/APs, (ii) how to reassign traffic  for multiple
interfaces (e.g., ftp redistributes traffic to I2 and I3 after I2 migration) with QoS­based evaluation on the new network,
and (iii) to reduce the handoff delay and thus to reduce packet drop during migration.   As shown in Table 1, the ftp
application still uses two interfaces (I2 and I3) but I2 has attached itself now to AP2 after the horizontal handoff. The
voice conversation is still maintained the cellular interface without interrupt.
As mentioned earlier, the WLAN may not satisfy the QoS requirement of a voice conversation due to frequent
handoffs caused by highly mobility. However, if the movement of the terminal is slow, in that case the QoS (QoSreal)
provided by the WLAN can satisfy its required QoS (QoS demand) for a voice conversation. Because of the benefits for
network performance, the voice conversation in such case should be migrated from the cellular interface (I1) to one of
the WLAN interfaces (e.g., I2) to save the bandwidth on cellular network. This is even more effective because the cost
in the WLAN is lower than cellular network that encourages such migration. In order to migrate the voice conversation
from cellular network to WLAN network, the terminal should notify its HA to associate the voice service to interface I2
so that the voice traffic of the application can be delivery to the network where interface  I2 is attached. This type of
migration involved two  heterogeneous  networks (e.g., cellular, and WLAN) is referred  as vertical  handoff. In the
previous work, vertical handoff only considers the migration from one interface to another when the connection of an
interface is broken (RSS(Ii) < RSSt(Ii)).  However, in the above example, the decision of a vertical handoff includes not
only the availability of network but also the QoS provided by interfaces. If an interface (Ik) with higher QoS (QoSreal(Ik)
> QoSreal(Ii) ) is detected, the traffic should be redirected to interface (Ik) even when the connection at interface Ii is not
broken.  As shown in Table 1, after vertical handoff (I1­> I2), the voice conversation is served by interface I2.
If the connection of an interface (e.g., I2) to a wireless network is broken, the terminal must have the capability
to stop the transmission on this interface  with  minimal  packet  drop. We call  this as deactivation of an interface.
Although a connection is broken, the applications may not stop due to multiple currently active interfaces for a multi­
mode terminal. Two challenges  faced  in the process of  deactivation  of  an  interface  are  (i) how to reduce  packet
dropping rate, and (ii) how to reassign traffic over other (e.g., I2) active interfaces with QoS guarantee. 

Table 2. Mobility Management and Operations
Decisions Necessary Conditions Operations
(Ii and Ik Є I, i≠k )
Activation of an  (1): RSS(Ii) > RSSt(Ii) TRAN(Ii) = 0 ­> TRAN(Ii) = 1
interface (2): QoSreal < QoSdemand Interface Ii location update
(3): Activing Ii improves QoSreal Reassign traffic over active interfaces
Deactivation of an  RSS(Ii) < RSSt(Ii) TRAN(Ii) = 1 ­> TRAN(Ii) = 0
interface  Or  Reassign traffic over active interfaces
if deleting Ii, QoSreal ≥ QoSdemand  
Horizontal handoff (1): RSS(Ii) at BS1/AP1 < RSSt(Ii) Interface Ii location update 
(2): RSS(Ii) at BS2/AP2 > RSSt(Ii) Traffic redirection from BS1/AP1to BS2/AP2
(3): Conditions to avoid ping pong 
effect

10
 Vertical handoff (1): RSS(Ik) > RSSt(Ik) TRAN(Ii) = 1 ­> TRAN(Ii) = 0
(2) : QoSreal(Ii) < QoSdemand TRAN(Ik) = 0 ­> TRAN(Ik) = 1
(3): QoSreal(Ik) ≥ QoSdemand  Traffic redirection from Ii to Ik
Or 
(1): RSS(Ii) < RSSt(Ii)
(2): RSS(Ik) > RSSt(Ik)

C.3.1 Modeling of Mobility Support for Multi-mode and Multi-connection Communication

In our proposed HWN, an application may employ multiple interfaces with multiple physical connections. For
clarification, a physical connection is the wireless connection over an interface to a network . On the other hand, a
logical connection means the path for an application with the same destination. A logical connection for an application
may have multiple physical connections. Several logical connections for multiple applications may also use one
physical connection on one single interface.
Each interface has two models, location management and QoS-based handoff management. The relationship of
location management and handoff management are illustrated in Figure 7. Each interface has its QoS model from
which each interface reports its QoS to connection manager. As shown in Figure 8, each interface can dependently
complete all operations of a horizontal handoff and transparent to the connection manager.

RSS(Ii) < RSSt(Ii)

Multi-hop Paging
Cache
Dormant Active
Idle
(TRAN(Ii) = 0) (TRAN(Ii) = 1)
Data packet
RSS(Ii) > RSSt(Ii) LM CM/L
M

RSS(Ii) < RSSt(Ii) No data transmission

RSS(Ii) < RSSt(Ii) Multi-hop Paging

Cache Data packet
Multi-hop Paging LM: Location Management
Cache CM: Connection Management

Figure 7: Terminal State Machine for an Interface.

As discussed in Section C.2.1, each interface (Ii) operate in one of three states: idle, dormant, and active.
Figure 7 illustrate the state machine of an interface (Ii). In the idle state, the interface keeps on detecting the existence
of its correspondent network [RSS(Ii) > RSSt(Ii)] by listening the signal from BS/AP. Once the interface detects a
network, it moves to dormant state. In the dormant state, the interface maintains its location information with its HA.
The location management has a registration process allow the terminal to tell its home network about the visiting
network with the associated interface. The registration process should be based on Mobile IP protocol with the
extension so that a registration request cannot only carry the terminal’s permanent IP address, the CoA address of the
visiting network, the home network address, the registration lifetime, but also the interface identity. The location
information should be periodically updated in the relevant databases. A dormant state interface may return to idle state
if it loses the connections to the network. Once the dormant interface is selected to send or receive packets, it
immediately moves to active state and starts up the handoff management.
Figure 8 provides a structure of mobility management scheme for a multi-mode terminal shown in Figure 5.
The connection management is a model under the application layer and can be responsible for several applications
(e.g., a voice and ftp in Figure). The functionalities of a connection manager include network selection as well as
connection establishment (as discussed in Section C.2), and mobility management as indicated in Table 2. The
mobility-related functions in the connection manager manage LMs/CMs of multiple interfaces in the higher level. It is
also should be noted that these functions act in a cooperative manner. For instance, traffic distributor and QoS estimator
are used for both network selection and vertical handoff decision. When the QoS changes on an interface for an
application, the traffic distributor will adjust the assignment of traffic to interfaces in a different proportion to maximize
the overall QoS.

11
 Connection Manager (LM/CM)
Multiplexing module
Traffic distributor
QoS estimator
Network selection and connection establishment
Vertical handoff determiner

Activation/Deactivation Activation/Deactivation Activation/Deactivation

Voice ftp ftp

Vertical handoff Vertical handoff

LM(I1)/CM(I1) LM(Ii)/CM(Ii) LM(In)/CM (In)

Location update ... Location update ... Location update
QoS estimator QoS estimator QoS estimator
Horizontal handoff Horizontal handoff Horizontal handoff
TCP and below layers TCP and below layers TCP and below layers

Horizontal handoff Horizontal handoff Horizontal handoff

Figure 8: Mobility Management Framework for a Multi-mode Terminal

C.3.2 Challenges in Multi-mode and Multi-Connection Mobility Management Protocol
It can be seen from the above example that the location  information  of each interface should be  maintained  on
each interface periodically to inform its HA and to update relevant  location databases with its up­to­date location
information. The design of location management technologies for a multi­mode terminal has the following challenges: 
 Managing the location information for multiple interfaces,
 Associating each active interface to the applications with QoS guarantee on each attached network,
 Location update to minimize packet drop rate during various handoff, and
 Reduction of signaling overhead.

We further identify four types of mobility related actions as shown in Table 2, with the necessary conditions and
operations to be carried out in each decision. Compared to the traditional handoff process, the handoff for a multi­mode
terminal may  maintain  multiple connections for an application and it involves multiple decisions:   activation of an
interface and deactivation of an interface, horizontal or vertical handoff as shown in Tables 1 and 2. In addition, the
handoff for a multi­mode terminal needs the connection manager to reassign traffic over multiple interfaces to achieve
maximal   QoS   output.    In   a   HWN   environment,   the   design  of   handoff   management   techniques  for   a   multi­mode
terminal has the following challenges:
 Managing multiple connections with QoS guarantee,  
 QoS­based handoff decision for all possible interfaces,
 Designing handoff scheme to deal with needed operations for all possible handoffs, and 
 Redistribution of traffic over multiple interfaces for an application served by multiple interfaces. 
C.4 Problem 3: Integration of WLAN with the 3GPP Infrastructure
Since the HWN is a network that exploits all the potential connections of multiple access networks, integration
with current wireless access networks is a practical concern. Currently, 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) is
the largest organization for cellular networks and its proposal for 3G systems is becoming one of the most promising
3G standards. As a component in our proposed HWN, we have to integrate WLAN with 3GPP infrastructure, including
the multiple connections and mobility management presented in Sections C.2 and C.3, respectively. The
internetworking between different wireless networks generally specifies the services provided by each other, such as
access control, charging model, and mobility support. For instance, the internetworking of cellular system with WLANs
has been investigated by 3GPP [7] [8] and 3GPP2 [9]. The basic integration aspects considered in 3GPP are
Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA), network selection through the fixed infrastructure connecting
the WLAN hot spots and the 3G network. Five basic integration levels for 3GPP and WLAN have been identified as the
following levels:
 Level 1: common billing and customer care integration;

12
  Level 2: 3GPP system-based access control and charging;
 Level 3: access to 3GPP system IP Multimedia Services (Iterminal) from the WLAN without mobility support;
 Level 4: access to 3GPP system IP Multimedia Services (Iterminal) from the WLAN with mobility support for
service continuity;
 Level 5: access to 3GPP system IP Multimedia Services (Iterminal) and WLAN simultaneously with mobility
support for service continuity; and
 Level 6: access to 3GPP system IP Multimedia Services (Iterminal) and WLAN simultaneously with seamless
mobility support.

The 3GPP2 working group has also been developing integrated solutions for WLAN and cdma2000 based cellular
systems [9], whose basic underlying principles are also similar to the work being done in 3GPP. The above integration
specifications provide the service from basic integration for billing to advanced seamless integration with mobility
support. However, the current specifications proposed by 3GPP consider the integration only up to Level 3 [11] . The
issues on level 4 are still open for research. In HWN, two new issues are to enable multiple services simultaneously
from the cellular network and WLAN with seamless mobility support, level 5 and level 6 as shown above. In HWN, the
internetworking of a WLAN with 3GPP infrastructure also has to deal with access control at lowest service level to
seamless mobility support at the highest service level.
C.4.1 Internetworking Connection and Mobility Management
The network selection and mobility management proposed in Sections C.2 and C.3 can be potentially applied to
the integration of a HWN and 3GPP infrastructure, which belongs to the high level of the integration. In HWN, the
integration of WLAN with the 3GPP infrastructure has to minimize the impact on the 3GPP infrastructure. The basic
integration of charging and sharing of user profile is easy to incorporate. Before implementing integrated network
selection and mobility management, authentication, authorization and accounting between WLAN and 3GPP
infrastructure has to be done. Figure 9 illustrates two approaches to support multiple connection and mobility
management in a HWN.
 Tight Integration,
 Loose Integration

Billing Home Agent

Server

Loose Integration
RAN: Radio Access Network HA AAA
PCF: Packet Control Function
3G Core
R: RAN Interface Network Internet
P: PDSN Interface

Tight Integration
PSTN Internet Protocol
CDMA 2000

R P R Gateway
AP Gateway AP
BS RAN/PCF RAN/PCF AP
WLAN AP BS

WCDMA/CDMA2000 WCDMA/CDMA2000

Figure 9: Tight vs. Loose 3G/WLAN integration

Using the approach of tight integration, an AP is connected to PSTN with a gateway that provides PDSN
(packet data serving node) interface while a BS is connected to PSTN with a RAN (radio access network) interface as
shown in Figure 9. In the loose integration, all APs and cellular systems are interconnected by the Internet. The
disadvantages of tight integration are (i) WLAN and 3G network should be owned by a single operator, (ii) WLAN
traffic for cellular services goes through the 3G core networks, and (iii) All WLAN devices would to need to
implement the 3G protocol stack even for a single interface terminal. On the other hand, the approach of loose
integration allows (i) independent deployment and traffic engineering, (ii) Mobile IP support in the WLAN gateway.
Based on these observations, we will more focus on the approach of loose integration.
One of the main advantages of proposed HWNs is to exploit the multiple connection capabilities that provide
more connection options for an end-to-end connection. In both the approaches, new functionalities should be added at
HA, BS, and AP for multiple connections: (i) managing multiple CoA addresses with traffic distribution over cellular
network and WLAN, and (ii) mobility support from the viewpoint of network. Vertical handoff, as a switching process
between different networks with different access technologies, is much more complex than a horizontal handoff within
the same network. In a HWN, the multi-mode terminals are equipped with multi-interface or SDR based wireless
device to use the preferred networks. When the Network Availability Detector finds a 3GPP BS, the terminals will

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evaluate the network conditions of 3GPP network. Since we employ a cross-layer design, the transmission condition of
PHY and data link layer will be provided to the upper layer to decide whether to use 3GPP networks or not. The
decision will be made by the application layer, which is based on a set of parameters and pre-determined policies. The
decision-making not only depends on the requirement of the application, but also considers the user preference. If the
terminal wants to perform a vertical handoff to the 3GPP network or only want to create an additional connection using
the 3GPP network, there is a lot of work to be done. It is also possible that a terminal wants to vertical handoff from the
3GPP network to other networks in a HWN, which is similar to vertical handoff to 3GPP network.
In general, a vertical handoff process can be divided into three consecutive processes: initiation process,
decision process, and handoff process. Network detection and selection can be seen as an initiation and decision
process in the vertical handoff. The handoff process, the last but not least process, is also complex and has to be
handled carefully. Some schemes have to be given to save the current setting of connection and transfer the context
between HWN and 3GPP network. Besides, vertical handoffs have to deal with the creation of an additional connection
through 3GPP networks or disconnection with 3GPP network while the multi-mode terminals still maintain the
connection with other wireless networks. It provides terminals capabilities to seamlessly roam across HWN and 3GPP
infrastructure and maintain multiple simultaneous connections.

C.5 Problem 4: Simulation and Test bed Development for HWN

Integration of analytical modeling, simulation tools and experimental test bed plays a fundamental role in the
design and use of HWNs. Note that it is extremely difficult to design an analytical model to capture the overall system
behavior, including PHY layer propagation characteristics, MAC layer, connection management, and mobility
management etc. Although simulation tools are extremely useful, they are usually based on simplifying assumptions
and may not be able to capture the fundamental characteristics of the systems that can only be taken into account with
real experiments. In this project, simulation and actual performance studies on the proposed testbed will be carried out
to measure and examine the effectiveness of the protocols developed in this project. To evaluate the effectiveness of the
proposed integrating solutions, a set of studies will be performed and the results will be compared with the existing
approaches.
5.1. Simulation-Based Performance Analysis
This part of research will focus on improving our simulation platforms to perform detailed analysis of integrated
network selection and the mobility management protocols in HWNs. The improvements and studies to be carried out
will include:
 Implementation of different interface stacks to allow simulations including different flavors of WLAN
(802.11a/b/g), Bluetooth and WiMAX.
 Analyze the impact of the lower layers (PHY, MAC and network layers) on the performance of connections (TCP,
UDP) across different networks.
 Study the impact of network heterogeneity on the performance of the routing and mobility management protocols.
5.2. Practical Test Bed
The overall configuration of test bed implementation of HWN is shown in Figure 10. The IGW in this diagram
represents the connection to internet from the wireless environment. This IGW segment include at least two cellular
BSs , two WiMAX BS, two 802.11a AP, two 802.11b AP and one BT AP. In this test bed one IGW segment shown in
Figure 10 will be built at UoL and the second IGW segment will be developed at UC for experimentation. The two
segments of the test bed will be developed in the following phases:
 Implementation of multi-interface mobile terminal, and
 Development of network components to build a HWN.
5.2.1 Implementation of Multi-interface Mobile Terminal
In order to build this framework first we plan to build multi interface mobile terminals. The implementation of
mobile terminal includes the development of connection manager (CM) on the top of TCP layers as discussed in
Figures 5 and 8. In order to test the performance of various applications, each mobile terminal will be equipped with at
least four interfaces (cellular, 802.11a, 802.11b, and, WiMax / Bluetooth). These interfaces will controlled by the CM at
each mobile terminal. The mobile terminal will be running Linux operating system and CM will be developed using the
development tool kit of respective interfaces on that mobile terminal. The MINDS lab at University of Louisville
already has the Bluetooth development toolkit for this purpose. Development toolkits for other interfaces will be
acquired as part of this project.
5.2.2 Development of Network Components to Build HWN

In order to build the networking infrastructure, BS/AP for cellular, WiMAX, 802.11a, 802.11b and Bluetooth
will be deployed. To implement a functional model for cellular system, we plan to use Anritsu MD 8470A signaling
tester that supports W-CDMA, GSM/GPRS. In addition, to integrated WiMAX and Bluetooth system behavior, we plan
to use Anritsu MT8860B, and Anritsu MT8852 respectively. In this test bed a mobile terminal will communicate with
IGW for transmitting and receiving the information. Thus IGW will also be equipped with at least four interfaces and a

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connection manager similar to the mobile device. The functionality of IGW will be carried out by a Linux server
connected to the internet and wireless BSs and APs. This IGW will be able to serve mobile terminals with different
routes depended on the activated interface at the mobile terminal.

BS/WiMAX Router BS/WiMAX

BS
HA CN IGW
2
CN BS2
BS1
AP4/ AP4/
Core IP BS
AP1/
network 802.11b 1
802.11b
AP2/BT
AP AP3/
with mobile 802.11a
IP 2 802.11a
Global FA Local domain
domain Data
Packets
CN:Correspondent
BS: Base Station
Node
AP:Access Point 4MS
MS:Mobile Station MS
Data
Radio covered Area MS Packets MSMS
1
Radio Uncovered Area
Co-located BS and AP
Area
Figure 10: Configuration of Test Bed for HWN
5.2.3 Performance Studies for HWN
Scenario 1: Performance of Single or Multi-Interface Connections
In this scenario multiple applications will be executed on a mobile terminal and the performance of these
applications in terms of throughput, packet loss and packet delay will be compared when only one physical connection
is used against the case where multiple physical connections on different networks are used. This study will indicate
what if any are the benefits of using multiple connections vs single connection for an application. It will also identify
under what situation single connection is better than the multiple connection.
Scenario 2: Performance of Mobility Management on Single or Multi-Interface Connections
In this scenario the impact of mobility on multiple application execution on mobile terminals will be
examined. This study will highlight the overhead of performing handoff for an application executing on one physical
connection vs multiple physical connections. What is the impact of fast mobility on handoff vs slow mobility in using
single physical connection vs multiple physical connections? The study will provide a trade off between frequent
handoffs for better throughput vs fewer handoffs for steady connectivity.
D. Broader Impact of the Proposed Work
Intellectual Merit
We have proposed a novel architecture for exploiting available multiple connection alternatives in integrated
heterogeneous systems for providing QoS based connectivity. This would necessitate some mobile terminals to have
multiple radios so that simultaneous communication to different devices from a single terminal could be feasible. This
would further encourage their use in many different applications, including voice, data and multi-media
communication. Our proposed work is geared to meet the future demands of ubiquitous communication and self-
configuration. Currently, various wireless networks have been deployed to provide different services, and some
commercial multi-mode terminals, such as WLAN and GPRS combination wireless network card. Management of
channels in a heterogeneous scenario with communication devices equipped with multiple interfaces would enable
substantial improvement in its performance. Therefore, it is possible for users to connect to different radio access
networks. On the other hand, there are a lot of researches either in industries or in academics that have started the
development of the 3G beyond (3GB) and 4G networks. Generally, such networks are composed of three large parts:
multi-network, multi-service, and multi-mode terminal. However, most current works only focus on one of three
research fields. Therefore, considering three parts together becomes more important in the area. As we know, these
three fields are dependent on each other. Without an efficient network selection, routing and mobility management
mechanism, the multi-mode terminals cannot provide critical QoS requirements to various applications. Furthermore,
due to lack of effective network selection, routing, and mobility management, the multi-mode terminals are not capable
to run several applications with different QoS requirements simultaneously even the desired networks and desired
interfaces are both available. Our proposed approach provides a whole solution to support the QoS requirements for
multi-mode terminals in the multi-network environment, where the terminals take advantage of multi-mode interfaces
to satisfy the QoS requirements for different types of applications. From the system’s perspective, our solution also
helps in improving the system performance by redirecting the traffic to appropriate networks.
Broader Impact

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 This collaborative research project is proposed jointly by the University of Cincinnati and the University of
Louisville. Both the campuses are committed to enhance research activities in the wireless networking area. Scientists
and Engineers exposed and trained through a formal education that critically examines the role and impact of this state-
of-the art research on the future role of wireless technologies are vital assets for the nation's competitiveness and thus,
we believe that the proposed research project will play a critical role in the advanced graduate research training
program at both the campuses. PIs and Co-PI are fostering research involving undergraduate and graduate students and
have been offering a course on Introduction to Wireless and Mobile Systems (Agrawal and Zeng are the co-authors of
the text book in this area) for last several years both at undergraduate and graduate levels. At the University of
Cincinnati, based on his coauthored forthcoming textbook, Agrawal is introducing a new course entitled Ad hoc and
Sensor Networks starting Spring of 2006. At UC, we are in process of establishing wireless testbed and simulation
software for training and education in the area of wireless networked system. One of our goals is to design and develop
the pedagogy, instructional and learning materials, to support the model of excellence in curriculum and to provide an
experimental testbed for advanced research to flourish. The proposed methodology of teaching such an advanced
material to an evolving thought process of a graduate student involves considerable challenges. We propose to first
introduce the concepts and ideas through concrete illustrations of different possible heterogeneous wireless technology
that could serve dual roles of being research vehicles as well as educational conduits. These schemes will be used as a
part of research by the student groups working on different aspects of the proposed research. Research results of this
project will be widely disseminated. Workshops and tutorials will also be organized that would highlight the approach
taken and research results obtained. Special efforts will be made to attract both minority and female graduate students.
E. Management and Work Plan for the Project:
This research will be conducted over a period of four years with research activities carried out at the
University of Cincinnati (UC) and the University of Louisville (UoL). The research effort is lead by Dr. Dharma P.
Agrawal of (UC) along with other faculty members including Dr. Anup Kumar of (UoL) and, Dr. Qingan Zeng of (UC).
Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal will bring his expertise in the areas of heterogeneous topology discovery, routing protocol in
wireless network to the project. Dr. A. Kumar will perform research in the area of mobility management. Dr. Zeng will
provide his analytical expertise in the area of topology discovery, routing protocol, and performance evaluation of the
overall system. In order to monitor the progress of the project, joint meetings of the participants will be conducted
every two months, in Cincinnati. Various research issues outlined in section C will be carried out in a timely manner by
the participating faculty members as given in Table II:

Table II: Gantt chart for tasks and responsibilities.

Tasks
C.2.1 – Network Selection: D, A, Q
C.2.2 – Parameter Modeling: D, A
C.2.3 – Connection Managemnt: D, A
C.3.1- Mobility Modeling: D, Q,A
C.3.2 – Location Management: D, Q
C.3.2 – Handoff Management: A
C.4.1 - Tight Integration: A
C.4.1 - Loose Integration A, Q
C.5.1 - Simulation: Q, D
C.5.2.1 – Mobile Terminal
Implementation: A, Q
C.5.2.2 – HWN Network Component: A, D
C.5.2.3 - Performance: Q, A
Papers and Report D, A, Q
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
0-2-4-6-8-10-12 0-2-4-6-8-10-12 0-2-4-6-8-10-12 0-2-4-6-8-10-12
|-------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------------------|
……… |----------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------|
|-------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

D: indicates work done by Dharma P. Agrawal: A: indicates work done by Anup Kumar; Q: indicates work done by Qingan Zeng

F. Results from Prior NSF Support:

4. Results from prior NSF support:
4.1. “Acquisition of Instrumentation for Sensor, Cluster, and Network-Based Distributed Computing,” National Science
Foundation, September 1, 2005-August 31, 2008, Award Total: $286,150 (Co-PIs: J. Paul, D. Agrawal, R. Bhatnagar,
K. Berman, and C.Y. Han). This is an equipment grant has recently been received and we are in process of acquiring
equipment and setting up the sensor testbed for monitoring CO level in the environment.
4.2. “SST: Enabling wireless sensor networks for monitoring of critical air pollutants,” National Science Foundation,
September 15, 2005-August 31, 2008, Award Total: $300,001 (Co-PIs: Mingming Lu, Dharma P. Agrawal, and Tim

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Keener). This award has recently been received and research work has already been started on monitoring air
pollutants.
4.3. “Travel Support for MASS 2005 Conference,” National Science Foundation, July 29, 2005-August 31, 2006,
Award Total: $15,000. This is a travel grant for a conference.
4.4. “Travel Support for 1st IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS 2004);
October 25-27, 2004; Fort Lauderdale, FL,” PI: Dharma P. Agrawal, National Science Foundation, September 15, 2004
to August 31, 20051, Award Total: $20,000, Travel grant for a conference.
4.5. ITR/SI: On Robust and Secure Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks- PI: Dharma P. Agrawal, NSF Award No.
CCR 0113361 National Science Foundation, September 1, 2001-August 31, 2004, Award Total: $400,000 and REU-
CCR 0113361 for $6,000. Since we received the ITR award, we have been looking at various aspects of mobile ad hoc
networks (MANET), leading to numerous publications. We have reduced the disconnections of existing paths to
maximize the throughput [Agrawal1] while using reliable transmission scheme like TCP for multimedia applications.
In our work [Agrawal2], we propose Distributed Mobility-Aware Route Selection (DMARS) for improving
performance of existing routing protocols. The next generation wireless network will support a true convergence of
integrated services--voice, video, and data. We have introduced a novel priority handoff scheme based on channel
reservation for real-time service handoff requests [Agrawal3-Agrawal9]. The difficulty for analytical model lies in the
exponential back off scheme, the mobility and the absence of a centralized authority [Agrawal10- Agrawal18]. The use
of smart antennas has been explored in [Agrawal19-Agrawal22]. We studied various possible threats to routing
protocols [Agrawal23-Agrawal31] and put forth schemes to handle them. We have defined a reactive protocol TEEN
[Agrawal32] based on clustering of sensors to aggregate data and minimize data transfer requirements. A hybrid
scheme [Agrawal33-Agrawal35] has also been defined that could do an effective job of energy conservation as well as
quick transmission of events such that unnecessary data transmissions can be avoided. Work is also underway to define
a protocol that could possibly handle query processing using a directed diffusion model in sensor networks
[Agrawal36-Agrawal38]. In addition, we have looked at various issues associated with Bluetooth based systems
[Agrawal39- Agrawal49].
4.1.6. Multithreaded Execution of Object Oriented Programs- PI: Dharma P. Agrawal: NSF award No. CCR-0081696
“ITR: Opportunistic Parallel Computation,” Period: Sept. 1, 2000 - August 31, 2003, Award Total $67,063. This project
is not related and results published in [Agrawal50–Agrawal64].

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