Multi-access Management in Heterogeneous Networks

Communication networks and mobile devices integrate an increasing number of access technologies. At the same time, new business roles emerge, which lead to new cooperation schemes between access providers providing different types of access connectivity. As a result, a variety of access technologies will be available for users at the same time. In this article we present an architecture and a framework capable of integrating different access systems into a multi-access system and selecting the best suited access for users. A utility-based approach is proposed for the evaluation of different access allocation choices, which is based on user and network policies, the performance of access bearers, and the availability of access resources. We present a general multi-access management framework, which integrates the different multi-access related functions: access detection, access evaluation and access selection, which can then lead to an access handover.