Next Generation Network Architecture for Integration of Wireless Access Networks

Motivation for the development of Next Generation Networks (NGN) concept is not only the success of mobile technology and growing popularity of IP-based multimedia services but also required cost savings, limited address space and fueling competition and collaboration. This paper proposes a solution for seamless interworking between network domains for the NGN concept. More specifically, seamless interworking is described for WLAN, WiMax and UMTS/LTE networks. The proposed architecture is an all-IP design. We introduce a heartbeat mechanism between WLAN, WiMax and UMTS/LTE using the IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) Information Service, which enables low handover latency by reducing the target network detection time.