Architectural aspects of automated network selection in heterogeneous wireless systems

Next-generation heterogeneous wireless systems using an all-IP transport allow converged services such as those based on IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to be delivered over a variety of access technologies. These services however require underlying access technologies to support certain capabilities like Quality of Service. For devices supporting multiple access technologies this results in a complex problem of selection of an optimal service delivery access network. This paper addresses the architectural aspects of the problem by enhancing the roles of policy related components defined in cellular standards and by combining them with novel network selection components to enable automated network selection.