Providing Quality of Service in Fourth Generation Composite Radio Networks

Abstract:
One of the promises of the Fourth Generation wireless systems is the collaboration between various radio access networks providing a broad range of services to the users anywhere, anytime. The development effort toward the integration of these technologies that will form Fourth Generation systems is called “Beyond 3G Systems” or the composite radio concept. In a multiaccess radio environment provisioning of the required capacity and quality of service for the users’ traffic flows in a cost-effective way is a challenging task. The users should be able to select among various radio access technologies that can individually or collectively satisfy the users’ capacity and quality of service requirements. We present a novel protocol that allows users to select the most appropriate radio access technologies for the requested services offered by composite networks. Our selection protocol can discover multiple, least cost paths that can individually or collectively provide the required capacity and quality of service between end users and services.