Network Cooperation: Easier Said Than Done

Even if you travel no further than the corner coffee house with its free WiFi access, you're familiar with the headaches of one network talking with another. And if you travel around the world and need network access, well...don't forget the aspirin. In short, network cooperation is easier said than done.

Making network cooperation a reality is the goal of the Ambient Networks project, which is creating network solutions for mobile and wireless systems beyond 3G. Ultimately Ambient Networks seeks to avoid patchwork of extensions to existing architectures, instead providing access to any network, including mobile personal networks, through instant establishment of inter-network agreements. In other words, the project is planning a wireless network solution built around an architecture for self-configuring network components that reduces deployment and operational costs and a complete protocol suite for network composition evolved from IPv6.

To make this happen, the Ambient Networks project is addressing a number of technical objectives, including:

• New algorithms for efficient management of radio resources across different radio technologies and multiple domains to provide efficient and low-cost access, irrespective of administrative boundaries,
• Design of an innovative link layer solution for easy adaptation and incorporation of existing and new radio interfaces,
• A protocol suite for network composition ensuring connectivity, resource management, security, manageability, conflict resolution, and content handling,
• Support for dynamic agreements that provide any subscriber with access to any network in any place including an end-to-end QoS concept,
• Advanced multi-domain mobility management for users and user groups over a multitude of heterogeneous, wireless access networks, including new forms of wireless access networks such as personal area networks or vehicular networks,
• Efficient support for multimedia delivery by developing cross-domain media flow routing and transport functionalities, balancing QoS by considering different access technologies, networks, end-device capabilities, and the QoS requirements of different media flows,
• Context-aware networks to improve efficiency and enable new applications,
• Common, scalable and secure interfaces between network domains,
• Innovative self-management not only for new network nodes but also complete newly composed networks.

As a proof-of-concept, the project has developed Smart Multimedia Routing and Transport(SMART) technology which provides novel types of customized routing schemes for multimedia services that can vary and be dynamically chosen to best suit the multimedia content and service characteristics. The SMART prototype will next be integrated into the final prototype.

"The comprehensive prototype will include multi-access technologies that will give the user or networks the choice of using the appropriate radio technology automatically, such as switching between different flavors of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, Code Division Multiple Access, and Wireless LAN, Bluetooth or a forthcoming 4G radio, " says project coordinator Henrik Abramowicz at Ericsson AB.

"The advantages of Ambient Networks technologies are that users will have more choices and more simplified access, " he adds. "Users will be able to instantly connect to a network without a commercial contract. It’s like going to a shop where you don't need a prior agreement to become a customer. We have begun validation of the different components of the overall project and are starting to implement the respective technologies into a comprehensive prototype showing a complete set of functions."

Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:52 AM  Permalink