A New Architecture for Performance-based Policy Management in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

摘要

The growth in the popularity of Internet services, increasing demands of mobile users together with a wide range of access technologies and mobile-networked devices, demands integration and inter-working of these heterogeneous access networks. Sometimes referred to as 4th generation (4G) networks, the overall objective is to provide a managed Always Best Connected (ABC) service over underlying heterogonous wireless and mobile platforms while maintaining negotiated security and Quality of Service (QoS) in an open and non-proprietary environment.rnThis paper proposes a new model and its architecture which is based upon Policy-based Management (PBM) and provides a framework for the centralised management of networks based on business-level policies. However, it extends the basic PBM ideas to provide a "layered approach" which facilitates the negotiation of management services over interconnected heterogonous mobile platforms thus achieving an always best connected scenario. Finally this paper describes a proof-of-concept testbed which demonstrates the implementation of this model in practice.