A simple approach for inter-segment handover implementation

摘要

The European Union INSURED project was aimed at demonstrating important Satellite UMTS (S-UMTS) facilities such as inter-segment handover utilizing the generally applicable so-called IWF (InterWorking Functions) approach. The INSURED demonstrator architecture consists of the standard GSM network and the standard Motorola Iridium satellite system interfaced by means of two appropriate IWFs (one on the terminal side and the other one on the network side) just developed ad hoc for the INSURED project. In particular, this paper deals with the inter-segment handover protocols used in the demonstration and shows some results of the inter-segment handover trial. The main importance of these efforts lies in the fact that the proposed approach can be reused for realizing the interworking between heterogeneous networks (i.e., it is not specific to the GSM-Iridium case).