Cooperative heterogeneous network interworking between WiMAX and WiFi

Abstract

As more wireless devices are being connected to the Internet, data traffic is growing and expected to increase beyond wireless network's capacity in near future. Considering radio spectrum is limited, the efficient way to support increasing data traffic in cellular networks such as mobile WiMAX, operating in license band, is using WiFi network operating in license exempt band. By employing WiFi, mobile WiMAX network can offload some traffic to WiFi networks. In terms of admission control and Quality of Service (QoS) control, WiFi employs simple strategy as compared with cellular network. However, when WiFi is used for traffic offloading of cellular networks, cellular users' QoS should be continuously guaranteed in the WiFi networks. Therefore, clear interworking scenarios and control procedures between WiFi and WiMAX should be defined. In this paper, we present two most prospective collaborative heterogeneous interworking scenarios between WiFi and WiMAX, and collaborative heterogeneous architecture and protocols are proposed. Efficient and easy handover scheme in the overlay collaborative heterogeneous network interworking is also proposed and its benefits are verified with simulations. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.