Achieving a Seamless Mobility in the 3G and WLAN Networks Integration when the WLAN AP is Tightly Coupled to the SGSN of the 3G Network

George Chukwudi Nganya; Gani Martins Joseph; Ngozi Silas Echegini; E. Linus Nwankwo

The increase in demand for real-time applications such as video and audio streams data transfer has resulted in the need to find a means of managing the increasing numbers of users in the mobile wireless system without affecting the quality of service (QoS) requirements. In their work, A. K. Salkintzis, C. Fors, and R. Pazhyannur, stated that one of the approaches to meeting the high user demands is to interwork two different but complementary networks, the Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS) which has a high mobility but low-data rate circuit-switched and packet-switched services, and the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) which has a high-data rate circuit-switched service but limited mobility coverage confined to a smaller area called the hot-spot [1]. The idea is to interwork the two networks such that seamless mobility could be achieved. In this paper, the tight coupling of the WLAN at the SGSN of the UMTS for the possibility of achieving a seamless mobility is examined. The performance of this integration approach is evaluated using this QoS parameters, namely buffer overflow, Ethernet delay, throughput and Ethernet load. A simulation of this integration approach using an OPNET Modeler 14.0 is performed and the simulation results analyzed. We performed a simulation of the WLAN AP tightly coupled to the SGSN node of the UMTS network. Also performed in this research are simulations of different scenarios of the tight coupling approach at the SGSN by varying the number of users in the integrated UMTS and WLAN network to show the effect the number of users connected to both networks has towards achieving seamless mobility in the interworked network. From our study review and the simulation results of this interworking approach, we propose that coupling the WLAN AP and the UMTS network at the SGSN of the UMTS, and using a suitable mobility protocol, has the possibility of providing a seamless mobility between these complementary networks.

Select Volume / Issues:

• Volume 7,Issue 1, Jan. 2016

Year:

2016

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

3G; UMTS; WLAN; QoS; SGSN; GGSN; RNC; SIP; MIPv6

Journal:

IJECCE

Volume:

7

Number:

1

Pages:

1-7

Month:

January

ISSN:

2249-071X