Evaluation of Signaling Mechanisms to Incorporate Wireless LAN Hotspots into 3G !

G Mo"ile S#stems
$% Scot &ans"ottom' (rac# Mann' an) Nathaniel $% *avis' I+ ,ra)le# *epartment of Electrical an) -omputer Engineering +irginia .ol#technic Institute an) State /niversit# E0mail1 2rans"ottom' tmann' n)avis34vt%e)u A"stract Recent research supports the eventual convergence of wireless LAN (WLAN) and cellular systems in order to achieve the IMT !""" (#$) re%uirement for !M&ps indoor capacities' even more for ($ systems) The future trend is toward I* &ased signaling' however current cellular systems employ ++, signaling in the control plane) The WLAN access point can &e enhanced to either incorporate or supplant the transmission and pac-et data capa&ilities in the cellular networ-) .ur current research uses .*N/T0 to model these control plane communications) We present an enhanced WLAN access point that includes 11+, &ased channels on the wire line side for control signaling within a #$ system) This is the foundation to allow us to identify signaling mechanisms that leverage the capa&ilities of WLAN while supporting cellular service provisioning and accounta&ility re%uirements for current and future systems) Section I1 Intro)uction The origins of the wireless industry focused on providing voice communications to the outdoor' traveling user) Technological advances have increased the coverage and the %uality of that service) Mo&ile systems are still %uite limited in their a&ility to provide %uality coverage inside &uildings) The a&ility to provide %uality coverage in 2hotspots3 (indoor locations with high concentrations of potential customers' e)g)' office &uilding and airports) would increase the potential for mo&ile systems to compete directly with infrastructure &ased communications systems) The Third $eneration *artnership *ro4ect (#$**) is one of the primary standards &odies developing the standards for Third $eneration (#$) mo&ile cellular systems) Much of their wor- focuses on addressing the convergence of voice and data communications) WLAN technologies are currently capa&le of providing high capacity LAN coverage within a limited area' such as within a &uilding) This capacity can &oth support a high concentration of users and allow the potentially limited cellular capacity to &e reserved for voice traffic) 5or these reasons' the #$** group +A6 (+ervices and +ystem Aspects) has pu&lished a feasi&ility study and &egun development of proposed standards supporting the Interwor-ing of #$** systems with WLAN systems 7!8) The study identifies si9 scenarios with the potential to integrate the two systems) We present these scenarios in +ection II)

The main goal of this paper is to descri&e our approach for modeling the integrated #$ and WLAN networ-) .ur current model addresses the #$** proposed scenario :! supporting authentication' access control' and &illing functions for a client capa&le of using WLAN to gain high capacity networ- access) This simulation environment is to &e the foundation for future wor-s in the comparison and evaluation of mechanisms to support even tighter integration of #$ and WLAN systems) This paper is organi;ed as follows) In +ection II' we provide some insights into the <MT+ cellular mo&ile data networ-' WLAN protocol operation' and #$** standardi;ation efforts) In +ection III' we descri&e our simulation methodology) In +ection I=' we discuss our .*N/T0 models) +ection = will present our initial simulation results and discuss their significance) We will su&se%uently offer our conclusions and discuss future wor-) Section II1 5vervie6 Mo&ile communications systems continue to grow and evolve) The cellular telecommunications industry has &een one of the fastest growing industries of the past decade) +ome analysts &elieve that these systems have reached their potential for growth' while others &elieve that the incorporation of rich data services will provide continued opportunities) As significant effort is e9pended in search of the 2-iller app3 for data services' circuit switched voice services continue to &e the current and foreseea&le revenue producer for mo&ile communications service providers) It is also li-ely that the venture capital funding previously availa&le to these companies will &e much less in the foreseea&le future) Therefore' it is reasona&le to &elieve that a system capa&le of providing high capacity data services to su&scri&ers in areas of high concentration will help to promote further research into finding the 2-iller app3 for those services) It is even more desira&le that limited resources currently availa&le &e reserved to support voice services in order to allow the service provider to survive in the mar-etplace) 3G (UMTS) Mobile System International Mo&ile Telecommunications !""" (IMT !""") see-s to esta&lish a worldwide communications system that allows for universal personal telecommunications) The /uropean proposal for IMT !""" is <MT+) <MT+ is an evolutionary system &ased upon the currently fielded $+M ($lo&al +ystem for Mo&ile 1ommunications)) <MT+ pac-et

data services (*+) are &ased on the !)>$ $+M *ac-et Radio +ervice ($*R+) framewor-) 5igure 6 presents the pac-et domain components in the <MT+ system) The user e%uipment (</) consists of mo&ile terminal (MT)' terminal e%uipment (T/)' and +u&scri&er Identity Module (+IM) (also called <ser Identity Module (<IM))) The <MT+ Terrestrial Radio Access Networ- (<TRAN) is comprised of the Node?@ and the Radio Networ- 1ontroller (RN1)) The core networin the pac-et domain consists of two nodes' the serving $*R+ support node (+$+N) and the gateway $*R+ support node ($$+N)) /ach <TRAN associates with a specific +$+N) It is the +$+N that is responsi&le for providing authentication' access control and location management)
UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) Core Network (CN)

$MM' +M RR1 RL1 MA1 RR1 RL1 MA1 relay RANA* +11* +ignaling @earer AAL> L6 </ <u L6 <TRAN ATM Iu *+

$MM' +M RANA* +11* +ignaling @earer AAL> ATM L6 $n L6 relay $T* 1 <B*DI* L! $T* 1

<B*DI* L!

+$+N #$ +$+N

#$ $$+N

5igure !A <MT+ </ +$+N 1ontrol *lane In order to use the <MT+ networ-' a </ must first perform the $*R+ Attach procedure as shown in 5igure #) <pon initiali;ation' a </ will &e in the Betached state until successful completion of the $*R+ Attach procedure' the </ is authori;ed into the networ- and has esta&lished a *+ signaling channel with the +$+N) At this point' the </ is authenticated into the networ- and can re%uest pac-et data protocol (*B*) activation in order to &e allocated channels in the <MT+ networ- and su&se%uently pass data using the <MT+ *+ domain)
(ATTAC%)

User Equipment (UE)

"atewa# "SN (""SN) Node_B Radio Network Controller (RNC) Ser in! "SN (S"SN)

User Equipment (UE)

5igure 6A <MT+ +ystem /lements <MT+ employs wide&and code division multiple access (W1BMA) to support data rates up to ! M&ps &etween the </ and the <TRAN) <MT+ supports pac-et data communications over either shared access (&roadcast) channels or dedicated channels) The limiting factor in the networ- is the uplin- data rate &ecause </s are not fully synchroni;ed) /ach physical channel in <MT+ is called a transport channel) The following uplin- transport channels are defined in 7#8) *hysical Random Access 1hannel (*RA1C)A A +lotted Aloha contention &ased uplin- channel used for transmission of small amounts of data and control from </) *hysical 1ommon *ac-et 1hannel (*1*1C)A A contention &ased uplin- channel for data) Bedicated *hysical Bedicated 1hannel (B*B1C)A *hysical channel dedicated to </ and is used to transmit large amounts of data) The *RA1C and the *1*1C are &oth allocated at the RN1 level for use throughout the <TRAN) The B*B1C is the most controlla&le limited resource when mechanisms to increase availa&ility of <MT+ networ- services) Access 1ontrol in #$ systems is accomplished via the $*R+ mo&ility management (gmm) and session management processes) Authentication in <MT+ employs a signaling connection &etween the </ and the +$+N) There is no direct physical connection &etween these two nodes' therefore a logical signaling lin- is esta&lished to support the transaction) The control plane protocol stac- 7!8 is presented in 5igure !)

$ETAC%E$

($ETAC%)

C(NNECTE$

5igure #A *ac-et Mo&ility Management (*MM) +tates WLAN Systems Wireless Local Area Networ-s (WLANs) are &ecoming increasingly present in corporate and residential indoor environments) WLAN is not a single radio technology' &ut rather a family of technologies) WLANs provide high capacity connectivity to the wired infrastructure providing I* &ased services within an indoor area) WLAN was originally considered to &e a competitor to cellular mo&ile systems' &ut the industry has reali;ed that the two technologies can &e integrated to provide &oth enhanced service to the user and increased &usiness potential for the provider) WLAN networ-s are deployed in two &asic system architectures' infrastructure &ased and ad hoc) In the infrastructure mode several nodes' called stations' are connected to an access point (A*)) The stations and the A* that are within the same radio coverage form a &asic service set (@++)) +tations select an A* and associate with it) The A* connects the @++ to the wired infrastructure to form an infrastructure @++) In addition to infrastructure &ased networ-s' I/// E"!)66 allows the &uilding of ad hoc networ-s

($ETAC%)

)S Si!nalin! Connection Release

&$'E

&etween stations' forming an independent @++ comprised of a group of stations' operating on the same radio fre%uency) The I/// E"!)66 MA1 standard defines three &asic access mechanismsA the mandatory &asic method &ased on a version of 1+MAD1A (1arrier +ense Multiple Access with 1ollision Avoidance)' an optional method avoiding the hidden terminal pro&lem' and finally a contention free polling method for time &ounded service) The first two methods are implemented in the distri&uted coordination function (B15)' and the third method' called the point coordination function (*15)' is used in the infrastructure @++)

Ta&le 6A +cenarios for Interwor-ing #$** and WLAN

3GPP Standardization Efforts As previously stated' #$** standards continue to evolve) .ne of the #$** stated goals is to support data rates of up to !M&ps in the indoor environment 768) This re%uirement is stated for the #$** system' and is not &ased upon the integration of WLAN) The #$** +A6' TR !!)F#( 7!8' presents their current wor- on defining standards for the integration of #$ and WLAN systems) The most significant result of their current wor- is an initial definition of potential levels of Interwor-ing re%uirements for #$** and WLAN systems) Ta&le 6 presents the G scenarios e9actly as stated in 7!8) The scenarios range in Interwor-ing from two completely disparate systems connected only through offline &illing and support services and su&se%uently progress to a completely seamless integration of the two systems) There is very limited information presented &eyond the &asic ta9onomy for any of the scenarios with the e9ception of scenario :!) +cenario :! defines Interwor-ing to consist of sharing the #$** provided mechanisms for access control (authentication and authori;ation) and for the charging or &illing functionality) We eventually desire to simulate each of the scenarios in the system to identify cost and &enefits for each) This will allow us to compare the options and potentially identify the &est operating point for a set of parameters)
Scenarios* Scenario ,* Common Billin! and Ser ice and Customer operational Care Capa+ilities* Common +illin! Common customer care .")) s#stem +ased Access Control .")) +ased Access C/ar!in! Access to .")) s#stem )S +ased ser ices 4rom 5'AN Ser ice Continuit# Seamless Ser ice Continuit# Access to .")) s#stem CS +ased ser ices wit/ seamless mo+ilit# Scenario -* .")) s#stem +ased Access Control and C/ar!in! Scenario .* Scenario 0* Access to Ser ice .")) s#stem continuit# )S +ased ser ices Scenario 1* Seamless ser ices Scenario 2* Access to .")) s#stem CS +ased ser ices

Section III1 Simulation Metho)olog# .ur current wor- is focused on esta&lishing the foundation for future study of the interwor-ing of <MT+ and WLAN) Bue to the comple9ity of the <MT+ system' we determined that a networ- level simulation &est supports our foreseea&le re%uirements) @ecause one of the primary &enefits we see- is to ma-e <MT+ resources availa&le &y transferring traffic to the WLAN' we have derived our current networ- level ta9onomy directly from the .*N/T0 <MT+ scenario 2<MT+A loaded cell3) This scenario models the #$D$*R+ system of a single <MT+ cell and supporting components under load) .ur modified system configuration (5igure () includes the original scenario to which we have added our <MT+ aware WLAN?A* coe9isting in cell serviced &y NodeB_DC_1E) 1onceptually' this could &e an airport' or office &uilding or other indoor area with high concentration of people) .ur current configuration includes an ATM &ased signaling channel added to the WLAN?A* that has &een connected to the core networ-' CN_DC_1) This signaling channel is more specifically providing communications for the signaling messaging with the +$+N responsi&le for controlling this cell) We have replaced the original </ node models with our own' umts_wlan_wkstn_adv) The </ is intended to have an operating mode that is set to support our various simulations) All other <MT+ elements within the <TRAN and the core networ- are unchanged from the original .*N/T0 simulation' as are the servers that are representative of the Internet at large) Bue to addressing issues &ased upon the </ node now having two radio I* interfaces' we modified the routing throughout the networ- and used a purely static routing scheme) This will &e discussed in more detail in the ne9t section)

3 3

3 3 3 3

3 3 3 3 3

3 3 3 3 3 3

3 3 3 3 3 3 3

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

5igure (A Networ- Level <MT+?WLAN Model At startup' the networ- initiali;es' and the client stations' <MT+?</ and WLAN?</' are delayed for > minutes to

allow for the esta&lishment and initiali;ation of the ATM circuits) The </s are configured to wa-e &ased on a uniform distri&ution throughout the ne9t second) <pon wa-ing' the devices perform the gmm_attach procedure in order to authenticate with the <MT+ networ-) Traffic models in the networ- are &ased upon the original <MT+ model configuration and employ the application and profile configuration modules) /ach of the >> clients' regardless of operating mode (<MT+?</' <MT+?WLAN?</' WLAN?</)' is configured to use the same wireless profile' wireless_client) The traffic pattern provides a representative mi9 of client server &ased transactions including a mi9 of /mail' We& @rowsing (CTT*6)6)' and 5T* traffic) The traffic intensity in all cases is configured &ased on the <MT+ model) Additional simulation could &e conducted to determine the limits of traffic the WLAN can support' &ut our focus was on shifting load from the <MT+ system to the WLAN and we encountered issues in the model implementation that prohi&ited us from e9ploring this further at this time) Section I+1 5.NE(9

and route umts_gmm control messages' and to maintain additional state information in order to support authentication and access control within the WLAN @++) UMTS Existin Models The .*N/T0 <MT+ model set provides a networ- system level model &ased upon the pac-et domain of the #$** #$ $*R+ specification) The voice' circuit switched' domain is not directly incorporated in this model set) As we are focused on the incorporation of the WLAN to provide data services' this suits our situation nicely) The <MT+ radio &andwidth is divided into channels' and those channels are allocated to support either voice or data) We propose that in hotspots where there is a high indoor concentration of users' those channels could &ecome a ma4or limiting factor in the a&ility of the system to meet demand) If the data userHs &andwidth is serviced on the WLAN system' more channels will &e availa&le to the voice users with fewer Node?@s re%uired) <MT+ Authentication is handled in the $*R+ Mo&ility Management ($MM) su&layer protocol) +ession Management (+M) provides for access control through the provisioning and reservation of resources within the system) @oth of these protocols primary involve communication &etween the </ and the 1N' specifically the +$+N of the 1N) The .*N/T0 model set defines the functionality for &oth of these protocols within the umts_gmm process model)

Simulation Mo)els .*N/T0 was chosen as the simulation environment &ecause its fle9i&ility allows us to evaluate the effects of a given scenario with respect to the control plane' the data plane' protocol interactions and the overall system performance with considera&le reuse) We have leveraged the e9isting .*N/T0 model li&raries) We are currently using the <MT+ speciali;ed model set as the representative #$ cellular system foundations 7(8) The Wireless LAN models are employed using the parameters for E"!)66&' since it is currently the most well understood and widely deployed WLAN system) .ur current implementation addresses the second scenario as defined in 7!8) 5or this scenario' we attempt to create a </ capa&le of communicating with either the traditional <MT+ networ-' or with a #$ aware WLAN networ-) We ma-e the WLAN networ- #$ aware &y enhancing the model to properly accept

5igure >A *MM in <MT+ $MM *rocess (umts?gmm) The gmm process (5igure >) ma-es the state transition from DETACHED to C NNECT upon successful authentication into the <MT+ networ-) The process involves a three way handsha-e &etween the </ and the +$+N) The +$+N will %uery the authentication center (Au1)' and update the visitor location register (=LR) during the authentication process) In our current model' the core networ- internal operation is not simulated) This supports our current re%uirements' &ut depending on the system under test' it may &e necessary to more e9plicitly model the core networ- internals)

WLAN Existin Models En#an$ed WLAN A$$ess Point (AP) Model

5igure GA Wireless LAN Node Model The Wireless LAN models in .*N/T0 provide a protocol level implementation of the WLAN specification 7>8) The WLAN specification' specifically I///E"!)66& in our case' provides for specification of the medium access control (MA1) and the physical (*CI) layers (5igure G)) The .*N/T0 E"!)66 model provides a very complete representation of the MA1 layer protocol' &ut much of the specifics of the *CI are a&stracted) The model provides tuna&le attri&utes' defined in the model wlan_mac' &ased on *CI level impacts on the MA1 protocols) 5or our study' this is advantageous) We see- to consider MA1 and higher layer protocol interactions while o&serving the effects of various potential *CI configurations) .ne limitation of the model that did affect our current implementation is the glo&al data structures that are assumed to &e static throughout the duration of the simulation) <pon simulation initiali;ation' the wlan_mac_sv_init () function creates a glo&al station address and polling list for each @++) These lists are assumed to &e static) This design decision in the model impacted our implementation design decisions) .ur WLAN capa&le </ model uses the wireless LAN MA1 (and the *CI) from the wlan_wkstn_adv node model with the following attri&ute values settings (Ta&le !)) Attrib!te *hysical 1haracteristics Bata Rate Access *oint 5unctionality *1 5unctionality Application +upported *rofiles "al!e Birect +e%uence 66 M&ps Bisa&led /na&led wireless?client

5igure ,A WLAN J <MT+ A* Node Model The <MT+ aware WLAN A* model () provides connectivity to the core networ- (1N) via the wlan_umts_access_cntrl process) This process maintains the additional state re%uired for the WLAN to support access control (authentication and authori;ation) in the system) This additional information is derived from the various gmm?attach?K messages passing over its <MT+ signaling channel) The additional state information data structure (5igure E) provides the A* with the a&ility to loo- at a pac-et and &ased on WLAN MA1 address either support access' or to drop the pac-et thus denying access) .ne improvement to the system would &e to incorporate the actual IM+I into the WLAN frame in order to remove a level of indirection) Another possi&le approach would &e to implicitly code the IM+I value into the MA1 address of the enhanced </ device) (!"#!% "AC_Address% "_#tate) 5igure EA WLAN #$** Access 1ontrol Bata +tructure <pon receipt of a gmm_attach_re$uest message from the </' the WLAN?A* will add a node to the Access?1ontrol data structure with the value "_#tate L "_%END!N&) The ne9t step in the process should &e a gmm_attach_acce't message from the +$+N directed to the </) This message also contains the IM+I) The wlan_umts_access_cntrl monitor will change the "_#tate for the appropriate </ from "_%END!N& to "_C NNECTED) We currently assume the </ is authori;ed access at that point and will allow its traffic to traverse the networ- until a corresponding gmm_detach_re$uest is seen) We did not wait for the </ to complete the handsha-e process with the gmm_attach_com'lete' &ut this would &e a simple modification if it were determined to &e a more accurate or desira&le approach)

Ta&le !A WLAN Attri&ute +ettings To focus on interconnecting the LAN to a larger networ-' we only consider operation in infrastructure mode) In this case' all WLAN traffic from client stations is directed to the Access *oint' controlling station' which routes to other stations within the @++ or to e9ternal networ-s) We additionally employ the system in *15 mode to allow the WLAN A* to control access to the medium) This feature will &e leveraged in order to provide access control in our integrated system) 5inally' the client A* functionality is disa&led) We employ a modified wlan_ethernet_router_adv node model to provide I* &ased routing from WLAN to e9ternal networ- and to support re%uired A* functionality

The signaling channel provides the mechanisms re%uired to support reporting of &illing information from the A* to the 1N) This has not &een modeled directly &ecause there is no single specified &illing mechanism) The provider can elect to record and report &illing information &ased upon connect time' total data consumption' pea- data consumption' or many possi&le com&inations or derivations therein) The A* will &e involved in every pac-et transmission to or from the </' and therefore can easily &e configured to support monitoring' recording and reporting of such &illing information) .ur ne9t phase will &e to modify the A* signaling mechanisms to communicate with the +$+N via the ar&itrary I* connection) This will allow us to consider in &and rather than out of &and signaling mechanisms in order to consider the possi&ility of avoiding the overhead associated with maintaining the e9plicit signaling channel to the <MT+ core networ-) This was not implemented in this model &ecause of the num&er of changes re%uired in the +$+N process model to accept signaling traffic from a port also associated with the e9ternal Internet traffic) En#an$ed User E&!i'ment (UE) Model The </ model assumes the availa&ility of software radio systems or some compara&le means of simply switching &etween two radio stac-s &ased on a set of conditions monitored at the </) We originally perceived that this model would &e one of the simpler to implement) 1onceptually' our model of the </ augments the <MT+ model &y adding the WLAN protocol stac- to the wor-station model while providing additional control logic in the la(er1_mgr process module to configure the desired operating mode' and in each of the arp level processes (A)%* and gmm)) The node model (5igure F) for our WLAN capa&le </ (wlan_umts_wkstn_adv) provides the I* layer with access to &oth the <MT+ channel via the gmm' and to the WLAN via the ar' protocol) 5igure FA <MT+ wDWLAN Mo&ile +tation The la(er1_mgr is modified to search the glo&al node models for a WLAN?A*' and to compute current distance to the WLAN?A*) If the </ is within the WLAN defined propagation distance of #"" meters) It will then %uery the @oolean node attri&ute use_wlan to determine whether to use' if distance M #""m' or to ignore in all cases and use <MT+ communications) The la(er1_mgr will then %uery the @oolean use_wlan_access to determine which communications stac- to use for access signaling messages) The gmm protocol will configure its pac-et routing to either the WLAN or <MT+ access mechanisms &ased on the value of the @oolean varia&le use_wlan_access) The <MT+ stacis unmodified from the RL1?MA1 layer down) The gmm currently uses -ernel process o'_'acket_deliver() to route pac-ets to the wireless_lan_mac for transmission) The gmm module will generate and route signaling messages to the appropriate radio stac-' and the A)%* process will forward those messages to +$+N or gmm &ased upon arrival port and message type (mt)) .ur original perception was incorrect) This model was e9tremely challenging to implement) The e9istence of two' especially two different' radio I* ports in a single node increased comple9ity significantly) We have finally &een a&le to create the node model with &oth ports &eing properly recogni;ed within the system) We originally started with the umts?w-stn?adv client model and attempted to add the wlan radio stac-) This approach is not supported' and is documented in &oth the documentation and the +upport fre%uently as-ed %uestions (5AN)) Buring attempts to

simulate with this model' the simulation log stated that there was a mismatch &etween the num&er of rows in the I* Address Information Ta&le and the num&er I* interfaces) .nce we determined that the num&er of I* interfaces was set in the initial declaration of the node and we located 5AN IB #G( 7E8' we attempted to follow the prescri&ed process without success) In addition to limited understanding of modeler processes' the e9isting models for &oth <MT+ </ and for WLAN were written assuming that e9actly one I* interface would e9ist in the client node) We have modified the <MT+ model to e9plicitly use the second I* interface' if it e9ists' in order to overcome this issue) @eyond successful creation and initiali;ation of two radio I* ports' we are still una&le to overcome the I* routing issues presented &y this dual radio I* implementation) The &asic issue is that all radio I* nodes within a single .*N/T su&net will &e assigned a common I* networ- address) The conflicting re%uirement is that for a multi homed node' each I* interface must &e assigned a different networ- address in order to allow the node to properly route pac-ets) We have attempted to manually assign every address in the networ- and to employ purely static routing ta&les' &ut have &een una&le to do so) +omewhere in our configuration' at least one node continues to trigger auto addressing and this does not allow us to move further) .ur current wor- is focused on overcoming this limitation) 5igure 6"A <MT+ $*R+ Attach Belay As the primary motivation for integrating the two systems is to free limited resources while providing service' we e9amine the num&er of dedicated channels currently reserved in the Node?@) This is a finite resource in the system) @ased upon the %uality of service re%uirements for a data session' one or more B1C channels can &e allocated to support the user session) It can &e o&served (5igure 66) that reducing the num&er of contenders for service from >> to > has reduced the average num&er of B1C channels in use &y appro9imately G"O) It is possi&le to reallocate these unused B1C channels to voice services or to additional pac-et data services) We therefore assert that these results could allow the provider to generate additional revenue)

Section +1 Simulation &esults As previously stated' there are still issues limiting our a&ility to fully e9ercise our simulation) We are currently una&le to properly configure our </ nodes to pass I* traffic &ased on the issues presented) We have &een a&le to conduct some initial measurements &ased on our limited models) We have conducted our testing using >> </ nodes within the system parameters previously presented) .ur &aseline system consists of >> <MT+ </ nodes operating in our cell) >" of these devices are operating within #""m of the WLAN?A*' and the other five are not within that distance) We toggle the value of use_wlan &etween %C_+A,#E and %C_T)-E and the compare the results) .ur first results (5igure 6") simply demonstrate that the <MT+ $*R+ Attach *rocess functions properly under &oth conditions) Cere' the collected statistics are identical) This demonstrates that the Attach process is functioning) The results are identical due to the reproduci&ility offered in the simulation environment)

5igure 66A Active B1C 1hannels .ne might %uestion why the reduction was only G"O' and the results in 5igure 6! offer that insight) There were " %ueued re%uests for service in the case of service augmented &y WLAN' while the heavily loaded system using strictly <MT+ appears to &e saturated and demonstrating potential for lost revenues or limited service availa&ility)

<

We are considering a future contri&ution to discuss that single issue) &eferences

768 2<TRAN .verall Bescription'3 #rd $eneration *artnership *ro4ect Technical +pecification !>)("6 (Release 6FFF)) 7!8 25eas&ility study on #$** system to Wireless Local Area Networ- (WLAN) interwor-ing'3 (Release G)' version 6)")"' #rd $eneration *artnership *ro4ect Technical +pecification' 5e&ruary !""!)

5igure 6!A Nueued Re%uests (Belayed or Benied +ervice)

7#8 +tephanie Bemers' 2<MT+ Model .verview and *erformance'3 OPNETWORK 2001' August !""6) 7(8 2<MT+ Model Bescription'3 .*N/T0 Technologies Q!""!' 5e&ruary 66' !""!) 7>8 2Wireless LAN Model Bescription'3 .*N/T0 Technologies Q!""!' 5e&ruary 66' !""!) 7G8 T)+) Rappaport' A) Annamalai' R)M) @uehrer' W)C) Tranter' 2Wireless communicationsA past events and a future perspective'3 I/// 1ommunications Maga;ine ' =ol)("' Iss)>' May !""!' pp)6(E 6G6' httpADDfp)ieee9plore)ieee)orgDiel>D#>D!6,!(D"6""GFE( )pdfRisNum&erL!6,!(JprodLSNLJarnum&erL"6""GFE( 7,8 *rodip 1haudhurry' Werner Mohr' and +ei;o .noe' 2The #$** proposal for IMT !"""'3 IEEE Communications Magazine' vol) #,' no) 6!' pp) ,! E6' Becem&er 6FFF) 7E8 25ANs' 5AN IB #G(3 .*N/T0 Technologies Q!""!' httpADDcorporate,)opent)comD(B)acgiT5AN?Bisplay.neNR NuestionIBL#G()

Section +I1 -onclusions an) =uture Wor> Wireless LAN is a useful enhancement to mo&ile wireless systems' rather than a competitor) WLAN addresses the indoor capacity limitations of mo&ile wireless) Incorporation of WLAN capa&ilities to support indoor' high concentration re%uirements allows <MT+ and su&se%uent systems to meet and possi&ly e9ceed their re%uirement for !M&ps data service rate) This approach also positions those systems for eventual transition to an entirely I* &ased service) As voice is still the current 2-iller app3 and appears to &e for the foreseea&le future' this approach allows the provider to provide enhanced data services today and encourage development of services for those capa&ilities while also increasing voice capacityP the current revenue producing service) The simple integration of authentication' access control and &illing provides desira&le and measura&le enhancements to mo&ile wireless systems) As the #$** identified 7!8' there is considera&le room for further integration of WLAN and #$D($ wireless systems) WLAN provides a high capacity' indoor solution and #$D($ systems provide mo&ility' range and systems management capa&ilities) The integration of the two systems provides for significant potential &enefits once the technical issues are defined' understood and addressed) This .*N/T0 simulation environment provides a platform for the continuation of wor- in that domain) .ur future research will see- to enhance the current simulation to support mo&ility throughout the WLAN e9tended service set and eventually to support service continuity from #$ to or from WLAN session) We additionally desire to simulate relevant protocols that emerge for this system and to assess their affects within the system framewor-) We specifically intend to continue wor- on the multi homed radio I* system in order to understand the simulation issues)