Wireless technologies convergence: results and experience

Abstract

The wireless network evolution, delineated during the last years, has urged the necessity to extend the up-to-now static business environment to a mobile and wireless one. However, the current and forthcoming wireless technologies are characterized by different attributes regarding the coverage area, offered bandwidth and delay. The transparent conjunction of various wireless technologies into a single mobile terminal can further boost the wireless explosion. This paper presents the architectural approach and the results concerning the continuous connectivity and seamless switching between two complementary wireless networks, one 802.11-compliant in the short area and a CSM in the wide area. The described experiments were performed on an open, IP-based wireless architecture that can be easily extended to accommodate future wireless networks.