Interoperability of Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular networks

The widespread deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots and wide area cellular networks opens up the exciting possibility of interoperability between these types of networks. Interoperability allows a mobile device to dynamically use the multiple net-work interfaces available to it so as to maximize user satisfaction and system performance. In this paper, we define three basic user profiles for the network users and demonstrate through simulation studies that dynamic switching on the basis of the user profiles of the mobile devices leads to higher network performance and increased user satisfaction. Careful design of pricing, billing and revenue sharing schemes is necessary to ensure the commercial viability of the multiple service providers involved in an inter-operable network setting. Different pricing and revenue sharing schemes are introduced and analyzed using simulation studies. We also demonstrate how load balancing can improve network performance in an inter-operable network.