Multi-Radio Access Selection in Ambient Networks: A Comprehensive Overview

1. Access Selection and Cooperation in Ambient Networks(from Cooperative Networking) Ramón Agüero (Ed. Wiley)

2. Cooperation & Heterogeneity • Growing presence of heterogeneous networks • Radio technology • Operators • Mobility solutions • Etc • Need solutions to deal with it (without direct user involvement)

3. Ambient Networks • High level architecture

4. Ambient Networks • Ambient Control Space (ACS): set of dynamic & flexible Functional Entities • Abstraction Layer • Interfaces • Ambient Network Interface (ANI): between ANs • Ambient Resource Interface (ARI): with subjacent technologies • Ambient Service Interface (ASI): with services

5. Multi-Radio Access • MRA Architecture

6. Multi-Radio Access • Part of ACS dealing with access selection • Two main entities • Generic Link Layer (GLL) • Multi-Radio Resource Management (MRRM)

7. Generic Link Layer • It abstracts information about the available resources • Enables fair comparison between various technologies • Maps link quality over a generic metric • Load and available capacity are also harmonized • Based on GLL_Control and GLL_Abstraction Layer

8. Generic Link Layer • Abstraction at the GLL

9. Multi-Radio Resource Management • Main control entity of MRA • Selects the most appropriate access alternative • It uses the GLL services • Monitors the available networks • Collects information about their current status • MRRM executes access selection algorithms

10. Other Functional Entities • Triggering • Collects events which might lead to a new access selection • Send them to the interested parties • Handover and Locator Management • It is charge of executing mobility at an IP level • Path Selection • It gathers information from the network (e2e perspective)

11. MRA Functions • Based on a number of elements

12. MRA Functions • Detected Set (DS) • Access elements detected by a terminal • Validated Set (VS) • Against general policies (e.g. operator) • Candidate Set (CS) • Elements which can cope with requirements • Active Set (AS) • Elements assigned to the current flow

13. MRA Functions • Announcement and discovery • Mechanisms to announce the presence of networks • Beacon packets with “complementary” information elements • Proactive information given by the network with near-by alternatives • Role of triggering (to inform about a new access)

14. MRA Functions • Connection establishment • The MRRM gets a request from a service via the ASI • The MRRM (together with Path Selection) establishes the CS and then the AS • Finally the HOLM is instantiated to cope with locator assignment • GLL is configured to monitor current AS

15. Handover • Connection establishment procedure after various events • Decrease of link quality • Load increase • Change on service requirements • User preferences • Etc

16. Related Work • Various architectures similar to MRRM/GLL • CRRM, JRRM, CARM • Focused on particular technologies: mostly 3G and WLAN • Cooperation/competition between operators

17. Outlook • The MRA is flexible enough to integrate new functionalities • Two of the most promising ones are… • Cognitive capacity • Mesh extensions

18. Outlook: cognition • Increase need of distributed approaches to distribute available resources (i.e. cooperation) • Cognition should spam across the whole protocol stack • Need to go beyond the traditional cognitive radio realm • The MRA provides an appropriate framework to foster this

19. Outlook: mesh extensions • Recent interest on mesh (multi-hop) extensions • Coverage extension • Performance enhancements • Non-conventional networks: e.g. community, user-provided • Use of Network Coding to boost performance (e.g. multicast) • Challenge to include this information on the abstraction mechanisms of the GLL

20. Conclusions • Multi-Radio Architecture of Ambient Networks • Generic Link Layer (GLL): abstraction of subjacent networks • Multi-Radio Resource Management (MRRM): intelligence, access selection algorithms • Flexibility to include… • Cognitive capacities • Mesh extensions