Resource Management in the Next-Generation Integrated WLAN / 3G Cellular Networks

The next-generation (4G) wireless communication systems focus on the seamless integration of various existing wireless communication networks, such as integrating the third-generation (3G) cellular networks and wireless local area network (WLAN). Resource management (RM) is one of the essential techniques to improve both overall resource utilization and quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning. This paper proposed a novel joint resource management scheme with QoS provisioning. A joint call admission policy is derived to support heterogeneous network architecture, service types, user mobility characteristics, and QoS levels. To relieve traffic congestion, an optimal channel searching and replacement algorithm (oCSR) and passive handoff techniques are further developed to balance total system traffic between WLAN and 3G cellular network as well as to reduce average system QoS cost, such as weighted blocking probability. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that this scheme outperforms both traditional disjoint RM and joint RM without optimization.