End to end QoS considerations for UMTS

The advent of 3G wide area cellular systems opens up the possibility of seamless roaming for IP based applications between wired/wireless LAN environments and wide area cellular coverage areas. Mechanisms to offer differentiated QoS to the Internet are currently being developed and deployed. Wide area cellular access to the Internet will need such mechanisms to offer users a seamless experience independent of access technology. This paper addresses some of the issues with the currently evolving UMTS wide area cellular standards that are being considered to offer this seamless coverage.