A hierarchical radio resource management framework for integrating WLANs in cellular networking environments

Over the last few years wireless local area networking (WLAN) has become a very important technology that offers high-speed communication services to mobile users in indoor environments. WLAN technology offers some very attractive characteristics such as high data rates, increased QoS capabilities, and low installation costs which has made many professionals claim that it will be the main opponent of IMT-2000, despite the enormous effort needed for the specification and implementation of 3G systems. However, WLANs also present many important constraints related mainly to their restricted coverage capabilities. On the other hand, 3G systems are deployed gradually and carefully since their business prospects have not been validated yet and it is expected that 2G and 2G+ cellular systems will continue to play an important role for at least five more years. Thus, today's wireless networking environment is in fact a conglomeration of all these technologies for which there is a strong need for cooperation. In this article we describe a heterogeneous wireless networking environment together with its features and user requirements. We explain the importance of the existence of WLANs and describe a framework and system architecture that supports seamless integration of WLAN in heterogeneous cellular networking environments, focusing on support for efficient resource provision and management.