Multi-mode Access System with Anchor Layer 2/3 Protocol for Beyond 3G Wireless Networks

In this paper, we introduce a new multi-mode Beyond 3
^rd
Generation (B3G) access system concept based on heterogeneous physical layer modes or configurations, with a common (or anchor) layer 2 and 3 protocols stack. Such a system can support a wide variety of physical layer access techniques, e.g. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Multi-Carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) etc, with different configurations which are optimized for different deployment scenarios and performance targets, while anchored by a common layer 2 and 3 protocols. Seamless inter-system handoff is enabled by the common layer 2/3 protocols, while dynamic radio resource/load/spectrum management can be performed across the different physical layer modes to achieve optimum spectrum efficiency and Quality of Service (QoS) support. The overall system concept of the multimode access system is first presented, followed by a detailed account of the anchor layer 2/3 protocol design.