A survey of converging solutions for heterogeneous mobile networks

In 5G systems, the current machine-tomachine communications using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth provide a good opportunity to dramatically increase overall performance. Converged mobile networks can provide M2M communications with significant performance improvements by sharing unlicensed spectrum bands in cellular networks, such as Long Term Evolution-Advanced, by using cognitive radio technology. Thus, the converged mobile network will become one of the most popular future research topics because mobile multimedia content services have been generally accepted among mobile device users. In this article, we provide an overview of converged mobile networks, investigating different types of converged mobile networks, different types of convergence, and the current problems and solutions. This survey article also proposes potential research topics in converged mobile networks.