Title: Modelling and evaluation of the 3G mobile networks with hot-spot WLANs

Authors: Shensheng Tang, Wei Li

Addresses: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA. ' Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA

Abstract: An analytical modelling and evaluation approach is developed for the integrated 3G/WLAN networks. The cell residence times of different types of users are modelled as a general distribution to adapt various mobility environments. The explicit expressions of channel occupancy times are determined by the Laplace transform approach. The horizontal and vertical handoff rates as well as some interesting performance measures are also derived and calculated by introducing an iterative algorithm. Both our analysis and our numerical results show that the performance of the 3G network is significantly increased when the integrated 3G/WLAN network is employed, especially when the WLANs are in the hot-spot areas. The method developed here is expected to be useful for the modelling and performance evaluation of other kind of networks, such as the 3G networks with the infrastructureless-mode WLANs or ad hoc networks.

Keywords: horizontal handoff; vertical handoff; 3G cellular networks; hot spot WLANs; wireless LANs; wireless networks; call admission control; CAC; channel occupancy time; traffic analysis; modelling; performance evaluation; mobile networks; integration; local area networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2007.016723

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, 2007 Vol.2 No.4, pp.303 - 313

Published online: 18 Jan 2008 *

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