Signaling Analysis for Multi-Radio Management

Increasing bandwidth demand from mobile Internet applications and the existence of 2G, 3G and soon 4G equipment in operators´ networks forces them to implement an efficient resource management over all available radio access technologies. While such a multi-radio management will certainly improve resource utilization and allows reducing local hot spots, it comes at the cost of additional signaling load. In this work, we present an analysis of the signaling requirements of a multi-radio management in the fixed part of an operator´s network. The signaling load for multi-radio access selection in different system architectures and for different signaling concepts is evaluated, quantified and compared. This analysis permits to conclude on the best-suited implementation strategy for co-located GSM, UMTS and LTE networks.