Reconfigurable architecture and mobility management for next-generation wireless IP networks

There are many incompatible wireless systems. How to integrate them has become an important issue. The integration should be done in both radio access networks (RANs) and core networks. As that in reconfigurable radio, in this paper we propose a reconfigurable architecture in which different protocols can be used in core networks dynamically. More specifically, we consider reconfigurable mobility management and propose reconfigurable architecture and mobility platform (RAMP). RAMP can accommodate, control, and coordinate various types of mobility management protocols. Therefore, both network operators and users can execute different protocols dynamically. Details of the RAMP are discussed. Both analytical model and simulation are developed to analyze the signaling cost in the proposed RAMP. Results show that the RAMP architecture will not incur high signaling cost. A testbed is constructed as well. Empirical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed idea.