Mobility Support for Multi-user Sessions over Heterogeneous Networks

It is expected that the next generation of networks will provide group communication services to mobile users, independently of the underlying Quality of Service (QoS) model, access and connectivity technologies, which may be different in each domain along the communication path. However, current mobility management schemes have limitations in terms of end-to-end QoS support and connectivity control for sessions crossing heterogeneous networks. This paper presents the Multi-user Session Control (MUSC) mechanism that controls the mobility of multiuser sessions while providing QoS mapping, QoS adaptation and connectivity support in heterogeneous environments with mobile receivers and static senders. Performance evaluation shows the MUSC efficiency to setup sessions inside and between access-networks, by analysing the packet delay and the percentage of packet losses during handovers.