HAWK: Real-World Implementation of High-Performance Heterogeneous Wireless Network for Internet Access

The co-existence and integration of different wireless networks will significantly advance the provision of ubiquitous and high-performance Internet services to mobile users. In this paper, we present HAWK, a real-world implementation of high performance heterogeneous wireless networks for ubiquitous Internet access. We have built a fully featured testbed comprised of different wireless networks, including wireless mesh network (WMN), wireless LAN (WLAN) and 3G network, and dual mode mobile clients that can access any of these networks. We have also developed protocols and algorithms for various system functions, including routing, intra-WMN handoff, inter-network handoff, and mobility adaptation middleware. Although many works can be found on heterogeneous wireless networks, most of them focus on protocol design and/or theoretical performance study. Very few of existing work reported real system development, of which most are limited to integration of WLANs and cellular networks. Our work reported in this paper provides insights into the design and implementation of heterogeneous wireless networks in the aspects of both hardware and software and will consequently drive heterogeneous wireless networks towards practical deployment.