Making migration easy: a key requirement for systems beyond 3G

Within the ambient networks project we believe that migration is a critical requirement for systems beyond 3G. Migration refers to the evolution from, and interworking with, legacy systems. The paper tackles the question: "Can anything be done in the design stage of a new network to facilitate migration to it?" Our method has been to study a number of past network migrations, looking in detail at networks which have had varying degrees of success in migration, identifying key characteristics and so deriving high-level design guidelines. We then consider the practicalities of these guidelines, with a specific focus on quality of service issues and highlight some technical areas that requires further research if ambient networks are to be designed in a "migration friendly" way.