Generic and Open Media Access for Next Generation Wireless Networks: A Case Study

A number of technology factors including increased connectivity to a diverse range of devices, variety of wireless access technologies (e.g. cellular, WLAN, WPAN, sensor), and highly reconfigurable software and hardware components have been driving telecommunications systems to provide ubiquitous and transparent services. At the same time, dynamically reconfigurable and/ or adaptive communication systems that are capable of operating in a variety of modes increases the heterogeneity of operating communications environments when used by users (including applications and devices) that have conflicting capabilities and requirements. Generic Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are a key technology component to realize flexible and intelligent management of available modes of operations and adaptation of applications because they enable access and control of heterogeneous technologies in a uniform way. The case study presented in this paper explores the concept of generic APIs in the context of adaptive and reconfigurable communications systems. A generic API called Unified Link Layer API (ULLA) developed by a consortium of European researchers (from industry and academia) is reviewed to demonstrate the benefits offered by such a technology to the dynamic optimization of wireless multimedia systems.