Evaluation and Comparison of Signaling Protocol Alternatives for the Ultra Flat Architecture

The Ultra Flat Architecture is a new concept of fixed mobile convergent networks that aims to scale well with the mobile internet traffic explosion prognosticated for the next 5-10 years. This paper investigates the adequacy of three different signaling protocol alternatives for the Ultra Flat Architecture based on operator requirements. The applied evaluation method is the Multiplicative Analytic Hierarchy Process. After the presentation of the evaluation process, we define our evaluation criteria. It is followed by the presentation of the main features of three UFA signaling protocol alternatives. Finally, the terminal scores of the alternatives are analyzed under different circumstances. The SIP-based alternative shows high performance, and low deployment cost. It is adequate for IMS applications. However by the increase of the demand to support the mobility of legacy internet applications, HIP or MIP-based signaling schemes are more suitable to our criteria. The evaluation shows the effect of the criteria weights and the network scenario on the suitability of the alternatives.