Mobility support in evolving third generation mobile systems

The third generation mobile telecommunications systems will be composed of a number of heterogeneous systems. In addition, these mobile systems are expected to interwork with each other. This paper investigates the required network architecture and capabilities for supporting seamless and ubiquitous fixed/mobile services and capabilities in the next generation mobile telecommunications systems. The paper is split into two main sections. The first section addresses the location management issues. A network architecture supporting service provision across heterogeneous access technologies, with home service availability and support of personal and terminal mobility, is presented. The second section deals with mobility management issues, in particular the support of handover. A novel approach to provide handover between access technologies using in call party handling capabilities is presented