Evolving UMTS towards IP: Evaluation of the SIPRAN Architecture

Author

Nikas, V. ; Lioudakis, G.V. ; Dellas, N.L. ; Venieris, I.S. ; Kaklamani, D.I. ; Pollak, C. ; Wisenoecker, R.

Author_Institution

National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 9 Heroon Polytechniou str., 15773, Athens, Greece. enikas@telecom.ntua.gr

Volume

12

fYear

2006

fDate

38869

Firstpage

5401

Lastpage

5407

Abstract

The adoption of packet-switched technologies in mobile communication systems has enabled the provision of IP-based services to mobile users. Yet, these systems, such as the UMTS network, are not flexible enough to leave space for IP-oriented protocols to dominate nor are they able to meet the stringent QoS requirements imposed by multimedia services. This paper presents an innovative Beyond 3G network architecture, denoted as SIPRAN, posing an evolution to the standard UMTS network. According to the proposed concept, the GPRS Support Nodes are integrated into a single entity, while the Session Initiation Protocol is adopted for performing mobility and session management; these modifications result in the smooth evolution of the UMTS Core Network towards IP, while accomplishing a significant performance gain. In order to evaluate the target architecture and substantiate its actual effectiveness, a series of experiments was carried out, by utilizing a fully-functional emulator.

Keywords

3G mobile communication; Access protocols; Authentication; Communication switching; Computer architecture; Engineering management; Ground penetrating radar; Multimedia systems; Packet switching; Space technology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Communications, 2006. ICC '06. IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Istanbul

ISSN

8164-9547

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0355-3

Electronic_ISBN

8164-9547

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICC.2006.255520

Filename

4024920