Performance assessment of a spectrum and radio resource management architecture for heterogeneous wireless networks

The emerging radio landscape will consist of heterogeneous wireless networks, operating in the framework of diverse co-operative associations of network operators, for accommodation of the demands of users with multimode and/or multihoming enabled terminals. In this context, the optimized spectrum and radio resource utilization will be key factor for the accomplishment of the goals of both users and operators, namely the satisfaction of user´s needs and the augmentation of operators´ profits. The IEEE P1900.4 standardisation group is working towards specifying architectures and functions that will enable networkterminal distributed decision making for optimized radio resource usage in such heterogeneous wireless access networks. In alignment with the recently standardized P1900.4 management architecture, in this paper we set up an experimentation platform and conduct indicative experiments for both the demonstration and performance assessment of the management architecture. The assessment results show satisfactory behavior in terms of induced management signaling loads and time delays, that is equivalent to minimal intervention into the real network operation.