Efficiency study of the information flow mechanism enabling interworking of heterogeneous wireless systems

The efficient co-operation of heterogeneous wireless technologies is directly relevant to the 4G wireless systems. Key building block of such an environment is the signaling protocol that allows the bidirectional flow of information between network and user devices. This provides the motivation behind this paper that initially presents key aspects of such a signalling protocol in a 'Beyond 3G system' (B3G) or otherwise known as a composite radio network. On the basis of the described architecture of the B3G system, simple simulation models for capturing the dynamics of the message exchanges are discussed. The simulation study allows the derivation of both qualitative and quantitative results, that provide insight on key characteristics of the composite environment. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.