Interworking of Wireless and Mobile Networks based on Location Information

The rapid development of mobile radio within the last ten years is indicative of the imminent paradigm shift towards an information society. While first- and second-generation mobile radio systems mainly focused on speech services, third-generation systems were inherently designed to supply multi-media data services to the mobile customer. The key challenge in this is Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning including service guarantees within well-defined limits. In mobile service provisioning, particular problems derive from the limited maximum supplied data rates. The ubiquitous access to mobile services and the support of very high data rates (Mbit/s -> Gbit/s) are two opposing challenges within wireless communications. Integration of heterogeneous access techniques promises to be a possible remedy. Short distance coverage at high bit rate within Hot Spots is typically provided by Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). These are complemented by Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technologies realizing wireless local loop solutions for the last mile. However, area-wide coverage based on WLAN or FWA technology is unlikely for economic reasons. Accordingly, one can expect that fourth generation mobile communication will be characterized by the symbiosis of different heterogeneous radio systems. This thesis contributes to this development by presenting a new concept to support system integration and -cooperation. Exemplary evaluations take place using UMTS and IEEE 802.11. Its outcome is a sophisticated control scheme that implements cross-system decision-taking functions, e.g. for vertical handover control. The key idea is to concatenate measurement reports as inherently available within each radio system with location information. The resulting link state maps can be used by complementary radio systems making self-conducted mutual scanning obsolete. Another advantage is given if these link state maps are applied for further tasks such as optimization of existing networks or planning of new deployments.