Abstract

One of the major objectives of third-generation mobile communications systems (TGMS) is the seamless integration of advanced multimedia ser-
vices over both fixed and mobile networks leading to fixed-mobile convergence. Such systems will support audio, video, multimedia, data, and
speech services in a variety of environments with levels of service for mobile users comparable to service currently available for fixed users. To
achieve this, TGMS systems must provide adequate performancc (in terms of bits per second) for each user in each of the operating environ-
ments foreseen. Despite considerable support from many sources (academia, network equipment manufacturers) the homogeneous network
architecture that universal adoption of ATM would have provided seems unlikely to become a reality. The very rapid development of ultra-high-
speed members of the Ethernet “family” has pre-empted the unique scalability promise of ATM. At the same time, the explosive growth of Inter-
net-based applications and services has ensured that IP will remain the network layer protocol of choice for the vast majority of next-generation
systems. This (irticleexamines the challenges of handover across a single network domain, between network domains, and specifically between
network domains of different levels of QoS. We report on various techniques for supporting mobile terminals, different approaches to handover,
and specific issues associated with TCPiIP over wireless links. Finally, we identify some of the more advanced mobile systems R&D projects from
the “seamless integration of advanced multimedia services” perspective before generating our conclusions.

The Challenges of Seamless Handover in

Future Mobile Multimedia Networks
LARRYTAYLOR,TTP COMMUNICATIONS
LTD.
R I C H A R D TITMUSS,BT LABS
CAROLINELEBRE, BT LABS

he mobile part of future net-
work architectures can be viewed as consisting of a set of
overlapping tiers, each with its own specific characteristics.
Satellite, macro, micro, and pico-cellular segments will each
cover widely varying geographic areas and support different
data rates for mobile terminals within them. Some tiers will be
privately operated, others publicly operated. As shown in Fig.
1, pic0 cells, with data rates in excess of 25 Mb/s, will typically
cover building scale areas; micro cells, with u p to 2 Mb/s
rates, will cover dense urban areas; macro cells, with several
100s of Kb/s, will provide wide-area coverage; and satellite
segments, giving per terminal data rates from 144 Kb/s o r
more, will cover up to entire continents.
Future mobile multimedia systems will serve TGMS (third-
generation mobile communications systems) terminals in any
combination of these environments. Since adaptive radio tech-
= Figure 1. Tiered network architecture.
nology for such a range of transmission schemes (modulation
schemes as well as data rates) will not be available for some
time, it is reasonable to expect that initial TGMS mobile multi-
media terminals will incorporate multiple radio interfaces. For
example, T G 8/1 of ITU-R is considering harmonization of
Radio Transmission Technique proposals to become the stan-
dards for the radio interface(s) of ITU IMT-2000 [l]. While
this process was still ongoing at the time of this writing, it can
be anticipated that there will definitely be different radio inter-
faces for terrestrial- and satellite-based mobile systems.
Traditionally, devices used for communications are con-
nected to only one type of network. The universal intercon-
nection of land-based communications networks (here we
mean cable, fiber, and copper networks forming the vast
majority of current telecommunications networks and the
Internet) provides global communications links to any fixed
system. Gateways from mobile networks, such as GSM, to the
land-based networks extend this global connectivity to mobile
terminals. Specific components of the mobile network deal
with terminal identification and authentication for registration
with the network and management of the terminal’s location
as it moves, and other aspects of the network manage the re-
routing of traffic as the terminal passes from one coverage
area to another during the course of the same connection or
session. The rerouting mechanisms are called handover mech-
anisms and are a key part of a mobile network architecture.
Some systems do incorporate multiple network interfaces
and are called multihomed [2] systems. Examples of such sys-
tems in mobile applications include dual-mode handsets
(GSM/DECT) and portable computers with IrDA and Ether-
net interfaces. The control software in such systems usually
selects which network interface to use and directs all traffic
via that interface but does not support handover of traffic
between the different network interfaces.

32 1070-9916/99/$10.00 0 1999 IEEE IEEE Personal Communications April 1999

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 The idea of using multi-homed handsets has been carried
forward into the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Sys-
tem (UMTS). The current proposal uses GSM to provide
wide-area coverage supplemented with Wideband Code Divi-
sion Multiple Access (WCDMA) micro and macro cells to
provide higher bandwidth areas. The proposed network intel-
ligence in UMTS will then provide the ability to h a n d o v q .
between the GSM and WCDMA layers.
Fast lossless handover between different network types is
one of the greatest challenges in building seamless mobile
multimedia networks. It can be readily seen from the tiered
model of TGMS systems that solutions to this problem will be
key to successful integration of multimedia.
In the remainder of this article we will investigate how sup-
port for mobile multimedia terminals is being handled in cur-
rent research and experiments, keeping in mind our view of
the multi-tiered nature of future networks. As there is no uni-
versal set of terminology used to describe networks and net-
working principles, we first introduce the concepts and
definitions used in the remainder of the article. We then Figure 2. Intemet structure.
briefly describe the main issues for mobility support in IP and
ATM networks. We then restrict our investigation to the pro-
vision of handover in specific I P systems, as IP is both the routers. To enable routers to function correctly, the assign-
most commonly used network protocol for multimedia appli- ment of subnet addresses is managed by a central authority.
cations and likely to continue to be the most important net- Duplicate addresses are not permitted. In IP networks, data
work protocol in the future. We include an overview of packets traversing the Internet carry source and destination
proposed optimizations for TCP traffic in wireless networks. addresses in header information. Routers examine the desti-
nation subnet address of packets arriving at their inputs to
Concepts and Definitions determine which output to use to route the packets toward
their destination. In general, there may be several routers
A network consists of a number of interconnected compo- between a given source node and destination node, and rout-
nents, as shown in Fig. 2. An Internet is a collection of inter- ing tables are constructed to enable routers to select the next
connected networks or subnets. Each subnet has an identifying intermediate system on the path to the final destination.
network address (net #) that differentiates it from other sub- Therefore, a node’s net # is used by the internet routers to
nets. locate the subnet within the internet and the node’s node # is
A subnet is in turn a collection of interconnected hosts or used to identify the node within the subnet.
nodes. Each node is differentiated from the others by an When we allow a node to move within the Internet, as in
address that is unique within the subnet (node #). The combi- Fig. 3, its permanent address no longer identifies the path to
nation of (net #) and (node #) uniquely identifies the node the node. Borrowing from cellular network concepts, a mobile
within the extent of the internet. Since the nodes are static, host (MH) can be connected to the Internet at a network
this unique identifier is often referred to as a permanent point of attachment (NPOA). A mobile node’s permanent
address. The best known example of a permanent address is address stays the same, but its NPOA changes as it moves
the Internet Protocol (IP) network address. from one subnet to another.
Subnets are interconnected by special systems known as The routing information for the mobile host must maintain
the relationship between its permanent address and its current
network point of attachment.
For networks other than IP, similar concepts apply. In the
case of circuit switched networks (such as telephone or ATM
networks) switches implement the role of routers and circuit
identifiers replace the source and destination address pairs.
A more complete treatment of network concepts and defi-
nitions can be found in most networking texts.

Mobility Support
This section describes existing and experimental networking
technologies supporting mobility. We will look at vertical han-
dover, horizontal handover, and TCP optimizations for wire-
less networks.
In circuit-switched networks, handover is the process that
I occurs when a mobile device transfers an end-to-end commu-
nication from one base station to another. The base station
I Permanent
address 1
provides the network point of attachment (NPOA) for the
I mobile terminal. Within the network, route updates are per-
formed to recover from failure, congestion, or modifications
._ - to the network topology. At the NPOA, a handover function
Figure 3. Zntemet with mobile host. is required to track the movement of a mobile system and

IEEE Personal Communications April 1999 33

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W F i g r e 4. Mobile IP triangle routing.
subsequent route updates performed to redirect traffic to a
more suitable path.
Keeping in mind the tiered network architecture, we will
call route changes within a given network “horizontal han-
dover” and route changes between networks “vertical han-
dover,” hence unifying the two concepts of handover and
route change.
The latency and data loss are the critical factors for seam-
less handover. Horizontal handover usually occurs when the
mobile device is moving between two or more cells or cover-
age areas. LOWlatency should be achieved in switching the
mobile device’s NPOA between the adjacent cells of the same
network. Horizontal handover should be lossless unless there
are special circumstances such as high mobility rate between
picocells or a very high density of mobile devices.
Faster networks in general have smaller coverage areas
than slower networks. Hence, vertical handover to a faster
network layer, e.g., micro cell to pic0 cell, will typically occur
while both networks are available to the mobile device and
can thus be lossless. Should the faster network be congested,
handover will not take place and no data loss will occur.
Should the current network become unavailable, for exam-
ple when a user walks out of range of a pic0 cell, a vertical
handover must be performed without simultaneous access to
both networks. Data loss may be difficult to prevent in this
case as the network connection is lost for a while and the new
network tier may have lower bit rate than the current tier.
Handover between the different network tiers can lead to a
very different quality of service available to the mobile termi-
nal, for example, handover from a wireless LAN (2Mb/s) to
GSM (9.6Kbhj). Two different approaches can be taken to
support the change of bandwidth. First, the applications used
on the terminal can be written to support the varying quality
of service. This has the disadvantage that “standard” applica-
tions cannot be used on the mobile terminals. The second
approach uses support for standard applications within the
network using network proxies or packet filters.
Vertical Handover
The approach taken to support mobility in data networks is
usually to provide a switch or router that maintains a relation-
ship between a mobile device’s permanent address and its
NPOA. This is the approach adopted by both the IP and
ATM communities.
Mobile IP - In IP networks most research projects adopt the
approach taken by mobile IP [3] that we describe below.
In a non-mobile IP network, a node’s point of attachment
on the netwosk is fixed. A unique IP address identifies the
node and subnet to which it is attached. Packets of data are
routed to the appropriate IP subnet based on the destination
node IP subnet address. If the node is a mobile host and it
moves to a new subnet, active connections, which must keep
the same JP address association, will not have their packets
routed to the new NPOA since their IP subnet address will
refer to the old subnet and the existing active connections will
be broken.
34
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The base mobile IP scheme is an extension to the IP proto-
col that allows transparent routing of I P packets to mobile
hosts (MH) on the Internet.
Standard IP routing is used while a MH is connected to its
home network. When the MH attaches to a foreign network it
acquires a care-of-address (COA) which identifies its current
point of attachment to the Internet. Depending on the foreign
network, the COA may be the address of the local foreign
agent (FA) or a local address obtained by the MH (e.g., using
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)). The COA is
registered with a home agent (HA) on the MH’s home net-
work.
The asymmetric routing mechanism used in mobile I P
(also known as “triangular routing”) is shown in Fig. 4. The
route from the M H to a correspondent host (CH) is direct,
but packets on the route from a CH to the MH are intercept-
ed by the HA on the MH’s home network (the subnet identi-
fied by the MH’s I P address). T h e H A then forwards any
packets destined for the MH using the COA. Consequently,
packets are routed along paths that may b e significantly
longer than optimal.
Handover in mobile IP suffers from latency, which adverse-
ly effects TCP/IP connections [4].
IPv4, the current version of IP, suffers some limitations, in
particular a limited address range. IPv6 is being developed to
overcome these limitations. The basic mobility support is the
same for both versions of IP; however, IPv6 supports route
optimization [ 5 ] .
All nodes (mobile or fixed) are able to learn and cache a
mobile node’s binding in a binding table. A binding is the
association of a home address and a COA. When transmitting
a packet to any IPv6 destination, the node checks its cached
bindings for the packet’s destination address. If an entry is
found, the node sends the packet directly to the care-of-
address indicated in the binding. When the MH moves to a
different foreign network, it must send the new COA to all
the correspondent hosts with whom it is communicating.
Using cache binding, the routing is more efficient because
packets are routed directly and not via the home agent.
Mobility in ATM Networks - ATM is frequently cited as the
reference architecture for future fixed broadband networks.
As well as being used in the public fixed network, ATM is the
basis of a number of customer premises network products. A
homogeneous network architecture with end-to-end ATM sig-
naling and data transfer has been proposed as the ultimate
multimedia network. However, the unique scalability promise
of ATM has been overtaken by the very rapid development of
ultra-fast IP network systems. Much work has been dedicated
to adapting ATM to encapsulate IP traffic efficiently. Howev-
er, at present it is unclear whether fully end-to-end ATM net-
works will be implemented, and current TGMS proposals do
not include ATM-based air interfaces. On the other hand, it
can be readily concluded that IP will be the dominant network
protocol in future (including mobile) multimedia networks.
ATM is primarily a connection-oriented switching architec-
ture with sophisticated algorithms for resource allocation dur-
ing connection setup in order to provide support for a range
of classes of service. In public networks, the network manage-
ment system should monitor the traffic on each connection to
enforce the traffic contract agreed during setup. Since traffic
varies widely with the application, there are a number of class-
es of service for constant traffic rates, variable traffic rates
with known maximum rate, unknown rates, etc. Each class has
associated with it notions of quality of service parameters
(QoS) that may include maximum transit delay, delay jitter,
bit error rates, etc. A traffic contract is negotiated at connec-
IEEE Personal Communications April 1999
tion setup for specific values (or ranges) for QoS parameters.
Mobility presents ATM network systems with additional chal-
lenges since the basic design does not expect the end point of
a connection to change. The allocation of network resources
to provide the QoS guarantees can only be executed deter-
ministically for static endpoints. Since low latency is critical
for loss-free handover, re-evaluation of the connection setup
algorithm is undesirable during handover.
The main efforts in development of mobility specifications
for ATM are being coordinated by the standards bodies in
both the United States and Europe. The ATM Forum [6] and
the European Telecommunications Standards InstituteBroad-
band Radio Access Networks (ETSI BRAN) [7] are jointly
defining the reference model for wireless ATM, with BRAN
defining the radio aspects and the ATM Forum being respon-
sible for the ATM protocol enhancements. BRAN also coop-
erates with the Multimedia Mobile Access Communication
Systems Promotion Council (MMAC) project in Japan [8].
Signaling enhancements in W-ATM must support location
management and authentication, registration and association
as the mobile changes NPOA, and handover of traffic. Many
proposals have been made, and indeed are still being debated
in the standards groups, as to how best to manage the han-
dover mechanism both within a local coverage area supported
by a single mobile-aware ATM switch and between switches.
Handover transparent to the ATM system (radio handover)
and network-initiated handover are both being considered.
Horizontal Handover
Many different techniques have been used for horizontal han-
dover in IP networks. Here we will look at just two examples.
1P Multicast - There are three types of IPv4 addresses: uni-
cast, broadcast, and multicast. A unicast address is used to
transmit a packet to a single destination. A broadcast address
is used to send a packet to an entire network. A multicast
address is used to send a packet to a set of hosts that have
been configured as members of the multicast group across
various networks.
Multicast is mainly used for Internet applications such as
video conferencing where the same information needs to be
sent to different hosts. With unicast addresses, the same pack-
et would be replicated by the server and sent directly to each
host. Using a multicast address [9], only one packet is sent out
by the server and multicast routers establish a distribution
tree for the group and forward it to the next multicast router
or duplicate it if the distribution tree splits.
Multicast has also been used in the Daedalus project to
provide handover between wireless LAN cells [lo]. In this
experiment, mobile IP is used to provide a single point of con-
tact for the mobile but the COA is a multicast address that
never changes.
The current base station of the mobile and several sur-
rounding base stations have subscribed to the multicast group
representing the mobile. They are therefore all receiving
packets for the mobile and all buffering them, but only the
current one forwards the packets to the mobile.
The handover is anticipated by the mobile host by measur-
ing the signal strength received from the surrounding base sta-
tions. When the mobile initiates a handover, it sends messages
to both old and new base stations and the latter begins to for-
ward packets to the mobile.
The advantage of using multicast is that the routing to the
mobile host does not have to be changed at the home agent
since the multicast address itself provides the mechanism for
fast route updates. One of the drawbacks is that the purpose
of multicast addresses is to send packets to multiple hosts on
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W Figure 5.ARP handover.
different networks, and in this case one multicast address is
used for one terminal only.
ARP Handover - ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is a
protocol used within a subnet to map an IP address to the
corresponding hardware address (MAC address) of the node.
The hardware address is then used to send packets.
In an I P network, when a packet arrives in the network
segment, the router sends out an ARP request to discover the
physical address of the device for which the packet is
addressed. An ARP reply does not necessarily come from the
target itself but can come from a proxy that knows how to
send traffic to the destination.
In the experiment described in [ll], base stations (BS) act
as an ARP proxy for a MH within their cell and then forward
packets to them. The base stations send out beacons, contain-
ing their own address, on the wireless link and buffer packets
recently sent to the MH.
As shown in Fig. 5 when the MH receives a stronger bea-
con from a BS than the beacon from its current BS, it initiates
the handover as follows:
T h e M H sends a greet message to the new BS with its
address and the address of the old BS.
T h e new BS creates a routing entry for the M H and
responds with a greet ACK message.
The new BS sends a notify message to the old BS over the
wired link with the address of the new BS.
The old BS deletes its entry for the MH and sends buffered
packets destined for the MH to the new BS with a notify
ACK message.
The new BS broadcasts a redirect message for routers and
interested hosts to update their ARP cache.
This system is claimed to offer completed handover in less
than 10 ms with limited packet loss, which depends on the
buffer size.
This handover technique can only be used for handover
between base stations on the same subnet, as the ARP proto-
col is limited to a subnet.
Wireless TCP Optimizations
TCP is an end-to-end reliable protocol designed for inter-pro-
cess communication between pairs of host computers attached
to interconnected communication networks.
A feature of TCP is its built-in algorithms used for conges-
tion control. Wired links are very reliable, so any packet loss
normally only occurs when a router discards a packet due to
congestion. When a sending TCP system detects packet loss, it
35
assumes this is caused by congestion and adapts by decreasing
the transmission rate. This clearly reduces the network load.
On a wireless link the error rate is much higher. TCP
interprets these losses as congestion on the link and therefore
reduces the transmission window size before retransmitting
packets. TCP performance needs to be improved for wireless
links to ensurla that congestion control is applied only when
packet loss occurs in the wired network.
The following techniques have been proposed to improve
the performance of TCP over wireless links.
Indirect-TCP - When two different media (e.g., wire and
wireless) are used for a connection, in indirect TCP [12], the
connection is split into two separate interactions (one for each
medium). This is also known as split connection TCP.
The advantage of this approach is that separate flow and
congestion control is used over the two different networks. It
is also possible to use a wireless-aware protocol between the
base station and the MH.
The main drawback with indirect TCP is that the acknowl-
edgments are not end-to-end, meaning the sender can receive
acknowledgments for packets that the mobile host still has not
received. Additionally, because the connection is split, packets
must be moved between connections, which reduces through-
put.
It has been found that the end-to-end throughput between
the fixed and mobile host for I-TCP is about twice as much as
with regular TCP for error rates of up to 5 x 10-6 [13].
Modified I-TC'P - Modified I-TCP 1141 is based on indirect-
TCP, splitting the connection at the base station, but with
t h e base station waiting for acknowledgments from t h e
mobile host before sending the acknowledgment to the fixed
host. The modifications improve indirect-TCP by providing
end-to-end acknowledgments, but an overhead still exists in
setting u p two connections and transferring the packets
between them. The modified I-TCP performs as well as the
I-TCP 1131.
Snoop TCP - In snoop TCP [15], packets from a fixed host
to a mobile host are routed through a base station that is
running the snoop module. This module caches packets
s e n t to t h e M H a n d checks t h a t acknowledgments a r e
returned by the mobile host. When packet loss is detected
the base station retransmits the lost packet if it is stored in
the cache.
On a wireless link with low bit error rates there is little dif-
ference between snoop and regular TCP; the overhead caused
by snoop is negligible. When bit error rates are equal o r
greater than 5 x the throughput using snoop can b e
increased by up to 20 times 1131.
SACK TCP - The protocols discussed above are all used to
improve the quality of the link between the fixed host and the
mobile host. Selective acknowledgments (SACK) 1161 can be
used to improve the uplink between the mobile and the base
station.
TCP uses a cumulative acknowledgment scheme - the
sender does not know which packets have been received and
may retransmit duplicate packets. With SACK, when a lost
packet is detected the receiver sends an acknowledgment indi-
cating all the packets that have been received, so that the
sender knows exactly which packets to retransmit. When using
SACK between the mobile host and base station any lost
packets are detected early (at the base station, not the fixed
host). The base station can then request that the lost packets
be retransmitted.
36
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Link Layer Retransmissions - A reliable link layer protocol
can shield TCP from the errors on the wireless link. In this
scheme the link layer will retransmit packets as required to
ensure a guaranteed delivery. The throughput of TCP may
still be reduced if the packets are delivered out of order. It
has been found that TCP-aware link layer protocols perform
best 1151.
Experimental Systems
Wireless networks are obviously the focus of the majority of
research efforts in mobility support for multimedia networks.
A great deal of effort is being spent on researching methods to
support not only the fundamental transmission techniques
(e.g., single- and multi-carrier modulation schemes, coding and
error control, medium access and control, etc.) but also loca-
tion, registration, security, and handover for mobile terminals.
Existing cellular systems provide the model for higher per-
formance systems based on more advanced modulation, medi-
um access and control schemes 1171.
Mobility support in ATM networks, whether within the
scope of the ATM Forum or not, addresses both signaling
enhancements [18] and handover [19].
Given the tiered view of future mobile multimedia net-
works developed in this article, research into heterogeneous
networks is of particular interest. The handover of traffic
between different network types connecting a mobile terminal
is being researched by several groups.
A common view is that UMTS-like services can be achieved
with a multi-homed mobile terminal incorporating a wide area
wireless networking interface with a wireless local area net-
working interface.
In [20], a WLAN/GSM combination is used in association
with mobile IP to provide indoor/outdoor coverage. The het-
erogeneous network is unified into a service at the network
layer to provide a transparent communications service to the
upper protocol stack and applications.
Other approaches 1211 to this combination unify the differ-
ent networks at either the transport o r application layers
depending on whether knowledge of the application's QoS
requirements is seen to be an application or transport respon-
sibility.
Many researchers favor mobile IP as the basis of support
for multimedia terminals. In fact, many research groups con-
sider only I P based routing for all applications including
speech. This remains true whether the core network is based
on the existing Internet or ATM switches. In most experimen-
tal systems the wireless access network supports horizontal
handover requirements and mobile IP serves vertical han-
dover.
Horizontal strategies, although details vary widely, mostly
map to an equivalent of the A R P handover architecture
described earlier. For example, in 1181 a W-ATM mobile
monitors the link quality and signal strength from adjacent
access points before deciding to switch NPOA.
If future mobile multimedia systems are to operate seam-
lessly over the range of coverage areas in TGMS systems, then
the issue of data loss during handover is of principle impor-
tance. Since the data rate supported by different tiers of the
network architecture will vary, loss-free handover can be
achieved if applications sense the change in service level and
adapt their QoS demand accordingly. In [20], a session man-
ager monitors network connections and invokes changes in
application demand accordingly.
Finally, an interesting class of experiments combines both
classical networks and broadcast networks to provide mixed
heterogeneous and inherently asymmetric network services.
IEEE Personal Communications April 1999
 Combinations of digital audio broadcast (DAB) and GSM
[22] provide a network with extremely low-cost-per-bit deliv-
ery. Enhancements to the DAB specification have been made
to incorporate support for individual terminal addressing,
mobility architecture based on mobile IP, authentication and
security services, etc., to support a range of applications. The
GSM network can serve as both a reverse direction control
channel and as a slow-speed data path.
Further extensions of these ideas in [23] add wireless local
areas of high data rate coverage. Switching between network
paths as in [20] is more general with the addition of the third
network type. Experiments on handover performance from
slower to faster networks have shown that relatively fast han-
dovers can be achieved with only a small amount of buffering
and retransmission required for loss-free handover. However,
from fast to slower networks either a significant amount of
buffering and retransmissions is required or data loss will be
experienced.
Conclusions
In this article we have looked at some of the issues associated
with routing data to mobile (wireless) terminals. We have
reported on some of the alternate technical approaches that
can be applied to support mobile systems in I P networks,
including approaches to mitigate the undesirable effects of
data loss in wireless networks on the performance of the TCP
protocol.
Research into mobility enhancements to existing fixed net-
work architectures addresses issues of registration (terminal
identification) and location management. Dynamic routing of
traffic to the mobile terminal via the wireless access network
(horizontal handover) can be fast and loss-free.
Advanced hybrid network experiments show that handover
between different network technologies (vertical handover) is
feasible and can be fast and loss-free when rerouting from a
slower to a faster network, but may be lossy in the reverse
direction.
Seamless integration of multimedia applications in third
generation mobile networks may require applications to
become aware of the currently available level of data service
and to adapt their demand and QoS accordingly. Loss-free
handover in a transparent heterogeneous network service, in
general, may not be difficult to achieve.
In this very active field of research much fascinating work
is being done and remains to be done. However, we can con-
clude that the IP network architecture with inter- and intra-
network handover between future TGMS networks will be
able to support mobile multimedia applications.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the European Com-
mission ACTS and ESPRIT programs and their associated
management teams and participating projects. Their work
over the past years has contributed much to the advancement
of communications technology.
Thanks are due to Pete Smyth and Alan Brookland from
BT Research Labs for comments, corrections, and improve-
ments.
Part of this work is funded by the ESPRIT Project E P
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26869, M3A.
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Additional Readina J
[ l I The Daedalus Project home page, http://daedalus.cs.berkeley.edu:80
Biographies
LARRYTAYLOR (larry.taylor@ttpcom.com) is a senior consultant w i t h TTP
Communications Ltd., a leading UK communications development and con-
sulting company, where he is responsible for WLAN activities. He has been
a regular participant in the European Commission ACTS & ESPRIT programs
and is currently leading the ESPRIT M3A project. He was a major contribu-
tor to the development of the HIPERLAN standard.
RICHARD TITMUSS i s a senior researcher in the Mobile Research Unit at BT
Laboratories, UK. He currently leads ET'S involvement in the ESPRIT M3A
project. Previous work includes agent-based systems for mobile communi-
cations and prototype expert systems for traffic management. He joined ET
after graduating from Essex University, UK.
CAROLINE LEEREis a researcher in the Mobile Research Unit at BT Laborato-
ries, UK. She i s currently involved in the ESPRIT M3A project examining
routing issues for mobile networks. She joined ET after graduating from
INSA Toulouse in France.
37