Wireless networks are evolving into IP-based mobile networks
ByIs this worldwide march toward IP-based wireless networks a short-term phenomenon or a long-term trend? Several fundamental reasons suggest that IP-based wireless networks are more promising choices than circuit-switched wireless networks for the future.
IP-based wireless networks are better suited for supporting the rapidly growing mobile data and multimedia services. As mobile data and multimedia services continue to grow more rapidly than mobile voice services, they will overtake mobile voice services to become the dominant mobile services in the near future. As mobile data services become increasingly important to consumers, the revenues generated by network operators from mobile data services will surpass the revenues from mobile voice services. Non-voice mobile services will grow significantly and steadily over the next few years. We are suggesting that non-voice mobile services could account for an even higher percentage of mobile operators’ total revenue.
Wireless networks should evolve to support predominately mobile data and multimedia services and traffic, rather than circuit-switched voice services and traffic. IP technologies, which are already universal over wire-line data networks, are the most promising solutions available today for supporting data and multimedia applications over wireless networks.
IP-based wireless networks bring the successful Internet service paradigm to mobile providers and users. Perhaps the most important factor to the success of any type of future wireless networks is whether they can provide valuable services to the mass mobile users in ways that can be easily adopted by the users. A key reason for the success of the Internet is that the IP-based Internet paradigm enables everyone in the world to create and offer services over the Internet anytime and anywhere, as long as they have a computer connected to the Internet. This paradigm has led to the rich and rapidly growing information content, applications, and services over the Internet. This is significantly different from the circuit-switched PSTN or wireless networks, where only the network operators and their partners or suppliers could create and offer services. An IP-based wireless network would bring the service innovation potentials of the Internet paradigm to future wireless networks.
IP-based wireless networks can integrate seamlessly with the Internet. Radio systems need to be connected to the Internet to allow mobile users to access the information, applications, and services available over the Internet. Connecting an IP-based wireless network to the Internet is easier and more cost-effective than connecting a circuit-switched wireless network to the Internet. Many mobile network operators also operate wire-line networks. They have already built out IP core networks to support wire-line IP services or as a backbone network for transporting circuit-switched voice traffic. Mobile network operators could leverage their existing IP core networks to support radio access networks and provide services to mobile users.
IP-based radio access systems are becoming important components of public wireless networks. IP-based radio access systems, e.g., IEEE 802.11 WLANs, are becoming increasingly important parts of public wireless networks worldwide. WLANs, which generally assume IP as the network-layer protocol for supporting user applications, are best supported by IP-based core networks rather than circuit-switched core networks.
IP technologies provide a better solution for making different radio technologies transparently to users. Different radio technologies will continue to coexist in public wireless networks. These radio technologies include not only different wide-area radio technologies but also the fast growing IP-based public WLANs. One radio technology (e.g., public WLANs) may meet communications needs other radio technologies (e.g., cellular radio systems) may not be able to meet easily. Therefore, heterogeneous radio systems are expected to coexist in the long run. Mobile users typically do not want to be bothered with the specifics of each radio technology. They want to receive services not technologies. They want the technologies to be made transparent to them. Therefore, there is a long-term need to interconnect radio systems that use different radio technologies, to support roaming between different radio systems, to provide mobile services over different radio systems in a seamless manner, and to support global roaming between different mobile providers and different countries.
IP-based protocols, which are independent of the underlying radio technologies, are better suited than circuit-switched network technologies for achieving these goals. With IP as the common network-layer protocol, a terminal with multiple radio interfaces (or a single radio interface capable of accessing different types of radio systems) could roam between different radio systems. IP-based network services and applications could be provided to all users in a seamless manner, regardless of which specific radio systems or mobile devices (e.g., PDAs, laptops, phones, or any other special-purpose devices) they are using.