L’évolution des technologies réseaux sans fil, des terminaux mobiles ainsi que des contenus et des services créent des environnements hétérogènes de plus en plus complexes. Dans ce contexte, un compromis entre la mobilité, la transparence et la performance apparaît. Des utilisateurs mobiles, ayant différents profils et préférences, voudraient être toujours connectés au meilleur réseau à tout moment, sans avoir à se soucier des différentes transitions entre réseaux hétérogènes. Face à cette complexité, il parait nécessaire de proposer de nouvelles approches afin de rendre ces systèmes plus autonomes et de rendre les décisions de handover vertical plus efficaces. Cette thèse se concentre sur la gestion de mobilité verticale, plus précisément sur la prise de décision de handover vertical dans un environnement de réseaux hétérogènes sans fil. Après l’identification des différents paramètres de prise de décision et l’analyse de l’état de l’art relié à la gestion de la mobilité verticale, nous avons proposé un système de réputation qui permet de réduire les délais de prise de décision. La réputation d’un réseau est introduite comme une nouvelle métrique de prise de décision qui peut être recueillie à partir des expériences précédentes des utilisateurs sur ce réseau. Nous montrons que la réputation est une métrique efficace qui permet l’anticipation du handover et accélère la prise de décision. Bien que l’objectif principal soit de garantir la meilleure qualité de service et l’utilisation optimale des ressources radios, les aspects économiques doivent également être considérés, y compris la minimisation des coûts pour les utilisateurs et la maximisation des revenus pour les fournisseurs de services ou les opérateurs. Nous proposons alors, dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, un mécanisme de prise de décision basé sur la théorie des jeux. Ce dernier permet la maximisation des utilités des réseaux et des utilisateurs. Dans cette solution, chaque réseau disponible joue un jeu de Stackelberg avec un ensemble d’utilisateurs, tandis que les utilisateurs jouent un jeu de Nash entre eux pour partager les ressources radios limitées. Un point d’équilibre de Nash, qui maximise l’utilité de l’utilisateur et les revenus des fournisseurs de services, est trouvé et utilisé pour le contrôle d’admission et la prise de décision de handover vertical. Dans la troisième partie de cette thèse, nous proposons et discutons deux différentes solutions architecturales sur lesquelles nos mécanismes de prise de décision proposés peuvent être intégrés. La première architecture proposée est basée sur la norme IEEE 802.21 à laquelle nous proposons certaines extensions. La seconde architecture proposée est basée sur un niveau de contrôle composé de deux couches de virtualisation. La virtualisation est assurée via des agents capables de faire un raisonnement et de prendre des décisions pour le compte d’entités physiques qu’ils représentent au sein du système. Cette architecture permet une plus grande flexibilité / Mobility management over heterogeneous wireless networks is becoming a major interest area as new technologies and services continue to proliferate within the wireless networking market. In this context, seamless mobility is considered to be crucial for ubiquitous computing. Service providers aim to increase the revenue and to improve users’ satisfaction. However there are still many technical and architectural challenges to overcome before achieving the required interoperability and coexistence of heterogeneous wireless access networks. Indeed, the context of wireless networks is offering multiple and heterogeneous technologies (e.g. 2G to 4G, WiFi, Wimax, TETRA,...). On the one hand, this rich environment allows users to take profit from different capacities and coverage characteristics. Indeed, this diversity can provide users with high flexibility and allow them to seamlessly connect at any time and any where to the access technology that best fits their requirements. Additionally, cooperation between these different technologies can provide higher efficiency in the usage of the scarce wireless resources offering more economic systems for network providers. On the other hand, the heterogeneity of technologies and architectures and the multiplication of networks and service providers creates a complex environment where cooperation becomes challenging at different levels including and not limited to mobility management, radio resource provisioning, Quality of Service and security guarantees. This thesis is focusing on mobility management and mainly on decision making for Vertical handover within heterogeneous wireless network environments. After the analysis of the related state of the art, we first propose a reputation based approach that allows fast vertical handover decision making. A decision making scheme is then built on that approach. Network’s reputation, is a new metric that can be gathered from previous users’ experiences in the networks. We show that it is an efficient construct to speed up the vertical handover decision making thanks to anticipation functionalities. While the main objective remains guaranteeing the best Quality of Service and optimal radio resource utilization, economical aspects have also to be considered including cost minimization for users and revenue maximization for network providers. For this aim, we propose, in the second part of the thesis, a game theoretic based scheme that allows maximizing benefits for both networks and users. In this solution, each available network plays a Stackelberg game with a finite set of users, while users are playing a Nash game among themselves to share the limited radio resources. A Nash equilibrium point, that maximizes the user’s utility and the service provider revenue, is found and used for admission control and vertical handover decision making. The analyses of the optimal bandwidth/prices and the revenue at the equilibrium point show that there are some possible policies to use according to user’s requirements in terms of QoS and to network capacities. For instance, we pointed out that networks having same capacities and different reputation values should charge users with different prices which makes reputation management very important to attract users and maximize networks’ revenue. In the third part of this thesis, we provide and discuss two different architectural and implementation solutions on which our proposed vertical handover decision mechanisms can be integrated. The first proposed architecture is a centralized one. It is based on the IEEE 802.21 standard to which some extensions are proposed. The second proposed architecture is distributed. It is based on an overlay control level composed of two virtualization layers able to make reasoning on behalf of physical entities within the system. This architecture allows higher flexibility especially for loosely coupled interconnected networks

På grund av marknadsförings växande roll i kundinteraktion, befinner sig marknadsavdelningar allt mer i besittning av nya typer av kundinformation och sådan information som traditionellt har genererats och förvaltats av försäljningsavdelningar. Genom att tillhandahålla försäljningsavdelningen med högkvalitativa kundleads och samarbeta i att avancera dessa till faktiska affärer, kan marknadsföring använda sin nya roll i kundinteraktionen och därmed stödja försäljningstillväxten. I många B2B-företag är dock samarbetet mellan marknadsföring och sälj kantat av spänningar. Dessa spänningar har gjort gemensamma processer, såsom hanteringen av kundleads från marknadsföringsaktiviteter, utmanande. Trots friktionerna måste ett kundleads så småningom överlämnas från marknadsavdelningen till säljavdelningen för att kunna avanceras till en faktisk affär. Överlämnande av information mellan två avdelningar innebär alltid ett antal risker. De främsta riskerna är informationsförlust samt resursslöseri på grund av informationens låga kvalitet. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur överlämnandet av kundleads från  arknadsföringsaktiviteter mellan olika aktörer kan bli mer exakt. Undersökningen gjordes med hjälp av en fallstudie där överlämnandet av kundleads från marknadsföringsaktiviteter utreddes på ett multinationellt B2B-företag verksamt inom telekomindustrin. Empirin samlades in genom intervjuer, fokusgrupper, dokumentsökning och en global enkät. Resultatet av undersökningen är en kartläggning av nuvarande överlämnandet av kundleads efterföljande en global technologimässa. Överlämnandet visade sig omfatta 4 delöverlämningar och 4 aktörsgrupper. Utöver kartläggningen visar resultatet de olika aktörernas perspektiv på både samarbete i överlämnandet och konfigurationen av de kundleads som lämnas över. Det upptäcktes också att den globala marknadsorganisationen på det undersökta företaget har som mål att renodla kundleadskonceptet och skapa acceptans för nya typer av kundinformation som genereras genom marknadsföringsaktiviteter. Slutligen identifierades diskrepanser i aktörernas uppfattning om vad i överlämningen som ska skickas av vem, hur det ska skickas, och varför det skickas. Som en produkt av analysen har ett konceptuellt ramverk tagits fram. Det konceptuella ramverket definierar en överlämnings tre komponenter: Informationen, Processen och Aktörerna. Slutsatsen som drogs var att överlämningen av kundleads från marknadsföringsaktiviteter på det undersökta företaget kan bli mer exakt om dessa tre komptenter lieras och anpassas efter varandra. Rekommendationen som ges stödjer ambitionen att renodla kundleadskonceptet och utvidga den typ av kundinformation som skickas av marknadsföringsavdelningar. Rekommendationen omfattar införandet av 4 kundinformationskategorier. Ytterligare rekommendationer rör hur de tre överlämningskomponenterna ska anpassas till dessa nya kategorier. / Due to marketing’s expanding role in customer interaction, marketing departments are finding themselves in possession of new types of customer information and such that has traditionally been generated and managed by sales departments. By providing sales with high-quality leads and cooperating on successfully advancing these leads to actual deals, marketing can utilize its new role in customer interaction and ultimately support sales growth. In many B2B companies, however, the cooperation of marketing and sales is infused by interdepartmental tensions. These tensions have rendered shared processes, such as the handling of marketing generated leads, challenging. Despite the interdepartmental frictions the marketing generated lead eventually needs to be handed over from the marketing department to the sales department in order to be advanced to an actual deal. Handing over information between two departments always involves certain risks. Primarily, these risks are information loss and potentially wasted resources due to low quality of the information. The purpose of this study was to investigate the handover of marketing generated leads between stakeholders and how it can become more accurate. The investigation was done by means of a case study – exploring the handover of marketing generated leads within a multinational B2B cooperation active within the telecom industry. The empirical data was collected through interviews, focus groups, document search and a global questionnaire. The result of the investigation is a mapping of the current handover of marketing generated leads succeeding a global industry event. The handover was found to encompass 4 sub-handovers and 4 stakeholder groups. Furthermore, the result included the stakeholders’ perspectives on both cooperation in the handover and the configuration of the marketing generated leads. It was also discovered that the global marketing organization is aiming to streamline the lead concept and create acceptance for new types of marketing generated customer information. Additionally, mismatches were found in the stakeholders’ perceptions of what is to be sent by whom, how it should be sent, and why it is sent.  A product of the analysis was the Conceptual Framework, which defines three handover components: Information, Process and Stakeholder. The drawn conclusion states that handover accuracy at the case company could be achieved in aligning these three handover components. The suggestion made supports the ambition to streamline the lead concept and expand the customer information sent by marketing, by defining 4 customer information categories. Further suggestions are made on how to align the three handover components to these new categories.

Este trabalho visa estudar e implementar a integração entre o domínio de comutação de circuitos e o IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) para suportar handovers verticais, ou seja, entre redes de acesso distintas, por exemplo, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) e WiFi, em especial no Serviço Voice Call Continuity (VCC). Entretanto muito pouco é especificado sobre a integração entre os domínios nas normas das diversas entidades de padronização que tratam sobre o assunto. Assim, apresenta-se uma proposta para essa integração, criando-se uma nova entidade funcional para realizá-la, o Call Data Storage Function (CDSF), que interage com os demais módulos do Serviço VCC e garante que algumas informações que devem ser trocadas entre os módulos não sejam perdidas, devido à conversão de protocolos de sinalização na interface entre tais domínios. O CDSF auxilia também no controle da alocação de endereços de referência utilizados no encaminhamento de chamadas de um domínio para o outro. São definidos os protocolos de acesso ao CDSF, bem como os métodos disponíveis. Em sua concepção, recorre-se a uma modelagem modular, que permite futuras melhorias, apenas por troca de módulos. Como estudos de caso para validar a proposta são apresentados cenários de chamadas que utilizam o Serviço VCC, passando pelo CDSF. Por fim, conclui-se que a integração entre os domínios é viável se a proposta deste trabalho for utilizada. Também se demonstra que a separação dos planos de controle dos planos de dados (de usuário) é uma das contribuições fundamentais da arquitetura NGN para o sucesso de suas implementações, como por exemplo o IMS.Além disso, destacam-se as vantagens que o Serviço VCC pode agregar ao IMS, contribuindo para sua adesão em menor prazo pelas operadoras de telecomunicações, dado que esse serviço contribui para a integração de redes, cada vez mais convergentes, agregando mobilidade e continuidade à sua utilização. / This work intends to study and implement the integration between the circuit switching domain and the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to support vertical handovers that are between different access networks, such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and WiFi. Therefore the specifications are incomplete about this topic in standards from the entities who works with this subject. Then, is presented a new proposal for this integration: a new functional entity to realize this integration: the Call Data Storage Function (CDSF), which interacts with other modules of VCC Service and guarantees that some information shared between modules are not lost, due to conversion of signalling protocols in the interface between domains. Besides that, CDSF helps in the control of allocation of reference address that are used to route calls from one domain to another. Access protocols to CDSF are defined and CDSF methods are exposed. The CDSF design uses a modular approach, which allows future improvements, just changing modules. As case studies to validate this work proposal, call scenarios are presented that uses the VCC Service, using CDSF. Finally, it is concluded that the integration between domains is viable if this work proposal is used. It is presented, as well, that the separation between control plans and data plans is one of the main contributions of NGN architecture to the success of its implementations, like IMS. Furthermore, it is exposed the advantages that VCC Service can aggregate to IMS, contributing for more rapidly adoption by telecommunications operators, considering that this service helps the networks integration, adding convergence, mobility and continuity.

Este trabalho visa estudar e implementar a integração entre o domínio de comutação de circuitos e o IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) para suportar handovers verticais, ou seja, entre redes de acesso distintas, por exemplo, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) e WiFi, em especial no Serviço Voice Call Continuity (VCC). Entretanto muito pouco é especificado sobre a integração entre os domínios nas normas das diversas entidades de padronização que tratam sobre o assunto. Assim, apresenta-se uma proposta para essa integração, criando-se uma nova entidade funcional para realizá-la, o Call Data Storage Function (CDSF), que interage com os demais módulos do Serviço VCC e garante que algumas informações que devem ser trocadas entre os módulos não sejam perdidas, devido à conversão de protocolos de sinalização na interface entre tais domínios. O CDSF auxilia também no controle da alocação de endereços de referência utilizados no encaminhamento de chamadas de um domínio para o outro. São definidos os protocolos de acesso ao CDSF, bem como os métodos disponíveis. Em sua concepção, recorre-se a uma modelagem modular, que permite futuras melhorias, apenas por troca de módulos. Como estudos de caso para validar a proposta são apresentados cenários de chamadas que utilizam o Serviço VCC, passando pelo CDSF. Por fim, conclui-se que a integração entre os domínios é viável se a proposta deste trabalho for utilizada. Também se demonstra que a separação dos planos de controle dos planos de dados (de usuário) é uma das contribuições fundamentais da arquitetura NGN para o sucesso de suas implementações, como por exemplo o IMS.Além disso, destacam-se as vantagens que o Serviço VCC pode agregar ao IMS, contribuindo para sua adesão em menor prazo pelas operadoras de telecomunicações, dado que esse serviço contribui para a integração de redes, cada vez mais convergentes, agregando mobilidade e continuidade à sua utilização. / This work intends to study and implement the integration between the circuit switching domain and the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to support vertical handovers that are between different access networks, such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and WiFi. Therefore the specifications are incomplete about this topic in standards from the entities who works with this subject. Then, is presented a new proposal for this integration: a new functional entity to realize this integration: the Call Data Storage Function (CDSF), which interacts with other modules of VCC Service and guarantees that some information shared between modules are not lost, due to conversion of signalling protocols in the interface between domains. Besides that, CDSF helps in the control of allocation of reference address that are used to route calls from one domain to another. Access protocols to CDSF are defined and CDSF methods are exposed. The CDSF design uses a modular approach, which allows future improvements, just changing modules. As case studies to validate this work proposal, call scenarios are presented that uses the VCC Service, using CDSF. Finally, it is concluded that the integration between domains is viable if this work proposal is used. It is presented, as well, that the separation between control plans and data plans is one of the main contributions of NGN architecture to the success of its implementations, like IMS. Furthermore, it is exposed the advantages that VCC Service can aggregate to IMS, contributing for more rapidly adoption by telecommunications operators, considering that this service helps the networks integration, adding convergence, mobility and continuity.

Notre contribution dans le cadre de cette thèse est la proposition d'une nouvelle procédure de réservation de ressources à l'avance dans les réseaux IP mobiles et sans fil. Cette procédure fait appel à un nouvel objet nommé MSpec (Mobility Specification) qui représente les futures localisations du terminal mobile. Nous avons proposé un format pour cet objet ainsi qu'un profil de mobilité pour les utilisateurs mobiles qui inclut l'objet MSpec. Ce profil de mobilité découle de l'analyse du comportement de l'utilisateur durant une phase d'observation. Nous avons proposé, également, une extension de ce profil afin de pouvoir gérer le handover vertical (passage d'une technologie d'accès à une autre). Durant la phase d'observation, l'utilisateur est nouveau et le système ne peut donc pas réserver de ressources à l'avance car il ne connaît pas le profil de mobilité de l'utilisateur, et par conséquent le contenu de l'objet MSpec. Sans réservation de ressources à l'avance, nous utilisons la technologie Agent afin d'améliorer la qualité de service demandée par l'utilisateur mobile. Le rôle des agents, dans cette phase, est d'adapter le handover horizontal (passage d'une cellule à une autre en utilisant la même technologie d'accès) et le handover vertical aux besoins de qualité de service de l'utilisateur.

Mobility management over heterogeneous wireless networks is becoming a major interest area as new technologies and services continue to proliferate within the wireless networking market. In this context, seamless mobility is considered to be crucial for ubiquitous computing. Service providers aim to increase the revenue and to improve users' satisfaction. However there are still many technical and architectural challenges to overcome before achieving the required interoperability and coexistence of heterogeneous wireless access networks. Indeed, the context of wireless networks is offering multiple and heterogeneous technologies (e.g. 2G to 4G, WiFi, Wimax, TETRA,...). On the one hand, this rich environment allows users to take profit from different capacities and coverage characteristics. Indeed, this diversity can provide users with high flexibility and allow them to seamlessly connect at any time and any where to the access technology that best fits their requirements. Additionally, cooperation between these different technologies can provide higher efficiency in the usage of the scarce wireless resources offering more economic systems for network providers. On the other hand, the heterogeneity of technologies and architectures and the multiplication of networks and service providers creates a complex environment where cooperation becomes challenging at different levels including and not limited to mobility management, radio resource provisioning, Quality of Service and security guarantees. This thesis is focusing on mobility management and mainly on decision making for Vertical handover within heterogeneous wireless network environments. After the analysis of the related state of the art, we first propose a reputation based approach that allows fast vertical handover decision making. A decision making scheme is then built on that approach. Network's reputation, is a new metric that can be gathered from previous users' experiences in the networks. We show that it is an efficient construct to speed up the vertical handover decision making thanks to anticipation functionalities. While the main objective remains guaranteeing the best Quality of Service and optimal radio resource utilization, economical aspects have also to be considered including cost minimization for users and revenue maximization for network providers. For this aim, we propose, in the second part of the thesis, a game theoretic based scheme that allows maximizing benefits for both networks and users. In this solution, each available network plays a Stackelberg game with a finite set of users, while users are playing a Nash game among themselves to share the limited radio resources. A Nash equilibrium point, that maximizes the user's utility and the service provider revenue, is found and used for admission control and vertical handover decision making. The analyses of the optimal bandwidth/prices and the revenue at the equilibrium point show that there are some possible policies to use according to user's requirements in terms of QoS and to network capacities. For instance, we pointed out that networks having same capacities and different reputation values should charge users with different prices which makes reputation management very important to attract users and maximize networks' revenue. In the third part of this thesis, we provide and discuss two different architectural and implementation solutions on which our proposed vertical handover decision mechanisms can be integrated. The first proposed architecture is a centralized one. It is based on the IEEE 802.21 standard to which some extensions are proposed. The second proposed architecture is distributed. It is based on an overlay control level composed of two virtualization layers able to make reasoning on behalf of physical entities within the system. This architecture allows higher flexibility especially for loosely coupled interconnected networks

A key step in the handover process corresponds to the decision phase in which the mobile device selects the candidate network that it will be attached to. The criterion generally used in the decision step is the signal strength of the available network. In addition to the signal power, other criteria also need to be explored in heterogeneous environments for taking handover decision, since the network technologies differ in the types of services, protocols, quality standards, frequency bands and monetary costs. This paper proposes a handover decision algorithm based on cost function that takes into account both the received signal power, some quality of service criteria such as packet loss rate, delay and jitter, as well as the energy consumption of network interface of the mobile station. In order to evaluate the performance of the algorithm were considered two scenarios, one in which the battery of device mobile is sufficiently charged and another where it meets the low load. Simulations in NS-2 were performed in an environment compound by the Wi-Fi and WiMAX networks. The results showed that the proposed algorithm helped to reduce the number of wrong handovers decisions, so that there was no deterioration in the quality of service that would affect the performance of the network in which the mobile device is currently connected. / Uma etapa fundamental no processo de handover corresponde à fase de decisão, na qual é selecionada a rede candidata para a qual o dispositivo móvel irá se transferir. O critério normalmente utilizado na etapa de decisão é a potência de sinal da rede que se encontra disponível. Além da potência de sinal, outros critérios também necessitam ser explorados em ambientes heterogêneos para a tomada de decisão de handover, uma vez que as tecnologias de rede divergem quanto aos tipos de serviços, protocolos, níveis de qualidade, faixas de frequência e custos monetários. Este trabalho propõe um algoritmo de decisão de handover baseado em função de custo que leva em consideração, além da potência de sinal recebida, alguns critérios de Qualidade de Serviço, tais como taxa de perda de pacotes, atraso e jitter, bem como o consumo de energia da interface de rede da estação móvel. A fim de avaliar o desempenho do algoritmo foram considerados dois cenários, um no qual a bateria do terminal móvel está com carga suficiente e outro onde a mesma se encontra com a carga baixa, sendo realizadas simulações no NS-2 em um ambiente composto pelas redes Wi-Fi e WiMAX. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que o algoritmo proposto contribuiu para reduzir o número de decisões erradas de handovers, de modo que não houvesse uma degradação da Qualidade de Serviço que viesse a afetar o desempenho da rede na qual o terminal móvel se encontra conectado.

Les réseaux sans fil sont en plein développement du fait de la flexibilité de leur interface, qui permet aux utilisateurs de se communiquer directement entre eux ou de se connecter facilement à Internet en onde radio sans mettre en place préalablement d'infrastructures lourdes, telles que des câbles filaires. Parmi les différentes technologies de réseaux sans fil, l'IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi est devenu une technologie plus connue et plus utilisée pour construire des réseaux sans fil à haut débit dans une zone à forte concentration d'utilisateurs, telle que les aéroports, les campus ou les sites industriels. L'engouement pour les réseaux sans fil et notamment pour les réseaux Wi-Fi a fait émerger de nouvelles nécessités, tel que se déplace dans les réseaux sans fil tout en restant connecté à Internet. Dans les réseaux sans fil, le déplacement d’un utilisateur implique parfois un changement de Point d’accès (AP) au réseau. On désigne généralement ce fait un handover de niveau 2, du fait que le changement d'AP n’implique que les deux premières couches du modèle OSI. Si les deux APs se situent dans des réseaux différents, le changement d'AP implique aussi le changement de réseau pour cet utilisateur. On dénomme généralement cette situation un handover de niveau 3, par le fait que cet utilisateur devrait changer son réseau d’attachement et son adresse IP pour maintenir la connexion à Internet et que ce changement intervient sur la couche réseau du model OSI. La procédure du handover de niveau 2 dans les réseaux Wi-Fi est gérée par la norme IEEE 802.11 et celle de niveau 3 est gérée par le protocole IP Mobile. Le protocole IP Mobile est un protocole standardisé par l'IETF qui permet à l'utilisateur de maintenir ses communications en cours et de rester connecté à Internet tout en masquant d'une manière transparente le changement de réseau. Ainsi, l'utilisateur peut se déplace dans les réseaux Wi-Fi tout en maintenant les communications en cours et restant connecté à Internet grâce à la norme IEEE 802.11 et au protocole IP Mobile. Cependant, le délai introduit par ces deux procédures du handover est trop long, les communications en cours sont interrompus pendant ces procédures, naturellement, cela ne peut pas répondre aux exigences qualitatives des applications temps réel comme la vidéo conférence ou la voix sur IP. Diverses propositions qui ont été faites pour réduire le délai de ces procédures du handover et améliorer leur performance. Cependant, ces propositions sont soit imparfaites, soit non-implémentables à cause de leur complexité. En partant du principe que les réseaux Wi-Fi et les routeurs d'accès sont déjà massivement implantés dans le monde universitaire et dans les entreprises, nous proposons d'ajouter une nouvelle fonctionnalité, appelé E-HCF (Extended Handover Control Function) dans un routeur sans modifier les autres équipements du réseau. Le routeur pourvu de cette fonctionnalité est dénommé le routeur E-HCF. Pour réduire le délai des procédures du handover, la fonctionnalité E-HCF permet au routeur de générer une topologie des APs en utilisant la théorie des graphes de voisinage et de maintenir un pool d'adresses IP disponibles dans sa base de données. Quand le Nœud mobile (MN) a besoin de changer son AP, le routeur E-HCF peut proposer au MN une liste des APs potentiellement utilisables qui sont choisis et classés par un algorithme de sélection et de classement que nous avons élaboré dans la thèse. Si le changement d'AP implique un changement de réseau, le MN doit changer d'adresse IP. Dans ce cas, le routeur E-HCF peut attribuer une adresse IP unique à ce MN. Le MN peut donc utiliser cette adresse sans exécuter la phase d'Auto-configuration d'adresses ni exécuter la procédure de Détection d'adresse dupliquée. Avec cette nouvelle fonctionnalité E-HCF, nous pouvons réduire le délai des procédures du handover de quelques secondes à une centaine de millisecondes. / Wireless networks are in full development because of the flexibility of their interfaces, which allow users to be easily connected to the Internet. Among various technologies of wireless networks, IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi technology is becoming better known and more used to construct high speed wireless networks in areas with high concentration of users, such as airports, campuses or industrial sites. The passion for wireless networks and in particular for Wi-Fi networks has given rise to new uses of the Internet, such as moving in wireless networks while still being connected. In Wi-Fi networks, the user's movement may sometimes lead to a change of Access Points (APs) to the network. This fact is generally named the handover of layer 2 because this change involves only the first two layers of the OSI model. If the two APs are located in different networks, the change of AP would entail a change of network for the user. This situation is generally termed, the handover of layer 3 because the user should change his network and his IP address to maintain connection to the Internet. Therefore, this change intervenes on the network layer of the OSI model. The process of the handover of layer 2 is handled by the IEEE 802.11 standard and that of layer 3 is controlled by the Mobile IP protocol. The Mobile IP protocol is a protocol standardized by IETF, which allows users to change network, while maintaining their actual connection to the Internet. Consequently, users can connect to the Internet, while keep moving in Wi-Fi networks in control of the IEEE 802.11 standard and the Mobile IP protocol. However, the delay induced by these procedures of handover is too long. As such, this generally leads to the cut-off of current communications, hence impacting adversely on the qualitative requirements of real-time applications, such as video conferencing or voice over IP. Various proposals have been made to reduce the delay of handover procedures and to improve their performances. However, these proposals are either imperfect, or non-implementable because of their complexity. Based on the premise that Wi-Fi networks and access routers are already massively implanted in academia and in industry, we propose to add a new functionality, called E-HCF (Extended Handover Control Function) in routers, without modifying other network equipments. A router equipped with this functionality is called an E-HCF router. To reduce the delay of handover procedures, the E-HCF functionality allows a router to generate a topology of APs by using the neighbourhood graph theory and to maintain a pool of available IP addresses in its database. When a Mobile Node (MN) needs to change its AP, the E-HCF router may propose to the latter a list of potentially usable APs, which are selected and classified by an algorithm of selection and classification that we developed in the thesis. If the change of APs involves a change of network, the MN must change its IP address. In this case, the E-HCF router can assign a unique IP address to this MN. The MN can thus use this address without engaging in the process of Stateless Address Autoconfiguration or the procedure of Duplicate Address Detection. With this new E-HCF functionality, we can reduce the delay of handover procedures from a few seconds to one hundred milliseconds.

Handling mobility in wireless sensor networks can pose formidable challenges in protocol design, especially, at the link layer. Since most of the proposed Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols do not accommodate mobility, a node has two options to deal with a deteriorating link: (a) to continue data transmission until the link breaks and then establishes a new link with a new relay node; or (b) to seamlessly transfer the communication to a better link parallel to the data transmission over the existing link. Different from option (a) where a node can only search for a new link after the original link disrupts, option (b) enables a node to perceive the change in the quality of a link in advance. The link quality prediction is implemented by an adaptive handover mechanism. Both approaches will inevitably introduce latency. This thesis aims to quantify and compare such latency. Specifically, it investigates the latency of packet transmission in a mobile wireless sensor network with and without the support of a handover mechanism. To start with, the thesis elaborates the effect of mobility on the performance of the existing MAC protocols, and the need to maintain an unbroken link during data transmission. To implement the handover, a target MAC protocol is required to be selected first. Since the Receiver-Initiated MAC protocol (RI-MAC) uses only short beacon and data packets during communication that substantially reduce overhearing, collision probability and data recovery cost, it is chosen as the carrier for the latency evaluation. Even though RI-MAC performs well in many aspects, it has several demerits. To address the monotonous increment in the backoff window size and to reduce the occurrence frequency of the dwell time, a burst data transmission pattern is adopted to optimize RI-MAC. With the optimization, the protocol reduces the long idle listening time that a node has to wait before data transmission, and thus, works well in a static scenario. However, due to the high probability of link disconnection, the burst data transmission does not perform well in case of mobility. For the sake of accommodating mobility, an adaptive handover mechanism is developed on top of the optimized RI-MAC. Once a node evaluates that the data packets cannot be completely transmitted before the link terminates, it will search for a new relay node while keeping communicating with the original collaborator. It is implemented by embedding a neighbor discovery request in a data packet that will be transmitted in a broadcast channel. Neighbors of the node will participate in the handover process as long as they are in an active state and their distance to the transmitter does not exceed a pre-defined threshold. As a proof-of-concept for the handover mechanism, a mathematical model is established. The transmission rate, the moving speed of human beings, the duty cycle and the network density are all taken into consideration. The analytical result shows that the communication latency decreases with an increment in the network density and the duty cycle when the handover mechanism is used, whereas the latency exhibits a reverse trend when the handover mechanism is not used. To validate the mathematics-based evaluation, the NS2 network simulator is employed. The simulation result is found to perform in accordance with the analytical result. It is asserted that the latency of packet transmission with the handover support is much less than that without the handover support. The communication latency can be saved by at least 0.28s when the handover mechanism is applied. This figure can even grow as the duty cycle and the network density increase. From this perspective, the handover mechanism is verified to improve the latency of packet transmission as far as mobility is concerned.

Globally, the number of mobile broadband subscriptions is growing and the amount of mobile data traffic is expected to continue to grow rapidly. In the next five years the number of smartphone subscriptions is expected to more than double, while the amount of mobile traffic per active subscription per month of these subscribers is expected to nearly quadruple. As a consequence, mobile network operators (MNOs) aim to increase radio network capacity and coverage through heterogeneous deployments. In such heterogeneous networks, wireless local area networks (WLANs) are integrated with wireless wide area networks (WWANs), and there exist a tight interaction between them. The almost-ubiquitous support for IEEE802.11 WLANs (usually referred to as Wi-Fi®) makes this radio access technology a potential integrated component of near-future mobile broadband. With Wi-Fi completely integrated into mobile access, MNOs would optimize user experience and use of resources by controlling device’s choice of connectivity. In addition to guaranteeing the best user experience, optimal use of access networks should care about energy-efficiency in order to extend device’s battery life. However, the performance of Wi-Fi is far from meet neither energy-efficiency nor quality of service (QoS) user’s requirements. This radio access technology employs an energy-consuming medium access control (MAC) protocol that wastes both bandwidth and device’s energy resources. Therefore, enhanced MAC protocols, cleverly combined with standardized power saving mechanisms such as automatic power save delivery (APSD), would improve both energy-efficiency and QoS in order to enhance WLANs performance and meet user’s expectations. In addition, current WLAN discovery mechanisms neither meet requirements of the integrated scenario. Handover operations must be improved in terms of energy efficiency and latency. Consequently, enhanced handover schemes should reduce overall device’s energy consumption during the process, and enable seamless handover between Wi-Fi APs and between cellular/Wi-Fi networks. During this thesis project, the main challenges of Wi-Fi towards its integration into mobile access broadband have been analyzed. Consequently, a solution has been designed in order to address the identified challenges, which have been introduced in the previous paragraphs. The solution consists of enhancements for IEEE 802.11 WLANs based on current standards that achieve energy-efficiency and QoS, and facilitate Wi-Fi/cellular networks interworking. Finally, a custom-designed simulator has been used to evaluate the proposed solution. / Globalt sett är antalet mobila bredbandsabonnemang ökar och mängden av mobil datatrafik förväntas fortsätta att växa snabbt. Under de kommande fem åren kommer antalet smartphone-abonnemang väntas mer än fördubblas, medan mängden av mobiltrafiken per aktiv prenumeration per månad för dessa abonnenter väntas nästan fyrdubbla. Som en följd av mobiloperatörer som mål att öka sin radio nätkapacitet och täckning genom heterogena distributioner. I sådana heterogena nätverk, är trådlösa lokala nätverk (WLAN) integrerad med trådlösa WAN-nätverk (WWAN), och det finns en tät interaktion mellan dem. För att möta denna efterfrågan ämnar operatörer av mobila nätverk att öka kapacitet och täckning genom att bygga ut heterogena nätverk. I sådana heterogena nätverk integreras trådlösa lokala nätverk (WLAN) med nätverk med större yttäckning (cellulära nät) med täta interaktioner mellan de olika näten. Det mycket utbredda stödet för IEEE 802.11-standarden (ofta kallad för Wi-Fi®) för WLAN gör denna radioaccessteknik till en potentiell integrerad komponent för mobilt bredband i den nära framtiden. Med Wi-Fi som en integrerad i det mobila accessnätet kan mobilnätsoperatörer optimera användarupplevelsen och resursanvädningen genom att styra de mobila enheternas val av uppkoppling. Förutom att garantera den bästa användarupplevelsen så bör valet av accessnät ta hänsyn till energieffektiviteten för att förlänga batteridrifttiden för den mobila enheten. Wi-Fi är dock långt ifrån att uppfylla användarnas krav på energieffektivitet och tjänstekvalitet, eftersom denna radioaccessteknik använder ett mediumaccessprotokoll (MAC) som varken använder bandbredd eller batterienergi effektivt. Därför kan förbättrade MAC-protokoll kombinerade med standardiserade energibesparingslösningar såsom automatic power save delivery (APSD) ge bättre energieffektivitet och tjänstekvalitet, och därmed förbättra WLANs möjligheter att möta användarnas förväntningar. Dessutom har nuvarande nätverksidentifieringsmekanismer i WLAN svårt att uppfylla kraven i ett scenario med integrerade nätverk, eftersom den nuvarande sökmetoden är långsam och använder mycket energi. En förbättrad lösning bör minska energikonsumtionen under hela processen, och möjliggöra avbrottsfri övergång mellan Wi-Fi accessnoder och mellan cellulära och Wi-Fi-nätverk. Under detta examensarbete har de största utmaningarna för Wi-Fi under integrationen med mobil bredbandsaccess analyserats. En lösning har utvecklats för att lösa de identifierade problemen som beskrivits ovan. Lösningen består av förbättringar av IEEE 802.11 accessnät, som bygger vidare på existerande standardens energieffektivitets- och tjänstekvalitetslösningar och underlättar samverkan mellan Wi-Fi och cellulära nätverk. Slutligen har en egenutvecklad simulator använts för att utvärdera den föreslagna lösningen.